Environment-Behavior Research

Observing The New School's Stuyvesant Park Residence

• Erosions: Black paint on door handle wearing off to expose silver metal.
• Door handle designed to be all black. Black is wearing off because of the many people that grab the handle everyday.Handle is meant to be grabbed by individuals hands so this indicates that the planned and predicted activities were taken place.

• Leftovers: Cigarette butt on ground, left as litter

• An individual was smoking outside of building. When they were done with cigarette they threw it on the ground causing litter. The outside space is where people in dorm can smoke but there is not ashtray present for smokers to ash their cigarettes when finished.
•  Props: Kitchen table and chairs added to dorm room kitchen.
• In Stuyvesant residence at Parsons, each suite is accompanied with a full kitchen. Our kitchen did not come with a table/chairs to sit and eat at. Instead of eating in our rooms or on the floor, we purchased a table and fold up chairs. The people responsible for furnishing our suite messed up by forgetting a table (other suites were provided with table and chairs: no charge)
• Separations: Bed sheet hung from ceiling to enclose my roommate’s bed.
• My roommate and I share a room. Since the room is open, she hung a sheet from the ceiling by her bed that created a temporary privacy wall. In addition to more privacy, the sheet also blocks out more light if she does not want to be bothered by my desk light if I am up working and she wants to sleep.
• Connections: Suite mates in other room and I keep bedroom doors open to kitchen.
• Our rooms are connected thru the kitchen that we share. We typically keep our individual doors to our rooms open because we are all good friends and the open doors allow us to interact with each other whenever. Rather than viewing our suite with two individual rooms, we see it as one large room.
• Personalization: specific curtains added to dorm room windows.

• Our dorm rooms are provided with white, pull down shades over the windows. Everyone uses the shades provided. However, I replaced the white shades with colorful curtains in order to make the dorm room feel more like home. Also, the curtains are much better looking and add more character to the room.
• Identification: Paper sign taped to our suite’s door with our names listed.
• The sign on our door allows others to identify which room we are all in more easily than if there was no sign. The sign is paper and taped onto door because this dorm is not our permanant residence and will change within the next few months.
• Group membership: A resident at Stuy wearing a New School sweatshirt
• The “New School” across the breast of the sweatshirt 
• Official: New School signs on building of dorm
• The New School signs indicate that the building is part of the New School University and houses students. 
• Unofficial: Signs by elevators that advertise upcoming events.
• The signs inform the reader of upcoming events that are short term. For example, one sign advertised a self defense class held over the weekend. 
• Context: Student spray paints wall at Stuy residence
• This is an illegitimate message. The wall he spray painted was in the Spray paint booth in the art room at our dorm. It may seem like vandalism however, most people who utilize the spray paint booth leave their mark on the walls. The walls of the booth are filled with spray painted marks by students. The booth stands as its own art piece itself.