Abstract
Activities play a contributory part in the urban economic growth. While streets are the most fundamental public spaces in communities, they may also be the most conflicted and under recognized. Streets should not only move people from point A to point B, but must add value to the community along the way. Great streets build communities as well as provide ways of connecting other greater places. This is what links communities of all size together.

The rapid population growth and sustained economic growth has accentuated the overall change and development along streets. The use of space modifies its physical appearance: built environments are continuously transformed by inhabitation which, in turn, is affected by those transformations. These changes bring about challenges and opportunities which require innovative planning interventions. A review of the development policy should be undertaken with an aim to promote sustainable development, improved infrastructure and service delivery and to conserve the areas‟ serene natural and built environment.UN-Habitat emphasizes that for a city to be prosperous, it must have a generous and well- designed street pattern.

A good street pattern boosts infrastructure development, enhances environmental sustainability, supports higher productivity, enriches quality of life and promotes equity and social inclusion. The study proposes to study the concept of the street as a public space and destination with a focus on Monrovia Street within the CBD of Nairobi.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

In a city the street must be supreme. It is the first institution of the city. The street is a room by agreement, a community room, the walls of which belong to the donors, dedicated to the city for common use. Its ceiling is the sky. Today, streets are disinterested movements not at all belonging to the houses that front them. So you have no streets. You have roads, but you have no streets. –Louis Kahn, the Street.