Public plazas are open spaces commonly found in city centers that all citizens can access. They can participate in events such as community gatherings, open markets, and concerts, or use these purposely designed areas while creating a sense of place based on their perceptions of the zone and the meanings they assign to it. This study aims to understand visitors’ sense of space in the context of public plazas. To do so, we measured and analyzed visitors’ attitudes including place identity, place attachment, and place dependence, as well as their behavioral patterns, perceptions, familiarity, and satisfaction level. We selected the study sites to represent plazas in Seoul, South Korea’s capital: Gwanghwamun Plaza, Seoul Plaza, and Cheonggye Plaza, which were recently developed as a part of a host of urban renewal projects due to their historical and cultural value. We collected data using survey methods and carried out descriptive analysis, principle component analysis (PCA), the F-test, and t-tests to analyze visitors’ demographic information, behavior, perceptions, satisfaction, familiarity, and the relationships among the measured variables. The findings reveal that sense of place in public plazas might be significantly associated with visitors’ behavioral patterns in, perceptions of, satisfaction, and familiarity with public plazas. The results indicate that landscape planning in urban plazas might need further research that considers visitor views in order to create a sense of place and make such areas meaningful as landmarks.

ABSTRACT
 1. Introduction
 2. Literature Reviews
 3. Methods
  3.1 Study Area
  3.2 Research Instruments
  3.3 Data Collection and Analysis
 4. Results and Discussions
  4.1 Description of Demographics
  4.2 Factors Considered when Selecting Sense ofPlace
  4.3 Visitor Behavior
  4.4 Visitor Perceptions
  4.5 Visitor Familiarity and User Satisfaction
 5. Conclusions
 References

• Junga Lee(Dept. of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, Sanghuh College of Life Sciences, Konkuk University)
• Youngchang Lee(Dept. of Environment and Ecology, Korea University)
• Yumi Lee(Dept. of Landscape Architecture, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul National University)
• Jinhyung Chon(Dept. of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering, Korea University) Corresponding author