The Seagram Building's plaza was popular immediately upon the building's opening, being frequented by both office workers and tourists. In 1971, the plaza was the setting of a planning study by sociologist William H. Whyte, whose film "Social Life of Small Urban Spaces", produced in conjunction with the MAS, records the daily patterns of people socializing around the plaza. Whyte praised the plaza as allowing a sense of choice, in that patrons could lie down on the ledges or sit on the ledges or steps, despite being relatively plain in design.