The Importance of Site Visits

The Importance of Site Visits
By: Chris Pacanowski

        When doing any type of projects location is key. Location grounds the whole project and can also make the project better or worse depending on how you design to the location. When looking at a site to pick for a project the thing to look at is the surroundings, races, economy in the area, what types of benefits does the area hold, and safety. When researching these factors you can only go so far when looking on the internet. You can find all of the climatic, race, and economic data, but one very important factor is missed. Does the area work? When going on a site visit you analyze the area for function, and how the area is being used. Is there a specific area of the site that has more traffic flow and would be bad for living, but good for businesses? what types of noises are at the site, that could also help you decide what to put there. are there parks already there, and are they being utilized? all of these questions should be answered on a initial site visit.

        With my thesis project I had done a site visit over break looking at all of those type of factors to see if this location is a good location for my project. After looking at all factors and the surrounding area i came to the conclusion that this area is perfect for what I want to do with this project. The key things that I had noticed that had helped me decide that were the great opportunities to mix residential and business together into one cohesive area. another thing that was great was the combination of residential areas. they had high-rise residential, college housing, and town home type houses in the area, giving a variety of building types to work with. Many of these things would have only found out by visiting the site showing how visiting sites can kick start a project and begin to build the program of the project.