the box

Isaac Kremer/ August 30, 2026/ / 0 comments

The box of Main Street is formed by buildings, street, and sky. The buildings on either side create the “walls,” while the sidewalks and street create the “bottom” and the blue sky creates the “top.” The feeling of the box – the sense of enclosure – is fundamental to what a Main Street is. That is what puts the “there” there. Some Main Streets, like the Canyon of Heroes along lower Broadway in Manhattan, are famous for the enclosure that has been created. (Fullilove, 2020, 53) Aspects of the box include: coherent, human-scale, permeable street wall; enclosure; seating, pedestrian safety features, pedestrian signage; road width; building scale; and business mix. (Fullilove, 2020, 70)