This document provides a comparative analysis of Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Site A) and South of Market in San Francisco, USA (Site B). Both areas have similarities such as grid street patterns, multifunctional complexes, religious buildings, and public transportation access that create high intensities of social contact. They also have markets and vendors in narrow paths. Differences include Site B having a public park and various museums, while Site A lacks these amenities. Additionally, street conditions are better maintained in Site B than Site A. The analysis recommends Site A improve by adding a public park, history museum, and addressing hygiene and pedestrian access issues.

1. Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Architecture
Theories of Architecture And Urbanism
(ARC61303/ARC2224)
Project Part 2: Comparative Analysis Essay Between South of
Market, San Francisco & Petaling Street, Chinatown
Name: Goh Yen Nee
Student ID: 0315551
Lecturer: Dr. Nor Hayati

2. Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Architecture
Theories of Architecture And Urbanism
(ARC61303/ARC2224)
Project Part 2: Comparative Analysis Essay Between Charles
Street, Boston & Petaling Street, Chinatown
Name: Siew John Loong
Student ID: 0315871
Lecturer: Mr. Nazmi Anuar

3. First of all, Chinatown (Site A), the centred of Kuala Lumpur is the selected site
area to assign in the Project Design Studio which involved the street of H.S Lee and
Petaling Street that known as the famous shopping district transforming the whole area
into a lively market during night and day time with hundreds of stalls selling a lot of
variety stuff at a reasonable prices, making it the most happening area in the city. It is
surrounded with historical shop houses that remained well to be part of the attractions
which give a worth visit for visitor in understanding the story timeline of Chinatown.
Coming to the South of Market (Site B), San Francisco is the site area of California
that we have chosen to study for assignment Project 1 which the boundaries areas we
involved are the Mission Street, Howard Street, 4th Street and 3th Street. Those
boundaries are surrounded with the focal point of the area which is the Yerba Buena
Park that creates most of the contact points between people on different activities. The
terms of “South of Market" and "SoMa" are referring to a relatively large district of the
city as well as a much smaller neighbourhood with them. However, previously this area
was called as “South of the Slot" refers to the cable cars that ran up and down the
Market along the slots through which they gripped cables. Even though the cable cars
have disappeared for a long time from the Market Street, some locals especially old
generations are still refer to this area as the "South of the Slot". There have few
similarities and differences can be discovered in both of this places in term of contact
points and intensity of people appeared due to the activities.
Diagram 1 Typology in Site B
Diagram 2 the figure
ground plan which
shows the
development areas
and shop houses

4. One of the similarities in both of the places is the grid typology of the city. The
grid topology of the streets in San Francisco is basically made up with commercial
blocks followed by institutions and residential areas. The typology of the street is quite
similar with the typology in Petaling Street which are from high commercial blocks,
modern institutions nearby and typical shop houses that remained well. Mostly of the
people would like to visit in both of the places as they have variety of attractions that
allows people to have higher intensity in contact point. This is because both of the
places have the similar activities no matter coming from any of the attractions provided.
For example, there is also a multifunctional complex in both places which are the Kota
Raya in Site A and Metreon in Site B. Intensity of people around this contact points
are quite high due to the nearby bus station located and do a lot of variety of shops
that can be look forward into it. There is also religious buildings that act as a famous
attractions in Site A which are the historical Indian Temple and Chinese Temple while
St. Patrick's Catholic Church is located in the street nearby Jessie Square that allows
high intensity of contact points between people during praying time in Site B. All the
attractions surrounded in both site could makes the communities to be convenient and
comfortable to stay with.
Picture of Chinese and Indian temple in Site APicture of St Patrick Church
Picture of Kota Raya, Old shopping mall in Site
A
Picture of Metreon Complex in site B

5. Picture of flea market, Petaling Street Picture of Pasar Karat
Diagram 3 Location of Farmer market in
Site B in between with buildings of a
narrow path.
Diagram 4 Symbol 1 & 2 are the
Petaling Street flea market and
Pasar Karat
Picture of farmer market, San Francisco

6. Next, market or stall that is placed in the narrow pathway is also the similar
contact point for both site which encourage intensity of different people to be gather
and interact to each other. In site A, there is flea market in Petaling Street which
provide fresh goods and ingredients to the local communities in the morning. Well,
there is also a second hand item market that can be found in Pasar Karat which located
in a narrow pathway of Petaling Street area that allows people to obtain their items in
a cheaper price. Not only that, there is also some Indian vendors located nearby the
Indian temple for people to buy some flowers during worship in order to share the
Indian culture to the tourists that visit the temple. Social activities have achieved when
they start to bargain with the locals about the item they interested to get. In site B,
there is a farmer market which is located in a pathway in between two buildings too
that offers a lot of variety goods for the people especially those people passed by to
go to work while in the need of buying some stuff. This creates high level of contact
point due to attractions of people to see the stuff provided. This kind of contact point
is needed especially for an urban area to obtain a garden-fresh ingredients and would
be easier to get for those people who work in the commercial area.
Sectional diagram 5 shows the vendors stall that located in the roadside
between buildings
Picture of Indian vendors stall selling worship stuff

7. Diagram 6 Public Transportation Area in Site A
In addition, another similarities that can be found in both of the places is the
public transportation station. Bus stop are located in both areas that allows the
community for convenient in reaching their respective place such as the working area,
market, and attractions. Especially in site A, it provides a specialized travelling bus
that is free of charge for tourists to travel the whole area of Kuala Lumpur which known
as the KL Hop On Hop Off bus to reach some respectively stations. And, there is a lot
of locals use the public transportation such as LRT station in Pasar Seni. That makes
the area become crowded and intensity level of people is highest during the morning
time where they go to work or study. So, most of the activities are appeared in the
Diagram 7 Location of bus station in
Site B that near the attraction area
Picture of bus station nearby the Jessie
Square

8. area like necessary when they have to go work and study, optional in order of passing
through the attractions and social activity during bargain time with locals. While in the
site B, the bus stop is located at the intersection junction of 3rd
Street and Mission
Street that provide an easy access to the users in order to reach the specific
destination which is utilised by the neighbouring commercial, institutional and
residential blocks communities. From the diagrams, we could observed that both
places have occupied the sufficient transportation services in a right location in order
helping the commercial buildings to be attracted and increase number of people to
have any activities in there. This allows the area to stay alive with higher intensity level
of people to visit.
Even though there are similarities, there will also have differences between the
both areas. One of the differences between them are the greenery public gathering
park. South of Market, San Francisco have a famous public park which known as the
Yerba Buena Garden. It cultivates the appreciation of art and acts as a connector to
its nearby museum that brings the people to be interact each other for some activities.
Frequent number of events and activities occurs in the Yerba Buena garden and
Jessie square that allows the park to become a focal point of the community area.
There is water feature which can be found in the Yerba Buena Park activates the users
sensory to experience and encourage the users to enter the space more. The park
has been slightly elevated to create a more intimate sense of space and disconnect
the park from the main road. Strategic location and permeability of park allows the
user to access from multiple directions so the user could spend shorter duration time
to get to the place. Intensity level of contact points from the people that coming through
from different directions are high when they passed through the park as it is main point
of surrounding buildings. On the other hand, Petaling Street is lack of this kind of
specific public garden or greenery areas which let people to have some public
Diagram 8 Location of Yerba Buena
Park and Jessie Park in Site B and the
Pattern movement of user passing
through the park.
Picture of Yerba Buena Park with the
water fountain

9. activities in a safety way without worrying about the vehicle passing through. Due to
the crowded and high buildings placed surrounding makes the areas does not have a
wide and free space to build a public park for the communities.
Next, museum or cultural centre is also their differences between both places.
In site B, there is many different kind of museum which are the Museum of Modern Art
(SFMOMA) that holds an internationally well-known collection of modern and
contemporary art, Yerba Buena Centre for the Arts (YBCA) and Museum of African
Diaspora which located at the 3rd
Street. The people in different ages could spend time
together in the museum while understanding the art during the visit. However, site A
should provide this kind of contact point such as a historical museum that promote the
background histories of Petaling Street in order to encourage the youth generation to
appreciate the area. The increasing of youth generation come to the area would
activate and make the areas to alive thus a closer relationship between different
generations would be achieved. But, there is also some mural art placed in site A area
which give the beauty of wall as shown in the picture above. It is part of the art culture
that can be observed in Chinatown.
Diagram 9 Location of cultural museum
in Site B
Picture of Museum of Modern Art in
front of the Yerba Buena Park
Picture of Mural Art wall in Jalan HS Lee

10. Moreover, another dissimilarities that can be found on both of the places are
the street condition which could affect the amount of people to visit in those areas.
From the site visit that we have done in site A, we noticed that some of the pedestrian
road have broken or even act as the motorcycle parking lot that allow the street to
become more narrow for the community to access. There is also hygiene problem
along the street which trash are throw anywhere without concerning on the cleanliness
of the area. This would makes people to be disappointed through the issues happened
in site A. However, comparing to site B, the street condition is excellent with good
hygiene that can observed through the research pictures which lets a lot of activities
to take place well thus increase the population of people appeared especially in
Farmer Market that keep the environment to stay clean.
Picture of street condition in Site A
Picture of motorcycles affect the accessibility of pedestrian road

11. To be concluded that both Petaling Street, Chinatown and South of Market, San
Francisco have similarities and dissimilarities that can be observed through the
analysis study. Site A is recommended to provide a free space in building such a good
place like the public park and it is needed for an urban city that gives the locals to do
their activities freely in the public areas that encourage more interactions between
people. A historical museum or cultural centre should be built in the Site A to
encourage the appreciation of history and Chinese art which could attract more
foreigner tourists to come and understand the community life better. This could be also
a focal point for the community as there is a lot of history and culture that could be
observed in Site A. Last but not least, the hygiene and condition of a pedestrian road
should be improved compared to the street condition in site B and specific parking lot
should be provided in Site A so there would not be crowded with motorcycles that
makes the pedestrian road to be more inconvenient for user to walk around.