The aim of this essay is to demonstrate how specific processes of verticalization -particularly those in urban areas that become physkal supports for shared meanings and are, as such, transformed into symbol spaces for the inhabitants that built them- lead to the disappearance of a particular urban spatial organization, thereby clearly affecting the principles that govern the social practices of these inhabitants, including those related to spatial appropriation (experience). The hypothesis that is put forwards that these processes of verticalization are not spatially legitimate. The theoretical references are principally derived from Norberto Bobbio and Max Weber. Empirical evidence to support this hypothesis is provided from the Casa Forte neighborhood in the city of Recife, North East Brazil.