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Figure 6.37
Rosedale Commons, Huntersville, NC.
This lower density development mixes uses
horizontally in adjacent buildings rather than
vertically within the same structure. Although not
ideal, this kind of development is easier to build and
finance than the more complex vertical mixing of
uses. To function properly, the various uses – housing,
offices and shops – must be linked together by
pedestrian-friendly streets and urban spaces.
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industrial buildings should be placed close to the
public street, or at a minimum, they should reduce
the amount of parking in front of the primary
entrance. Figure 6.39 depicts a transit-supportive
arrangement of large office buildings that achieves
this goal and creates a formal pedestrian plaza
entrance to the buildings. New buildings should be
designed with pedestrian-friendly building façades
(even for light industrial buildings, there is usually an
office area that can accomplish this goal) and pedes-
trian entrances should be easily visible and accessible
from the street and potential future transit stops. In
addition, buildings should be aligned on a network
of streets that include sidewalks and street trees.
Where practical, other uses should be planned at
street intersections to define these spaces and create
pedestrian destinations in these locations.
Corridors
Corridors are regional connectors of neighborhoods,
centers and districts: they range from freeways,
boulevards and rail lines to streams and greenways,
and the character and location of these corridors is
determined by the intensities of their use. Freeways
and busy freight rail corridors should remain tangen-
tial to neighborhoods and towns; at the local level
they are barriers, not connectors. Light rail and bus
corridors can be incorporated into boulevards at the
edges of neighborhoods or provide access to the cen-
ter of neighborhoods at pedestrian-friendly stops.
Watercourses can function as boundaries for cities
and towns, and streams can enter and connect neigh-
borhoods through greenways.
During charrettes, these four typologies – tradi-
tional neighborhoods, mixed-use centers, districts,
and corridors – form the basis of many detailed
design decisions. Using them, we can quickly evalu-
ate alternatives, and at the end of the charrette
process, we can demonstrate the advantages of the
preferred design by clearly communicating its pur-
pose, content and appearance to the audience by ref-
erence not only to our drawings, but photographs of
other examples of the relevant typologies. To see
these ideas manifest in buildings and developments
already completed is a very persuasive argument, par-
ticularly for elected officials whose job it will be to
implement the plan’s recommendations, sometimes
in the face of citizen opposition. We maintain a
massive digital image bank for this purpose.
All the drawings from the charrette, which are all
done by hand, are digitized on the spot – by scanning
or by means of digital photography for the large
drawings – for inclusion into a closing PowerPoint
presentation and for posting on the community’s web
site the following day. Most of the drawings included
in the following chapters where produced during 
the charrettes, and indicate the level of design
CHAPTER SIX
●
URBAN DESIGN IN THE REAL WORLD