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2fi I'lannin_ November 200ti
<br />A rteu~ zrYia:Pd-usN
<br />dez,elaprnrrzt nt
<br />Cczlifn z-rYi,z 's
<br />Plerzs~rzr Hill
<br />Bfl~ T Sr•CZtZOTY,
<br />i'ZG Z.U llrtdel' YL'CL)',
<br />will rLPLzce a '0-
<br />acre purling lot
<br />zr.'ith. office-, retail.,
<br />residential, ,z;:d
<br />recreational uses.
<br />ences to building style, fearing that too much
<br />specificit}~ v,~ill lead to an overly homoge-
<br />neous, "themed" look.
<br />A lii(Ir hi~lor~'
<br />While the 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 Plater-Zyberk S? 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 out to
<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 Banded off the design
<br />responsibility to the lot purchasers, or their
<br />architects. That decision led to a new challenge
<br />-finding a way to impart a distinctive charac-
<br />ter to specific areas ~arithin the development.
<br />Can study trips to historic Southern com-
<br />munities, the design team saw drat 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 die downtown. The team also noted
<br />that, while building types were fairly consis-
<br />tent in a given area, there was always enough
<br />variety within the design of each building ro
<br />avoid acookie-cutter look.
<br />T11e First Seaside code established a Hierar-
<br />chy ofseven (later expanded to eight) "classes"
<br />of buildings for use in the new community.
<br />Each lass.vas based on a uaditional Si~uthern
<br />vernacular buildin, Cl'F~e. The a,dc speciftcd
<br />the rudimentary physical characteristics of
<br />each class, controlling siting on the lot, build-
<br />in° height, location 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 charerte in 1981. Shortly
<br />after- char event, several architecture profes-
<br />sors at Washington, D.C.'s Catholic Univer-
<br />siryconducted crest of the code. They asked
<br />140 students to design and build models of
<br />every- building included in the 80-acre master
<br />plan according to the rules see forth in the
<br />code. The students then combined their indi-
<br />vidual creations into a I C-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 creators
<br />were able to identif}r and fix a number of
<br />potential regulatory problems before the code
<br />was formally adopted.
<br />,~.fter the firm's experience at Seaside, Duany
<br />Plater-Zyberk adapted form-based codes to
<br />work v<~ithin the legal framework of aplanned-
<br />unit development. The Kentlands 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 />charerte, DPZ has crafted similar documents
<br />to regulate the buildout of over 300 new and
<br />existing communities.
<br />iir•iPeiclceiilt the- (•it•~•I(•
<br />(_yther urban designers have since used tunn-
<br />based codes in a wide ~ ariet~' of pruiccts and
<br />locations. In 1999, Dover, Kohl ~ Partners
<br />of South Miami, working in collaboration
<br />with DPZ, prepared a master plan and form-
<br />baseddevelopment ordinance for a nevs~ down-
<br />town for- Kendall, an edge city just south of
<br />j\2iaini. The 240-acre project site is adjacent
<br />to two commuter rail stations and a state
<br />highv~ca}~.
<br />Since the adoption of the ordinance, an
<br />estimated $270 million in new construction
<br />permits have been issued. Some 3,400 new
<br />dwelling units, most in high-rise buildings
<br />(up to 35 stories), are now under construction
<br />in an area that previously had no residential
<br />population at all. ~;~hile the recent wave of
<br />construction in Kendall was foreseen well
<br />before the code was adopted, many credit the
<br />regulations with helping the community to
<br />achieve a true downto~sm development pat-
<br />tern rather than the patchwa-l: typical of
<br />booming suburban areas.
<br />On the Ease Coast, Dover Kohl and Ferrell
<br />MaddenAssociates of Washington, D.C., con-
<br />duced an eight-day charerte that resulted in
<br />the adoption in February 3003 of a plan and
<br />form-based code for die Columbia Pike Cor-
<br />ridor in Arlington, Virginia. That work fo-
<br />cused on the detailed design of four mixed-
<br />use centers along a 3.5-mile section of the
<br />historic corridor, which is minutes awa}r from
<br />the Pentagon and downtown Washington.
<br />A year later, Arlington County planners
<br />approved Columbia Station, amixed-use de-
<br />velopment consisting of 357 housing units
<br />above 42,000 square feet of street-fronting
<br />retail. Future plans call for the integration of
<br />bus rapid transit or light rail alalg the corridor.
<br />Geoffrey Ferrell ofFerrell 1\'Iadden ~s~as also
<br />resnnn~ihlr Ynr r{~r le,rm-hncr,~ ,-n,~iuc, of -,
<br />
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