CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Many professionals who study or design in the suburban residential landscape, including landscape architects, architects, urban planners and geographers, look at the suburban landscape of singlefamily homes with their front-yard landscapes of lawns and foundation plantings as places devoid of individuality or identity (Stern, 1986; Relph, 1987; Hough, 1990; Kunstler, 1993). According to this view, the "cookie-cutter" approach used to create house designs, street layouts and open spaces produces a suburban landscape lacking identity at any level, regional, neighborhood, street, or individual. Hypothetically, one could stand in a suburban residential subdivision in Los Angeles, Houston, Phoenix, or Seattle, and be unable to discern, from the features and characteristics of the designed landscapes, any information about regional and community site context or the characteristics and values of the inhabitants.

However, seemingly contradictorily, others have written extensively about the home as a place for identity expression (Cooper-Marcus, et al., 1987; Feldman, 1990; Jackson, J.B., 1994; CooperMarcus, 1995; Jackson, K., 1985). According to this viewpoint, people develop deep psychological bonds with their home places and express, through the ways they manipulate and change their home environments and houses, aspects of their inner human nature as well as their integration into social groups or broader society, including their understanding of the regional landscape. J. B. Jackson states that:

We see the house as a sign not only of membership in the community, but of its interaction with the community. So I am now inclined to believe that a better metaphor for the average house is as the extension of the hand. It is the hand we raise to indicate our presence; it is the hand that protects and holds what is its own; the house or hand creates its own small world; it is the visible expression of our identity and our intentions. It is the hand which reaches out to establish and confirm relationships. Without it, we are never complete social beings.1

Much of the recent literature regarding identity expression in the suburban environment has been written by historians, cultural geographers, and environmental psychologists. This literature provides valuable insight into the development and character of the suburban environment and the people who live there. However, very little literature about identity in the suburban landscape has been written by design professionals, who by the nature of their work could have a significant impact on the design of suburban landscapes.

Exploration of identity expression in the suburban landscape is important for several reasons. First, single-family suburban residential subdivisions are an important component of the built landscape. Indeed, suburbia comprises the bulk of all developed landscapes in the country today. According to the 1990 census data, the largest share of all housing, or 45%, is located in the suburbs (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1992). The number of householders living in the suburbs has increased steadily since the first housing census was conducted in 1940. Just between 1980 and 1990, the suburban share of housing has increased by 19 percent (Devaney, 1994). Rapid development of suburbs, which began early in the century, continues today at an ever-increasing pace throughout the country. This holds true for King County, Washington, which has experienced a 25.6% increase in population (from approximately 1.2 to 1.6 million people) between 1980 and 1995. As of 1990, 58.6% of the population of King County lived in single family homes (U.S. Bureau ofthe Census, 1992).

Second, by observing how people express identity in suburban neighborhoods, including streetscapes and front yards, we can learn more about what people value in their homes, streets, neighborhoods, and regional environment. Although front yards are less important than the interior of homes for identity expression, they are the most visible, public part of the mostly private home property. Front yards are the interface between public and private realms. Front yards are our face to our neighbors, community and wider society, and are the place where we are "judged" by the public. Looking at how people treat this public/private space should provide useful information to those in the design professions, as we may learn about their deeper values, aspirations, and aesthetic preferences.

Finally, instead of just criticizing and then ignoring the vernacular suburban landscape, which appears to be the prevalent approach of many if not most designers (despite the fact that suburbia is so extensive), design professionals should look at the continually growing suburban environment as an opportunity to integrate new design ideas and approaches to suburban living into the obviously popular existing suburban landscapes.

This paper compares and contrasts identity expression between three single family subdivisions in Bellevue, Washington. Identity expression is examined at four levels of scale,' regional, neighborhood, street, and individual. Each subdivision examined is at a different socioeconomic level.

This project has two main goals. The first goal is to determine whether individual residential neighborhoods, and the streets and houses comprising those neighborhoods, possess markers which provide a sense of identity, and to describe any observed markers. The second goal is to determine whether any existing differences in identity expression between neighborhoods can be linked to differences between the people who choose, or can afford, to live in each neighborhood.

This thesis is inspired by a recent study presented by two Phoenix, Arizona cultural geographers, Blake and Arreola (1996), who looked at identity expression specifically in the context of the suburban residential landscape. They studied subdivision names and landscape traits in several Phoenix, Arizona subdivisions for evidence of neighborhood identity expression. Based on their observations, they found that residential subdivisions do in fact have clear group identities, characterized by a few attributes that are conspicuously visible from public streets. These attributes vary with neighborhood location, income level, and ethnicity, amongst other factors, and give character and identity to suburban neighborhoods. However, while their study looked primarily at the neighborhood scale, this project explores identity expression at four levels, regional, neighborhood, street, and individual. In addition, this project simplifies the number of factors evaluated by Blake and Arreola, and focuses primarily on socioeconomic status.

The term "identity" used for this study is similar to that presented by Blake and Arreola, and is defined as the distinctive physical characteristics of a place that enhance a feeling of belonging or attachment to the place. Data collection techniques are also similar to Blake and Arreola. The main data collection technique is to visually assess and compare features of the single-family residential subdivision landscape visible from public streets and sidewalks, i.e., primarily the front-yard landscape. Supporting data that places the site work in a broader natural, cultural and socioeconomic context includes data from real estate, advertising, planning, zoning, and census sources. While the scopes of the studies differ, the results of this and Blake and Arreola's study, while allowing for regional differences, should be comparable.

Chapter 2 presents a discussion of the existing literature concerning historical suburban development, including factors contributing to the current appearance and characteristics of typical United States suburbs today. Other literature presented includes that relating to the social, cultural and psychological factors contributing to the development, look, and popularity of typical suburbs. Chapter 3 discusses the methods used for site selection and data collection, while Chapter 4 presents the collected data. Chapter 5 presents an analysis and comparison of the data found in each neighborhood. Chapter 6 presents a comparison of the Bellevue data with findings from other relevant studies including Blake and Arreola's Phoenix data, and conclusions and recommendations for further action or study.

1J. B. Jackson, A Sense of Place a Sense of Time, p. 145.