Wow! $21 bucks plus shipping is the lowest price foound for a used copy on BOOKFINDER dot com (I don't know if your blog comment protocols accept URLs) so that book apparently has some demand.

Yes, much seems obvious but at the time the findings weren't obvious to all. They led to NYC changing their zoning code with respect to plazas.

I had forgotten about that great film, thanks for the reminder. Unfortunately its hard to watch for free and even harder to buy. Looking forward to your plaza analysis, Steve. Saint Louis city has a similar zoning ordinance downtown, you can build taller than 200 ft if you provide a useful public plaza, the definition of which is left to zoning's discretion. In STL it hasn't been a big factor, it could only have been applied to about 20 buildings built since the code was established. Most of the resulting plazas are not particularly successful. Some of the ones in Whyte's film are amazing, the one I'm thinking of, I think its called Paley Park, the deep thin space with the waterfall at the back. It's so good that it's worth a pilgrimage visit when you're in New York. One of Whyte's observations was that people don't necessarily go to sit in the plaza at their building, but are willing to walk some number of blocks to find one that they like. (Any downtown worker can tell you that. But smoking breakers do tend to stay near their building). Considering city park space is within 3 blocks of most spots downtown, there are lots of better options than sitting in the sun with the smokers. So I think the value of little throwaway plazas at every tall building is questionable.