Designing the City: A Guide For Advocates And Public Officials

by Adele Fleet Bacow

Overview

Written in a clear and engaging style, Designing the City is a practical manual for improving the way communities are planned, designed, and built. It presents a wealth of information on design and decision-making, including advice on how citizens and activists can make their voices heard, and numerous examples of effective strategies for working with all parties involved in neighborhood and community development. It highlights proven models and strategies to help communities:

• establish unique and productive partnerships with public works and transportation departments
• develop resources through grant programs
• broaden expertise, perspective, and constituency
• create new and enduring models for effective action
• educate participants and consumers of the design and development process

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781610910613
Publisher:	Island Press
Publication date:	04/22/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	210
File size:	12 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Adele Fleet Bacow is a distinguished urban planner specializing in community economic development, design, and the arts. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in urban design from Wellesley College and a master's degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

For more than twenty years previous to the publishing of Designing the City, Ms Bacow has brought together the public and private sectors in unlikely collaborations to revitalize communities. Former director of design and development at the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, she won a Presidential Design Achievement Award for her work described in this book. Ms. Bacow also served as deputy director of the Massachusetts Government Land Bank and coordinator of the Mayors Institute on City Design. She consults nationally on projects relating to community development, urban design, and the arts.

Read an Excerpt

Designing the City

A Guide for Advocates and Public Officials

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By Adele Fleet Bacow

ISLAND PRESS

Copyright © 1995 Island Press
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61091-061-3

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CHAPTER 1

GETTING BETTER DESIGN IN YOUR COMMUNITY

Design and Development: A Dynamic Tension

Designers constantly strive for quality design. Developers look for a quality product that results in an economic return. Planners and public officials ideally seek the best for their community. No one actively seeks an ugly building or public space, so how does it happen? Cost is not always the issue but frequently receives the blame. "Expensive" does not have to be the adjective before "quality design."

The process of design and development is a dynamic tension in which numerous parties, often with different goals, priorities, budgets, and time lines, must come together. Contrary to popular opinion, the creation of our buildings, highways, parks, and public spaces occurs in much larger arenas than the drafting tables of architects and engineers. This collaborative and often conflicting process is based on the needs and desires of the client, the design team, the developer, the community, and the ultimate user. Important decisions are influenced by citizen groups, public officials, the financial community, and the media.

Design Advocates and Decision Makers

Successful advocates influence more than just the designers. They reach the decision makers who mandate what goes where in our public environment, the financial leaders who determine whether the project will be built, and the regulators who judge whether the proposed project meets complicated, often indecipherable codes and requirements. Who are these advocates and decision makers? Consider just a few examples:

• The mayor who decides whether the last parcel of waterfront land is to be used for a public park or a parking lot.

• The public works director who decides whether a new roadway going through downtown relates to the small scale of the community or the federal highway standards of interstate roadways.

• The city council which mandates that the renovation of city hall include provisions for quality landscaping, outdoor cultural events, and public art.

• The neighborhood organization which insists that the design of a new development fit the size and character of their community.

• The local or state arts agency that creates a model project or funding program in design.

• The state financing agency that creates guidelines to establish design quality as one of several project criteria prior to approval of public funds.

An advocate can be a citizen, mayor, public official, corporate executive, or agency staff member. An effective advocate knows how to generate ideas and enthusiasm, leverage resources, secure partners, solicit public advice and support, and carry on the momentum. This book presents ways to accomplish these goals and to establish effective partnerships and programs.

Clients and consumers of design also have a powerful influence. Do not underestimate the role of the "nondesigner" in the design and development process. An extremely talented designer can produce a disastrous building because the client was misguided, unreasonable, or uninformed. A mediocre designer can produce the best product of his or her career, in contrast, because an enlightened client set inspiring goals, provided useful guidance, and established proper parameters.

What Is Design Anyway?

You will see reference to the word design throughout this book. What exactly does it mean, and how does it influence communities or public spaces? Most importantly, what difference does it make in your day-to-day life? Who is responsible for designing these places or objects, and what role can you play to make the results better for your own purposes and for those around you?

Design may be defined as a process of problem solving and creating which results in a plan, product, idea, or place. Design creates a solution to a particular objective or need. The result can be an object, a building, a place, a plan, or a process. Good design is derived from a clearly stated objective, exploration of various design alternatives, and evaluation of these alternatives to find a solution which best meets the stated objective effectively and elegantly. In the context of urban or environmental design, good design results in a building, landscape, or place which relates to the surrounding neighborhood while also adding creative enjoyment and use of space.

Designers give careful attention to issues such as the scale or size of the building or place in relationship to adjacent buildings and uses of space. Most importantly, good designers consider the scale and use of the project in relationship to the people inhabiting the space. The building blocks of design include form, color, type and texture of materials used, balance and symmetry (or asymmetry), height, scale, and density. Broader design issues must be explored thoroughly, such as the siting or location of the building or landscape in the area; environmental conditions such as wind, water, sun, and shade and their influence on the space; and transportation considerations such as public transit, pedestrian and vehicular access, and the relationships between different modes of transportation.

As you will see reiterated throughout this book, design is most definitely not an "afterthought," a "frill," "just aesthetics," or "something that happens after all the other more important factors are considered." Design decisions should not occur when all the other development factors are solved.

The word design is associated most typically with fields such as art, architecture, landscape architecture, graphics, and industrial design. Design applies to any creative endeavor, however, whether it is engineering, mathematics, science, or the arts. What is so intriguing about the design of public spaces is the involvement of virtually all the disciplines listed above, along with sociology, government, environmental studies, economics, and psychology.

The word design typically relates to the qualities of an object or building. In this book, however, "design" refers to the creation and improvement of buildings, public spaces, landscapes, transportation systems (ranging from a bus stop to a major highway interchange), and larger scale urban and rural spaces. You will notice a particular emphasis on the design of the public environment.

"Public environment" typically refers to spaces such as city halls, libraries, schools, sidewalks, and parks—all built, paid for, and maintained by government. The notion of public space should be broadened by including places built and maintained by the private sector but used by the public. Consider places such as outdoor plazas between office buildings, large parking garages or lots, billboards, facades of privately owned buildings along major roadways, or the interior of shopping malls. Private shopping malls, in particular, have replaced earlier town commons as meeting and socializing areas for many neighborhood residents.

Influencing Design

Public and private sector places are regulated by government through zoning and planning boards, environmental and historic review, and reliance on publicly supported transportation and utility systems. Governmental policies, technology, the economy, and citizens' preferences are powerful forces in shaping our public environment. The planners, architects, developers, and financial community have key roles.

The most basic design issue, the use of the space and the decision to create and build it in the first place, is often made by nondesigners. This fact effectively makes us all designers as we choose to create, build, buy, use, or change a building or an environment.

Who affects design in your community or your state? The list of influential people is much longer than you might imagine. Consider the organizations or individuals who play powerful roles in the public and private sectors, as summarized in the accompanying window.

Throughout this book you will see tangible and proven examples of effective advocacy for quality design. Many of the examples may serve as models for your own work or concerns. As you read through the examples, consider what role various people played. See which examples are most appropriate for your own circumstances. Perhaps you could convince decision makers in your community or state to adapt these ideas to meet your own needs.

What Can Design Accomplish?

Working as a problem solver, good design can accomplish many goals. Within the framework of design of the public environment, design can make:

• Cities more livable, enjoyable, and economically stable

• Communities and neighborhoods easier to navigate and identify

• Transportation more efficient

• Parks and recreational areas more pleasurable

• Workplaces and industries more productive and profitable

• Schools more conducive to learning

• Homes more affordable and accessible

• Farmlands more productive and stable

• Downtowns less threatening and more lively

Design is an ongoing process involving numerous participants. The process of design is iterative and never-ending. Buildings, neighborhoods, the environment, and cities (and certainly people) go through various life cycles where needs, circumstances, priorities, and patterns of living change. Each of these changes profoundly affects the public realm.

Changes in architectural and sociological trends dramatically alter preferences and patterns of living. Technological advances, changing public policies, citizen preferences, and family patterns influence growth, development, or even elimination of neighborhoods. New construction techniques and materials, for example, resulted in the development of high-rise apartment buildings as a solution for affordable housing in dense urban areas. In certain cities in the United States, this housing type later became a symbol of unsafe public housing with inordinate amounts of drug activity and crime.

Housing patterns and styles of living can change substantially from generation to generation. Movement from the urban to suburban neighborhoods is one obvious example. People who favor downtown living may scoff at their perception of suburban lifestyles, immortalized in Malvina Reynolds' folk song Little Boxes, sung by Pete Seeger, which describes "Little boxes on the hillside, Little boxes made of ticky tacky.... And they all look just the same."

Staunch urbanists often change their tune when their growing children and desire for open space become more important. Other families, in contrast, renew their confidence in the inner city as historic revitalization and mixed-use development expand opportunities for living downtown, effectively eliminating long commutes to work while offering a diversity of lifestyles, housing, and access to cultural events.

Making Good Design

What is required for good design to occur? If you are the client or the consumer of design, how can you ensure that your needs are met? If you are the designer, how can you be sure you and your clients speak the same language? For both the designer and the client, talent, creativity, experience, and good judgment are essential factors in creating quality design. Not all clients and designers can excel in all those characteristics, but careful collaboration and communication can create a project that is outstanding and enduring.

The following guidelines enable good design to take place. Many of these suggestions apply to the client and the advocate for quality design. The tips listed below will elicit the best results from your design and development team. Although these suggestions apply to the community design process, they also prove essential for other endeavors involving design as well.

• Ask the right questions

• Educate the leaders

• Create opportunities for success

• Find the best talent possible

• Be careful about changing the rules in the middle of the game

• Set a realistic budget, work plan, and timetable

• Involve people affected by your project

• Remember the ultimate user

Ask the right questions

Too often designers are asked to solve the wrong problem. Will a new parking garage improve the economic vitality of your downtown? A well-designed park or another mix of uses may be a better answer. Be sure you are clear as to your stated goals and objectives and be sure that you ask designers to solve the right problem. Consider the big picture, but don't neglect important details. Be sure to put your project in the context of the larger community.

Educate leaders about design

The most effective targets for advocacy are public leaders and decision makers. The commitment and leadership of municipal and state leaders toward quality design are critical factors for success. If you don't see evidence of this commitment in your leadership, adapt some of the strategies in this book to educate them. Look to their boards and most trusted staff members for allies as well.

Create opportunities for success

Decisions are made every day which influence your community. Consider ways to capitalize on existing activity to the benefit of your town. Perhaps a proposed bridge or highway could be designed with an overlook for a scenic area. A new library or town hall could include community meeting and performance space or landscaping coordinated with public art. School curricula could be adapted to include an understanding of design as a way of integrating social studies, art, and math. Public financing programs could adapt their guidelines to include design quality as a criterion for funding. The key is to become involved early in the process to incorporate your goals before major decisions are made.

Find the best talent possible

Search hard for the best talent you can find for your project. Use a fair and open process for hiring consultants and staff. When hiring a design team, you won't necessarily want the most famous firm, the one with the flashiest proposal, or the one with the lowest bid. Some projects work best with an unusual combination of talent in the design team, such as designers, engineers, artists, and a sociologist or an environmental psychologist. Be sure the chemistry works among the project team and the client, and be clear about who exactly will be working on your project. (It won't always be the person giving the presentation.) Scrutinize references and work products carefully. Check references by calling former clients of the firm. Once you find talent, give them room to succeed. Be open to new ideas. Don't be afraid of new solutions, but make sure they fit the needs of your project and your community. At the same time, trust your instincts. In every case, strive for the best. (Chapter 4 presents tips on selecting the best designer possible.)

Be careful about changing the rules in the middle of the game

Establish your ground rules carefully. Take care before you define your proposal or plan of action. Avoid having to change the rules midway in your project. Events do change. Politics, policies, economics, or people may force a drastic revision of your plan. If that situation occurs, take a stark account of your change of focus, ground rules, expectations, and budget, and then plan accordingly. Be extremely clear about future expectations and get agreement in writing about changes made.

Set a realistic budget, work plan, and timetable

Nothing can short-circuit success more quickly than an unrealistic budget, an overly ambitious program with limited resources, or an ill-prepared work plan and timetable. Don't prepare these essential items in a vacuum. Get agreement and clarity before the program is under way. Make sure the client and the design team agree that the work can continue within given guidelines. Continually monitor the progress of the work, the budget, and other constraints. The client has the initial responsibility to set these parameters, but once the client and the design team agree on these factors, it is unfair to complain about problems due to conditions agreed upon earlier. One of the biggest difficulties for designers is persuading their client to set a realistic budget initially and not to ask for the moon with limited resources. Clients, on the other hand, are annoyed when designers groan halfway through the project that they are losing their shirt because they underestimated how much time it would take to complete the work.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Designing the City by Adele Fleet Bacow. Copyright © 1995 Island Press. Excerpted by permission of ISLAND PRESS.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
 
Chapter 1. Getting Better Design in Your Community
Chapter 2. Convincing Arguments for Design
Chapter 3. Targeting Public Works and Transportation
Chapter 4. Using Money as an Incentive: Supporting Design through Grant Programs
Chapter 5. Creating Space for Artists and Cultural Activity
Chapter 6. Integrating Design into Finance and Development
Chapter 7. Rewarding Quality Design: The Governor's Design Awards Program
Chapter 8. Education as Advocacy: From Public Officials to Children
Chapter 9. Practical Tips for Action
 
Appendix A. Design Arts Programs in Other States
Appendix B. Urban Design Glossary: Key Design and Planning Terms
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index