story about architect designing sidewalks

I hope this is not too annoying a question. I remember story (perhaps apocryphal) about an architect who had designed a building that had a grass courtyard. Having finished the building, the architect was asked by an associate where the sidewalks would be placed in the courtyard. The architect answered to wait a year, see where pathways were established by people who walked the courtyard, and use those pathways to guide the design of the sidewalks.

If this is a real story, can anyone point me to the architect and the source of the story. Thank you in advance.

>>>bill<<<

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story about architect designing sidewalks

FS2K

Sounds apocryphal. The story makes the point that one of the critical parts of design is figuring out how people will actually use the product. However, an architect who actually says what the architect in the story said is just being lazy. You don't need to analyze every single instance of a problem in order to develop a general set of guidelines to help solve it. True, people might walk slightly different paths at this one location, but generally speaking if you know enough about sidewalks and enough about people, you can put together a solution that will work 99% of the time.
RedMage44x
Just a message bump. Still wondering if anyone knows the source of the story. Thanks.

>>>bill<<<
jrc_11
Heard this before about a university...

That's a little unlilkely, tt's likley that the university had paths and then
at some point decided to path where students have taken short cuts.

It's probably much quoted as the ideal in architecture but not something
anyone is going to agree on in practice.
story about architect designing sidewalks

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