Principles of quality experiences at the street level

BeyondDC comments in another blog entry that the problem with quality places isn't height--even though that's what people often point to--but the width of buildings.

My line on this is that superbuildings create superblocks.

This independent toy retailer located in Clarendon is a great business, but their door is wrong, and the storefront doesn't have enough doors. If you're on the "wrong side" of the building, you have to walk a long way to get to the entrance, even though you are at the store.

7th Street NW exhibits the principles of quality experience at the street level. Mostly this is because each storefront isn't much wider than 60 feet, and there are well placed entrances, display bays, and the windows are permeable. It's not just that this is the longest stretch of extant, mostly historic buildings. For the most part, new buildings along this stretch (except for the Verizon Center) follow the same rhythm.

These images on "quality storefronts" are taken from an unfortunately long out-of-print publication by the Downtown DC BID.