*Today is the first of a three-part series on what smart development is, what it isn’t, and the obstacles it faces. *
Let’s get it out of the way: despite being proponents of development, it is near-sighted to address every neighborhood project as beneficial for a community. If that were the case, this website would promote Greenwood retail development or herald construction of gray-scale OneAmerica garages as a success when that is certainly not the case.
Which of these would you rather walk past?
Rather than totally regulating neighborhood development from top down, there must be a balance between the best interests of developers, residents, and planners to ensure that future construction projects help contribute rather than assist to diminish communities.
But what makes one development “good” and another “bad”?
This piece will explore several principles many urban planners have commenced to advocate over the past couple decades (as well as principles that have proved destructive) and apply these to recent projects in Indianapolis.
The Good
For the sake of brevity, I will underline, uppercase and embolden this next sentence. DESIGN AFFECTS BEHAVIOR.
It is imperative for communities to hold developers accountable to design standards in order to keep neighborhoods desirable, sustainable, and stimulating. Thankfully, there are several components to smart design that cities (even Indianapolis!) have begun to acknowledge and enact.
The first step is encouraging intelligently crafted, mixed-use development in neighborhoods- this is paramount to creating engaging urban environments.
Mixed-use implies an array of uses throughout the day (opposed to single-use suburban zoning) as business associates will naturally mingle with citizens that reside there and both these groups will organically interact with the patrons of businesses. It has been well-observed that this interaction between people of various socioeconomic backgrounds is conducive to the incubation of new ideas, hence why cities throughout history have proved instrumental in mankind’s progress. That being said, mixed-use development is a huge step in creating vivacious neighborhoods. The next step is creating mixed-uses that are desirable to invest in, look at, and interact with on a human level.
Here is a peek at just a few smart-design components that communities can and should demand, helping developers attain profits by ensuring built places people demand while simultaneously creating interesting, engaging urban communities.
Communities should demand activating uses on the first floor and continuous storefront windows!
Sidewalk-adjacent, active commercial uses should be placed on the first floor, creating a activated pedestrian streetscape. Good job, Hinge!
Trailside: continuous windows and frequent, highly visible entrances along the street should provide visual interest while promoting walkability. Keep it up!
Communities should demand facade interruption to provide inspiring and architecturally appealing streetwalls!
Lockerbie Lofts: residential projects should be designed to avoid large box-like forms with continuous unrelieved surfaces. Notice how colors break up the flow of form. *highfive
Bulky, or block-long buildings, should limit building length by implementing horizontal and vertical setbacks/stepbacks instead of long flat walls. You go, Montage!
Communities should demand limited setbacks!
Buildings should be adjacent to sidewalks, enclosing the public realm of the street while locating shops and restaurants next to the sidewalk to engage pedestrians, encouraging street vitality. You did good Slate, you did good. 😉
Less shallow setbacks are appropriate for a few things: wider sidewalks where they are narrow, entrances/structure articulation, outdoor restaurant seating (as seen on the corner of the rendering above), and plazas or other high activity areas. I see you, Marott Expansion! c:
The Alexander: setback areas should be used for public entry and outdoor commercial activity. This makes them destinations as gathering places. They should provide shade and places to sit. Gold star, CityWay!
Communities should demand diminished/hidden parking!
Do you see that parking? Didn’t think so. That’s because Collegiate did a great job here of keeping it wrapped up by some nice, ol’ residential units. The visibility of parking from the street and sidewalk should be minimized, especially at corners. Parking detracts from aesthetic pleasure and negates interacting streetscape. Parking should be placed to the side or rear of buildings, or underground. So proud. :,)
As stated before, these are just a few of the demands communities can request of developers to ensure a healthy, vibrant community and create places people want to be -a scenario beneficial to everyone involved. These are not demands to discourage growth and should not be distorted as NIMBYism -collectively, they are nothing less than having enough respect for our communities in order to make them the best, most vibrant and stimulating urban environments they can be.
As always, feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.
Later tonight, we will have the fourth article in the Mass Ave series.
