Académique Documents
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- Jonathan Barnett
Book Review
Madhavi Patil,
PICA,M.Arch, Urban Design SEM III
The boundaries between urban &rural & city & suburbs blur. This is because of the process
of growth which has its own side effects.
These side effects have created awareness amongst people about ecology & relatedness of
actions.
So to seek solutions or remedies for these side effects is a primary goal.
Todays cities are not an accident. Its form is usually unintentional, but it is not accidental.
It is a product of decisions made for single separate purpose, whose interrelationships and
side effects have not been fully considered.
Also cities are not designed by making pictures of the way should look 20 years from now.
They are created by decision making process that goes on continuously day after day.
Chapter 1- Private enterprise & public benefit.
In this chapter, the author explains the concept of safeguarding of public interests in privately
financed real estate development.
Most of our cities & suburbs have been constructed by private investors. The government
also builds or participates in financing of an increasing number of structures. Real estate
developers sole objectives are making money. Some people who are concerned about
future of environment feel that it is wrong that guiding principle of development is the profit
motive & the private enterprise has generally not successful in making satisfactory cities.
In real estate, the land for new development would be determined by case of assemblage of
plots with logical land use. Because some people do not give away their plots, fragmented
plots is what the developer gets resulting in fragmented development. The development by
govt. are shows and cumbersome, and its product is unimaginative & stereotyped.
He talks about the planning commission of New York, e.g. Times & Square Plaza.It was a private development & the developer was trying to take advantage of the plaza
bonus.
Plaza Bonus is a policy where in if you provide a public plaza, you get an incentive of 20%.
The developer didnt want give this valuable rental frontage & planned a low building.
So the planning commissioner noticed such issue & made guidelines for such situations.
e.g. Theatre District The Theatres in the boundary had become part of a series of
interconnected land uses. They realised the importance of theatres in the broadways
without its theatres it would loose much of its sparkle.
So they had to find a way for developer to build new theatres as a part of their office build
dings.
Policy - developers could apply to the planning commission for increase in size of building by
20% in return for building a legitimate theatre.
Gist Preservation of valuable features of the city & the creation of desirable amenities can
be achieved if you find a way to make them profitable.
Chapter 2- Designing cities without designing buildings.
This chapter talks about the special zoning districts and how these methods can be to city
design without designing buildings.
Here he explains effects of zoning. He describes zoning as a process of dividing cities in
zones, each of which has a legal requirement.
The 1st American Zoning Ordinance was passed in New York 1916. And New York City
planning commission came 22 yrs. later.
The skyline of America is full of unimaginative boxy buildings. It is because of the
combination of zoning rule & street grid.
Sky
Exposure
Plane:
A sky exposure plane is a virtual sloping plane
that begins at a specified height above the
street line and rises inward over the zoning
lot at a ratio of vertical distance to horizontal
distance set forth in district regulations. A
building may not penetrate the sky exposure
plane which is designed to provide ligh t and
air at street level, primarily in medium- and
higher-density districts
This proves that zoning could be valuable card in the hands of those seeking to improve the
design & planning of town of cities.
There were three kinds of Design controls:1. Planned Unit Development PUD or cluster Zoning used in rural & suburban areas,
intensively developed for 1st time.
Ordinary Zoning Regulations would be suspended for a particular plot & developer if
he submits a master plan for high density clusters of housing with significant % of
open space / in natural state.
2. Urban Renewal This technique offers a high degree of design control since the
government can set whatever condition for sell it likes.
The criticisms of urban renewal have been over the destructive of wholesale
demolition of existing structures of line of citizens & economic health of city.
3. Zoning incentive - Its most significant design feature was a provision that developer
could achieve 20% extra FAR if provided with Plaza / Public / Semi-public spaces.
Chapter 3- Preserving landmarks & ties to the past.
The story of proposed building using air rights over grand central station illustrates how
zoning laws and unfriendly architectural philosophies makes it hard to preserve landmarks.
The New Yorks grand central terminal was built in classical style as monument to
commodore Vanderbilt & is one of the 1st bldg. to be declared as landmark.
The Penn central railroad decided to develop Air rights over the existing building. FAR was
15, 18 with the plaza. No plaza was possible but an official bldg. with an area of 13.5 times 4
acres site was permitted by zoning. Architect proposed 700 high office building with
contradicting facade.
Landmark commission refused to approve new bldg.
Thus landmark designations, air-rights transfers, special zoning districts & private landmarks
conservancies are all tools for preserving the visible traces of the past.
Their application depends upon how concerned the authorities in a particular area are about
historic preservation.
Saving a landmark is always going to be difficult process that requires strong leadership by
govt. & strong political support by concerned citizens.
Chapter 4- Neighbourhood Planning & Community Participation.
This Chapter describes ways in which urban design with the assistance of members of
public can be used to preserve urban neighbourhoods and solve some of the problems
connected to the city.
Paul Davidoff suggested that city should be modelled on the legal system.
Every interest in the community should have its own planners & plans & truth would emerge
as an adversary process. Advocacy planning.
There should be some way of involving the community in planning process.
So they thought of creating a working committee which consist of planning & designing
professionals who are outsiders but with the help of local resident would analyse the area
and propose design accordingly.
And the other one is Community committee consist of local residents who are exposed to
realistic limitations of the design by professionals & thus help in promoting the designer
without objecting.
These offices also provide an organisation whose primary purpose is urban design. i.e. the
design of the citys co-coordinative elements and public spaces the place at ground level and
the level just above and below which are the primary matters of the public concern.
Such a change in administrative structure can makes a substantial difference to the quality of
urban life.
Chapter 6- Transportation & Urban Armature.
Highways & rapid transits system are identified as primary determinants of city design today
and ways of controlling these elements are described.
Highways are tremendous economic impact upon the areas in which they are built. The
effect in urban areas is often negative disrupting neighbourhoods etc.
But in less dense areas they act as an economic stimulus, land value increases, new districts
are open for Real estate.
The Federal Highway Act 1970 said the planning of highway along with the development is
a legal requirement.
The result has been the increasing use of joint development schemes.
So the highway construction are engineering problems has now become complete multi-
Tower Regulations
Tower
regulations
allow
a
building
to
penetrate the sky exposure plane, which
results in buildings taller than those allowed
under Quality Housing regulations. In mixed
buildings, a floor area bonus of up to 20% can
be achieved by providing a public plaza.
Together, these regulations produce the
tallest residential buildings in the city.