Plaza

Plaza Mayor, Valladolid is a typical Spanish plaza.

Plaza de Bolívar is the largest plaza in Bogota, Colombia, and home to one of the largest cathedrals in South America, the Cathedral of Bogota.

A plaza /ˈplɑːzə/, pedestrian plaza, or place is an open urban public space, such as a city square.^[1]

Throughout Spanish America and the Spanish East Indies, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cantabile or administrative center, which might be incorporated in a wing of a governor's palace, and the audience or law court. The plaza might be large enough to serve as a military parade ground. At times of crisis or fiesta, it was the space where a large crowd might gather. Like the Italian piazza, the plaza remains a center of community life that is only equaled by the market-place.

Most colonial cities in Spanish America and the Philippines were planned around a square plaza de armas, where troops could be mustered, as the name implies, surrounded by the governor's palace and the main church. A plaza de toros is a bullring.

In the US, they can be used to open spaces for low income neighborhoods, and can also the overall aesthetic of the surrounding area boosting economic vitality, pedestrian mobility and safety for pedestrians.^[2] Most plazas are created out of a collaboration between local non-profit applicants and city officials which requires approval from the city.^[3]

In modern usage, a plaza can be any gathering place on a street or between buildings, a street intersection with a statue, etc. Today's metropolitan landscapes often incorporate the "plaza" as a design element, or as an outcome of zoning regulations, building budgetary constraints, and the like. Sociologist William H. Whyte conducted an extensive study of plazas in New York City : his study humanized the way modern urban plazas are conceptualized, and helped usher in significant design changes in the making of plazas.

Etymology

Plaza (European Spanish: [ˈplaθa]; or, Latin American Spanish: [ˈplasa]) is a Spanish word, cognate to Italian piazza, Portuguese praça, Galician praza, Catalan plaça, Romanian piața, German Platz and French place (which has also been borrowed into English). The origin of all these words is, via Latin platea, from Greek πλατεῖα (ὁδός) plateia (hodos), meaning "broad (way or street)".^[1]

Examples

The Zócalo (officially Plaza de la Constitución) has been the central gathering space of Mexico City since Aztec times.

Piazza De Ferrari in the heart of Genoa, Italy

The plaza of Costilla, Taos County, New Mexico, United States , a plaza in a rural setting, 1943.

Buildings called 'Plaza'

Taweekit Plaza in Buriram, Thailand

The first purpose-built shopping center in the United States, opened in Kansas City, Missouri in 1922, knowingly took the name of "Country Club Plaza" and adopted Spanish architectural details.^[5] More recently plaza has been used to describe a shopping complex, similar to a shopping mall, borrowing its connotations of a center of cultural life. The name is currently even applied to a single building with some semi-public street-level areas, often with a hotel or office tower above, while mall more often refers to multiple buildings or a street.

Examples: Pantip Plaza (Bangkok), Plaza Las Américas (San Juan), Plaza de las Estrellas (Mexico City), Central Plaza (Hong Kong), Schiphol Plaza (Amsterdam), Plazas del Centro Comercial Santafé (Bogotá), The Plaza (Evergreen Park, Illinois), and Cityplaza, (Hong Kong).

Central Plaza, in Hong Kong, was for four years the tallest building in Asia, at 78 storeys, 374 m (1,227 ft).

See also

• Gostiny Dvor
• Piazza
• Shopping mall

References

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