Community Concerns - Land and Building Use
For nearly a century, zoning codes have provided the United States with a tool to distribute land and building functions. The first zoning codes were rooted in the desire to provide safe and healthy residential areas away from noxious uses. In some communities, however, zoning codes have become blunt tools for micro-managed land use and sometimes even dubious snobbery and racism.
Over the last decade or so, Americans have rediscovered the desirability of mixed use development. Even shopping center developers, who once segregated retail from all other uses in self-enclosed mall structures surrounded by moats of parking, now develop mixed use centers.
Vibrant, walkable neighborhoods have mixed uses with them. Even communities that have areas containing only single family houses can be sustainable, pedestrian-friendly places if those areas are proximate to other uses in a well-planned whole.
Neighborhoods - Street Networks
Streets are the life blood for most land and building uses. Learn how well-connected street networks provide ample places for a wider array of uses than sprawling, vehicle-dominant areas.
Streets - Intersections and Streetscape
Street intersection provide some of the most valuable real estate in walkable communities. When well-conceived, these places where roads and sidewalks cross provide fertile ground for commercial, residential, and institutional uses.
Buildings - Stimulating Special Places
Gathering places which are formed by buildings - whether pocket parks or linear piazzas - can provide vibrant amenities which leverage certain uses. Find out how buildings can make the most out of special public places.
Neighborhoods - Nodes of Places
It’s not feasible for very places in America to be developed as an endless row of mixed use buildings. Instead, development can, and should, happen unevenly resulting in pockets of places with a range of interests and focus. Discover how use and function can result in a wonderful messy urbanism
Buildings - Forming the Public Realm
From single family streets which are within walking distance to town squares, to more urban mixed-use environments, buildings form the public realm. Setbacks, heights, even roof form, effect the intensity of a neighborhood while displaying telltale signs of function.
Public Places - Sidewalks and Cafes
While a wide range of uses can be placed in the buildings that line sidewalks certain uses, such as restaurants, have a high-leveraging effect on communities when they are not only placed on the first floor but displayed and celebrated.