The appearance of security zones in US cities after 9/11

To review the development of the security zone concept and introduce an approach for transforming these spaces into more effective public places.

The literature review was conducted by examining major books and journal articles in the urban planning, urban design, and landscape architecture literature (1970‐2004).

The review found that an effective response to security zones is to initiate a strategic planning process utilizing local knowledge and design expertise.

Security zones have numerous negative socio‐cultural and aesthetic impacts on their neighborhoods. The findings of the literature review and the new approach introduced can be a good way to strike a delicate balance between providing for necessary security and mitigating against those negative impacts.

This paper fulfills a need in the property management community to understand and manage the openness/security dilemma.