Today’s the first really warm (over 70F) day here in Chicago. While walking past the Bank One plaza, I tested out one of Holly Whyte‘s old postulates: women sit inside plazas, men sit facing outside. (This has something to do with women seeking out nurturing, sheltered spaces, and something to do with men wanting to watch the passing parade.) Sure enough, of the 14 people sitting on the Dearborn Street seating wall, two were women (14.3%), while 14 of the 30 (46.7%) people sitting on the lower level around the fountain were women. Not quite sex segregation on the level of a second-grade lunchroom, but still pretty close.

Incidentally, this plaza is among the most studied in history. A landscape architecture seminar from UIUC once studied the plaza for their class project back in the early ’80s.