University Village

Block Types

The North East of University Village is mostly composed of square blocks and elongated blocks.

Extremely elongated blocks in the North West area of University Village.. Horizontal and Vertical.

Irregular block pattern in the South East area of University Village.

Network Type

The center of University Village most closely matches the Radburn Pattern. This is because a major road, Roosevelt, serves as a thorough fair that divides the entire neighborhood in half. However, unlike the Nantucket plan, this plan creates a controllable variety of blocks in University Village that are mostly blocks or elongated.

In the North West of University Village, there is a Nantucket Pattern. This pattern centered around Taylor Street,a major street in University Village. This pattern creates more of a wide variety of blocks in an uncontrollable fasion.

Thoroughfare Types

Key:

Thin red line: Boundaries of University Village

Thick red line: Streets

Orange line: Avenue

Black line: Interstate 90

Yellow line: Road

University Village is a neighborhood almost entirely composed of streets. This is probably because University Village is so residential and based around a University. In fact, the North East of University Village is almost completely void of roads, streets, and avenues because UIC is centralized here and is pedestrian heavy. This being said though, the few roads and avenues in University Village play a big role. Roosevelt Road divides University Village in half and concentrates traffic in the center of the neighborhood. Similarly, an avenue cuts perpendicularly through the neighborhood. Together, this major road and avenue divide University Village into four quarters.

Analysis

The square blocks and elongated blocks in University Village seem really strategic and purposeful for the overall connectivity. The elongated blocks are mostly centered around residential areas and commercial centers. Here, they help residents have a good sense of where they are. Additionally, although they're long --- they seem to be pretty walk-able. The few square blocks in University Village are almost all centered around churches, schools, or museums. This works really well for University Village because these sorts of places require the shortest amounts of walking and the number of landmarks decreases the need for residents to know where they are.

On the other-hand, the irregular blocks seemed to impede connectivity in University Village. They're very awkward, random and create weird traffic patterns in the southwest area of the neighborhood.

In terms of thoroughfare, University Village is primarily streets, but has a major road dividing it in half horizontally and a major avenue dividing it in half vertically. The Radburn and Nantucket patterns that are prominent in the neighborhood creates a traffic pattern that centers around this major road and avenue. Even though there's no social "center" of the neighborhood, these patterns create a center at least in terms of traffic. These patterns also seem to help connectivity because it's clear for residnts how they need to get in and out of the neighborhood.