Community Concerns - Commerce
All communities want thriving economies. Forward thinking communities want to develop urbane, walkable places that are inviting to baby-boomers as well as Millennials and all other ages. Yet, many communities have vacant storefronts at their urban core or no place for commercial uses to exist, despite the return to urbanism that is taking place nationwide. The urban design of a community can either have an adverse or positive impact on the viability of business. From the strategic location and quantity of parking (not too little but not too much) to the shaping of public places by buildings and landscape, some of the Elements of Urban Design that influence commerce are linked below.
Neighborhoods - Nodes of Places
Learn why development shouldn’t occur evenly, like butter spread over toast and how tools (such as zoning) can help communities create districts of vibrant, mixed-use places where patrons can park once and reach multiple destinations by foot.
Neighborhoods - Tools for Planning
Citizens know more about their community’s micro-economy than experts often believe they know. Find out how to mine information from the people who understand their neighborhood’s strengths and weaknesses better than anyone else.
Streets - Fundamental Ingredients
Vibrant street corridors are formed from building face to building face, not just the pavement between curbs. To better understand how streets can invigorate (or kill) business, a thorough understanding of the key ingredients of great, walkable street corridors is crucial.
Streets - Scale and Proportion
Street corridors can have a huge impact on whether or not streets encourage pedestrianism.
Well-designed street corridors - with complimentary zoning - give a sense of comforting enclosure, like an outdoor room or hallway. Find out the nuances of street corridor proportions and how they can be calibrated according to the desired level of intensity.
Streets - Intersections and Streetscape
A well-formed intersection can be the iconic heart of a neighborhood. However, nowhere do pedestrians, bicyclists, and motor vehicle drivers come into conflict more than at street intersections. These potentially dangerous places can dampen micro-economies, or invigorate them. It’s all a matter of how they’re built, streetscaped, and curated.
Buildings - Forming the Public Realm
Whether formal, straight and long, gracefully curved, or bent and kinked like medieval cities, buildings form street corridors and public places. From basic massing to architectural delineation, buildings are the readily apparent bellwether of a community’s character and quality – for better or worse.
Buildings - Stimulating Special Places
Civic places of which citizens are proud, to which patrons want to return, and which are fertile ground for resilient economies, are special and designed to accentuate the character of a community. While thoughtfully designed places can reap economic benefits for generations, poorly designed places can be burdensome for decades.
Public Places - Sidewalks and Cafes
There’s no better advertisement for the economic success of a business district than a populated place. Some business districts are magnets for people and activity whereas some are forlorn cavities of emptiness. The composition of the public realm can make or break business viability by becoming inviting or hopeless.