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<br />2(j Pl~lflrnfl~ Novemher 2004
<br />
<br />
<br />.
<br />
<br />A new lnixed-usc
<br />devc!oJntlent at
<br />Gdifomia 5
<br />Pleasant Hill
<br />BAR Tsttztioll.
<br />fU)l.U -under lOa).!. ]
<br />will re1JL1ce a 20- ~
<br />aO'e parl:ing lot "-
<br />with office, retail, ;
<br />residmtia!, and __~
<br />recreational uses. -
<br />
<br />ences ro building style, fearing that roo much
<br />specificity will lead to an overly homoge-
<br />neous, "themed" look.
<br />
<br />Al iUl(' his/or)'
<br />While rhe term form-based coding has only
<br />. recently emerged, the technique has been used
<br />for over 20 years. Andres Duany's Miami
<br />firm, Duany Plarer-Zyberk & Company, first
<br />applied the approach in its 1982 code for
<br />Seaside, the highly publicized coastal resort
<br />town on Florida's panhandle.
<br />The firm's principals, Duany and his wife,
<br />Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, initially set our ro
<br />design all the town's buildings themselves.
<br />But once the true scale of the project became
<br />evident, they realized that such a high level of
<br />design control would not be possible, or even
<br />desirable. Instead, they handed off the design
<br />responsibility to the lot purchasers, or their
<br />architects. That decision led to a new challenge
<br />-flnding a way to impart a distinctive charac-
<br />ter to specific areas within the development.
<br />On study trips to historic Southern com-
<br />munities, the design ream saw that certain
<br />building types tended to dominate in cer-
<br />tain parts of a town: shopfronts on the main
<br />square, rowhouses on side streets, and man-
<br />sions flanking Main Street just beyond the
<br />edges of rhe downtown. The team also noted
<br />rhat, while building rypes were fairly consis-
<br />.tent in a given area, there was always enough
<br />variery within the design of each building ro
<br />avoid a cookie-currer look.
<br />The first Seaside code esrablished a hierar-
<br />chy of seven (later expanded ro eight) "classes"
<br />of buildings for use in the new community.
<br />Each class was based on a tradirional Sourhern
<br />vernacular building type. The code specified
<br />
<br />the rudimentary physical characteristics of
<br />each class, controlling siting on the lot, build-
<br />ing heighr, locarion of porches and outbuild-
<br />ings, and how parking should be handled.
<br />The code progressed through a number of
<br />iterations, achieving its near-final form dur-
<br />ing an on-site design charette in 1981. Shortly
<br />after that event, several architecture profes-
<br />sors at Washington, D.C.'s Catholic Univer-
<br />siry conducted a test of the code. They asked
<br />140 students ro design and build models of
<br />every building included in the 80-acre master
<br />plan according to the rules set forth in the
<br />code. The students then combined their indi-
<br />vidual creations into a 16-foot-long compos-
<br />ite model of the community.
<br />Looking at the finished product, one could
<br />easily envision the town's streets and public
<br />spaces. The model also assumed an important
<br />diagnostic role. Recognizing the tendency of
<br />architecture students to push the design of
<br />each building to its limits, the code's crearors
<br />were able ro identif)' and fix a number of
<br />potential regulatory problems before the code
<br />was formally adopted.
<br />After the firm's experience at Seaside, Duany
<br />Plater-Zyberk adapred form-based codes to
<br />work within the legal framework of a planned-
<br />unit development. The Kenrlands in
<br />Gaithersburg, Maryland, is one early example
<br />of that application. Since 1989, when its plan
<br />and code were created in a highly publicized
<br />charette, DPZ has crafted similar documents
<br />to regulate rhe buildout of over 200 new and
<br />eXISting cOmmunltles.
<br />
<br />Br(lildellin~ lhe ('in~I('
<br />O(her urban designers have since used form-
<br />based codes in a wide varierv of projens dnd
<br />
<br />locarions. In 1999, Dover, Kohl & Partners
<br />of Sourh Miami, working in collaboration
<br />with DPZ, prepared a master plan and form-
<br />based development ordinance for a new down-
<br />town for Kendall, an edge city just south of
<br />Miami. The 240-acre project site is adjacent
<br />to rwo commuter rail starions and a state
<br />highway.
<br />Since the adoption of the ordinance, an
<br />estimated $250 million in new construction
<br />permits have been issued. Some 3,400 new
<br />dwelling units, most in high-rise buildings
<br />(up to 25 stories), are now under construction
<br />in an area that previously had no residential
<br />population at all. 'iX'hile rhe recent wave of
<br />construction in Kendall was foreseen well
<br />before the code was adopted, many credit rhe
<br />regulations with helping the community to
<br />achieve a true downtown development pat-
<br />rern rather than rhe patchwork typical of
<br />booming suburban areas.
<br />On the East Coast, Dover Kohl and FerrelJ
<br />Madden Associates of Washingtoll , D.C., con-
<br />ducted an eight-day charette rhat resulted in
<br />the adoprion 111 February 2003 of a plan and
<br />form-based code for the Columbia Pike Cor-
<br />ridor in Arlington, Virginia. Thar work fo-
<br />cused on the detailed design of four mixed-
<br />use centers along a 3.5-mile seerion of rhe
<br />historic corridor, which is minutes away from
<br />rhe Pentagon and downtown Washington.
<br />A year later, Arlington County planners
<br />approved Columbia Station, a mixed-use de-
<br />velopment consisting of 257 housing unirs
<br />above 42,000 square feer of street-froming
<br />retail. Future plans call for the integrarion of
<br />bus rapid transir or light rail along the corridor.
<br />Geoffrev Ferrell ofFen'e11 Madden was also
<br />responsible for the form-based coding of a
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