Street Sections

A big, big, BIG part of urban design is the street. And a big part of designing the street is the street section, the drawing that illustrates widths (right-of-way, driving lanes, sidewalks), heights (buildings, projections, trees), and uses (cars, bikes, pedestrians). The drawings are extremely helpful tools for the designer, and it is especially useful to see sections of existing streets that one has experienced or seen in photos, to quantify the qualities of a street space. The most popular references are Allan B. Jacobs' Great Streets and The Boulevard Book, though I've never seen a decent online reference...until now!

StreetSections.com is a great online page that features photos and sections of (as of writing) 169 streets, with a goal of 1,000. Entries are contributed by registered users, though a quick run through the sections indicates nothing's been added in the last year and a half. Who knows, maybe 1,000 sections was a bit far-fetched and after a hundred of them there's much more similarities than differences. Regardless, it's definitely worth browsing the World Gallery for examples like below, and 168 others.


Westminster Street in Providence, Rhode Island (one-way street with one side parking) contributed by Peter Harmatuck.

Thanks to Gareth for the head's up!