Concrete is plastic when wet, brittle before it cures, course without polishing or wax, cheap, readily available, easy to mix, and easily demolished. The paper presentation will unveil how a group of skaters and non-skaters, young people and young adults, failed and eventually triumphed to create the first public skate park in the City of New Orleans.

As a counter-point to the need for researchers using "big data" to engage in complex statistical analyses, here I suggest that big data also opens the door to rich, qualitative analysis. Access to hundreds of hours of video uploaded every minute from 75 countries and 61 languages provides an unprecedented opportunity to delve deeper into how designed environments are interpreted to support social and cultural diversity in cities. The approach follows recommendations by Cushing (2015) for landscape architecture to develop as "a research-oriented profession with broad social relevance." Cushing cites Low (1981), who similarly called for "more socially responsive design" in a paper that responded to the need for a research methodology in landscape architecture to engage at the "individual level".

Access to social data on human experience of place has never been more available than now. Social media, smart phones, and the Internet of Things provide glimpses into individual activity across the globe. The nearly-boundless stream of information is called “big data.” Today, physically and even socially disconnected individuals can benefit from the similar experiences of others to adapt and change their environment. I argue that big data provides two critical benefits for landscape architecture research and practice: (1) big data opens a window into previously inaccessible human experiences of designed environments, introducing new metrics for evidence-based design and new ways of improving design literacy; and (2) the design, planning, and management of the land—especially in cities—can benefit from scraping big data to support urban ecological design. My study of YouTube use in New Orleans shows that big data can advance landscape research to support positive, interdependent relationships between people and built environments. Landscape architecture would benefit by harnessing this resource to better understand relationships with place and encourage individuals to participate in the design, creation, and evolution of cities.

Significant strides have been made through design and policy on “youth rights to the city” toward improve young people’s health and wellbeing outcomes. However, adolescents, especially minorities, are frequently confronted with institutionalized disparities as they are denied access to participate in urban, public space, through policy (e.g., posted ‘no loitering’ placards), policy implementation (e.g., police profiling and monitoring), and physical barriers (e.g., skate stops). The current situation has led to a lack of adequate data to support design and policy to improve youth outcomes because: 1. only within the past decade have young people been recognized as having positive developmental opportunities associated with activities outside of home and school; 2. young people, especially those facing socio-economic disparities, are aware of their a priori delinquent status in public space and typically move-along in the presence of an unknown adult. Their status limits current research to known samples, such as focus groups and participatory ethnographic methods. While multiple comparative indices on youth health, well-being, and academic success exist, no similar large data set on young people’s participation in public life is available.

Accessing insights from underrepresented populations, such as adolescents, remains a persistent challenge in the research and design process. The paper will investigate the utility of online videos of user-posted materials as an innovative research tool. Unlike traditional in situ approaches to studying human behavior and public space, online videos permit access to multiple sites based upon the population or activity of interest. The approach is similar to studies of behavior using unobtrusive observation—where participation or interviews might interrupt the activity under observation or where access to the setting of the activity would otherwise remain inaccessible to the researcher.

Hot, humid, cracking, and sinking, the Crescent City seems unlikely for skateboarding. Frequently referenced for being 'up to no good,' unsupervised adolescents seem an unusual candidate to create opportunities for environmental justice. The paper examines how settings afford prosocial behaviours amongst skateboarding adolescents. Young people have a unique capacity to improve settings for play. Using evidence collected from site observation and YouTube videos, sk8ters reveal that supportive places can arise from blight and vacancy. The research has broader implications for sustainability and environmental justice professionals working with vulnerable populations to transform degraded spaces into beneficial places.

Socially Open Urban Landscapes (SOUL) is an exciting new approach to understanding the relationship between urban design and public life in cities through play. Play is a fundamental human trait that crosses gender, age, racial, ethnic, and cultural lines; and, represents a critical point of departure for creating cities that support heterogeneous social interactions.

Accessing insights from underrepresented populations, such as adolescents, remains a persistent challenge in the research and design process. The paper will investigate the utility of online videos of user-posted materials as an innovative research tool. Unlike traditional in situ approaches to studying human behavior and public space, online videos permit access to multiple sites based upon the population or activity of interest. The approach is similar to studies of behavior using unobtrusive observation—where participation or interviews might interrupt the activity under observation or where access to the setting of the activity would otherwise remain inaccessible to the researcher.