False Friendliness: Photoshopped People in Public Spaces
Proposals for new projects arrive on city desks everyday showing
vibrant public plazas full of people. But too often those spaces
fail to attract people in the way they were portrayed. Are
Photoshopped people a deliberate falsehood?  Children run
playfully about, chasing pigeons. A jogger passes by, and a
businesswoman chats on a cell phone. Seniors perch on the edge
of a fountain, watching the throngs of people as they pass.
Photo: photoshopped people in a public space  In fact, there are
masses of people keeping these folks company, filling an
imaginary public space like a dance troupe on a stage. So it
goes in the world of architectural renderings and development
proposals, where the desire to show that public spaces can
become vibrant and active results in a flurry of Photoshopped
humans filling the frame.  But are these people a true
indication of how a public space will be used, or are they a
sort of architectural cheat?  "It can be a mistake fo