[Type text]

- Jonathan Barnett

Book Review

Madhavi Patil,
PICA,M.Arch, Urban Design SEM III

Urban Design as a public Policy

-Jonathan Barnett
The author in this book explains about practical methods of improving cities.
Why to improve cities?

A zoning lot merger is the joining of two or

more adjacent zoning lots into one new
zoning lot. Unused development rights may
be shifted from one lot to another, as-ofright, only through a zoning lot merger.

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.

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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.

A transfer of development rights (TDR) allows

for the transfer of unused development rights
from one zoning lot to another in limited
circumstances,
usually
to
promote
the
preservation of historic buildings, open space
or unique cultural resources.

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.

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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

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Height Factor Regulations

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.

Buildings developed pursuant to height factor

regulations are often tall buildings set back
from the street and surrounded by open space
and on-site parking. the maximum floor area
ratio is achievable only where the zoning lot
is large enough to accommodate a practical
building footprint as well as the required
amount of open space. There are no height
limits for height factor buildings although
they must be set within a sky exposure
plane which begins at a height of 60 feet
above the street line and then slopes inward
over the zoning lot.

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.

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Chapter 5- Helping downtown complete with the suburbs.

Describes usefulness of urban design in present fragmented states of metropolitan areas and
in helping existing city centres complete with suburbs and new cities.
The urban area has been in the process of turning itself inside out, with people from the rural
fringe moving the centre, and residents & businesses moving from centre to what used to be
suburbs e.g. Downtown Brooklyn.
The most effective method of helping a large citys downtown areas improve their
competitive position is to create a special development office.

A tower-on-a-base is the only type of tower

that can be built on a wide street in an R10,
C1-9 or C2-8 district; the building envelope of
a contextual base topped by a tower portion
ensures compatibility with existing buildings
along these avenues. The height of the base is
between 60 and 85 feet. On a wide street, the
street wall must extend continuously along
the street line. On a narrow street, the open
area between the street wall and the street
line must be planted. The tower portion must
be set back at least 10 feet from a wide street
and 15 feet from a narrow street, and the lot
coverage must be between 30% and 40%.
The height of the tower is controlled by a
distribution rule, which requires at least 55%
of the floor area on the zoning lot to be
located below a height of 150 feet.

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-

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disciplinary enterprise involving numerous specialists.

Joint development schemes are a good way to bridge the gap between general political
consideration and technical engineering problems to bring communities into the decision
making process. Principle of co-ordinating transit planning with other kinds of land use and
urban design plans make big difference to the shape of the city.

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.

Chapter 7- Design Review & Environmental quality.

The author says the most important thing to remember about design review is that due
process must always be observed and the review procedure should follow clearly explicable
principles & standards.Basic intention is to avoid clashes between different authority
decisions.
A format should be developed for design review studies, which specify the points of
intersects to the city, without trying to detect the architectural details of the buildings.
Chapter 8- Urban Design A New Profession.
In this chapter author differentiate between urban planner & urban designer.
A city planner is concerned with allocation of resources according to the projection of future
need. Architects on other hand designs buildings.
So there is substantial middle ground which someone has to fill. Someone is needed to
design the city not buildings.
Thus civil service establishment accepted this argument that there was a need for someone
who could be called for urban designer.
The future of urban designer lies with those governmental authorities that have the power
to make large scale decision about the environmental and those whose activities have a big
impact on our physical surroundings. Author also says better urban design will be achieved
by a partnership between private investment & government and between decision maker
and professional.

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