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| City & County Building, Wasatch Mountains, Salt Lake City, Utah |
Urban Design is the process of physically shaping the city. In
practice, it is the intersection of architecture, city planning, landscape architecture,
and transportation planning and engineering. As part of city planning, urban design
defines the city’s character and image –how it looks and feels. If it is
well-defined, you will see buildings that form the walls of public spaces like
parks, plazas, and streets. You will see places for people to walk, sit, move,
linger, and meet. You will see trees and plants that soften the hard surfaces,
absorb sound, provide shade (and oxygen!), and calm the mind. You will see
architecture that may vary in style and material in many ways (very diverse) or
few ways (similar). Ideally, the architecture will follow similar design
principles –common build-to lines where all buildings on a street line up,
similar heights or rooflines, similar building widths—but may or may not be the
same architectural style –contemporary, mid-century, Victorian, Federal, etc.
by building on existing positive elements of the public realm.
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| Fountain Square, Cincinnatti, Ohio |
Planners commonly discuss what makes a city “livable.”
Livability is defined as capacity of a place to fulfill your daily needs and
your quality of life needs. Daily needs are basic things like food, water,
housing, transportation, public health and safety, sanitation. Your quality of
life needs raise your happiness and include arts and culture, recreation,
social interaction, education, social equality, and access to nature.
Underpinning both daily needs and quality of life needs is the ability of the
community to provide access to good jobs and support a resilient economy. A
livable city is one that embodies all of these things and provides choice to
residents and visitors, allowing them to experience their city in their own
way.
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| Salzstrasse, Freiburg, Germany |
Another key concept in urban design and planning is
walkability: the ability of a place to fulfill your daily needs and quality of
life needs within ¼-1/2 mile walking distance. The Walkability Premium is the demand
for housing, retail, and office space in walkable areas that results in higher
rents over comparable space in areas that are more dependent on vehicular
travel. In the last 20 years or so, the revival of our downtowns and main
streets has been promoted by emphasizing their walkability: density of
amenities within ¼-1/2 mile distance. According to a study by Russonello and
Stewart (2005), between 1/3-1/2 of US households prefer living walkable
neighborhoods –near retail, restaurants and other amenities. A 2009 study in
the DC metro area showed that rent for office space with high walkability
commands a 27% premium over comparable space in drivable suburban locations.
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| North False Creek, Vancouver, British Columbia |
So what is the Public Gap? Very often how we build is driven
by the ability to maximize development on a parcel without regard to how people
will use the building or the space around it. While the building may be
designed for office use and laid out with reception area, cubicles, and
conference rooms, on the outside many people “use” the building as a wall that
frames the public street. Consider the public street as a room: do the walls
have windows for you to look through? Are the walls detailed with dimension and
texture: are windows inset or do they appear “pasted” on the outside? Are there
changes in material or color? How might you enter the building? How far is the building
from the sidewalk? Is there a sidewalk? What is going on between the sidewalk
and the building? Is it a simple lawn or an elaborate garden? Are there places
to sit? Does someone live here or work here or both? The Public Gap is the absence
of things like architectural detail and landscape design in the space between
buildings and of the buildings themselves. That gap contributes to the sameness
of places. Like someone thought, “I know, I’ll build a building,” without
considering the people that might interact with that building. Yes, they may
interact with the shop, office, or home that lies within. But what of the
public side? At the end of the day, cities exist because of people not because
of buildings. So, let’s start with people and consider their needs and desires
when we design public and private spaces.
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| Library Square, Salt Lake City, Utah |
This blog will be an exploration of urban design principles,
practice, and ideas. I will occasionally include posts about home design,
gardening, and mountain-city life. I hope you enjoy the ride!
Welcome to Mountain Urbanism!
Sources:
U.S. Department of Transportation (1986). National Personal
Transportation Survey.
Belden Russonello and Stewart (2003). Americans’ Attitudes
Toward Walking and Creating Better Walking Communities.
Leinberger, Christopher and Mariela Alfonzo (2012). Walk
this Way: The Economic Promise of Walkable Places in Metropolitan Washington,
D.C. Brookings.
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