Masterful, masterful article on streetscapes and urban design

Pedestrian behavior in front of ground floors on Main Streets. This diagram demonstrates the link between active storefronts and involved pedestrians.

Urban Design International is a very expensive journal ($180 for a personal subscription) that I don't subscribe to and unfortunately isn't at the CUA Architectural Library either. However, they have a sample issue on line, and it includes an article co-authored by Jan Gehl, the Danish architect who is one of the great figures in placemaking. (Among other tomes, he has authored the classic, Life Between Buildings.)

This article, "Close encounters with buildings,"* is absolute must reading. If I ever teach, this paper will be on the syllabus.

Abstract:

What we have are closed, self-absorbed buildings. What we would like to have is open, versatile, interesting and safe cities. The challenge is how to incorporate large buildings in cities where people have the same small stature and slow pace they had hundreds of years ago. There is now a considerable confusion in the gap between large and small scales and between 'quick' and 'slow' architecture. Ground floor facades provide an important link between these scales and between buildings and people. For public space and buildings to be treated as a whole, the ground floor facades must have a special and welcoming design. This good, close encounter architecture is vital for good cities.

Download the article and save it. Read and memorize it. There are excellent images and diagrams illustrating the points.

And for those of you in DC, press this article onto people that you know who are involved in local land use and planning issues, neighborhood associations, elected officials, people running for a seat on local Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.

The principles laid out in this article support my contention that "Urban Design" should be the first element in DC's Comprehensive Plan.
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* Jan Gehl, Lotte Johansen Kaefer and Solvejg Reigstad. Urban Design International 11: 29-47, 2006.

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking