Perception, Cognition, and Evaluation of Urban Places

Abstract

Just walking through the vast main concourse of Grand Central Terminal in New York . . . almost always triggers in me a spontaneous and quiet change in perception. . . . The change—one that is reasonably well known to all of us . . . — lets me gently refocus my attention and allows a more general awareness of a great many things at once: sights, sounds, smells and sensations of touch and balance as well as thoughts and feelings. When this general kind of awareness occurs, I feel relaxed and alert at the same time. (Hiss, 1987, p. 45)