ABSTRACT
Depending on their size, greens can support roughly four times as many people
as an urban square-typically somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000 resi-
dents. In agrarian communities, greens were used as flexible open space suit-
able for gatherings, recreation space, and communal grazing land. Churches,
city halls, and other civic buildings were often incorporated within or adjacent
to the green. Today, greens often weave recreational and cultural amenities
into the city fabric; they complement, rather than compete with, the day-to-day
functions of urban squares. Due to their size, greens typically have primary
and secondary points of entry and a hierarchy of spaces composed of a central,
open gathering area and smaller spaces surrounding it. Pathways through the
green should be important pedestrian connections through the city.
