Kinds of Urban Design

While hunting for other information, I came across a list that I generated that classifies the kinds of urban design projects and/or practice an urban designer might do.  The list was provoked by classifying the wide range of projects I saw while participating as a juror for the national 2009 AIA Awards for Urban Design and Planning:

Client/development focused:

1.        New Cities and City Districts/one client team – planning led by architect/urban designers and infrastructure engineers. Implementation by a several design teams and, perhaps, by sub-developers

2.       Concentrated Infill Urbanism (phased complexes of 3 to 10 buildings)/one client team – planning led by architect/urban designer.  Implementation typically by the same design team, but late phases by others

3.       Scattered Infill Urbanism/one client team (typically a municipality or a non-profit CDC) – master plan for surgical infill of housing and/or neighborhood services in order to revitalize a neighborhood district.

4.       Urban Park/one client (government agency or public/private partnership) – when a stand-alone project, typically led by a landscape architect

5.       Urban Streetscape Improvements/ (government agency or public/private partnership) – led by an urban designer or a landscape architect

Regulatory framework focused:

1.       Master planning leading to design guidelines (for height, massing, program mix, etc.)/one client team (typically a municipality or a public/private partnership) – planning led by architect/urban designers

2.       Master planning leading to form-based and/or performance-based zoning/one client team (typically a municipality or a public/private partnership) – planning led by architect/urban designers

3.       Streetscape guidelines/one client team or a consortium – led by an urban designer or a landscape architect

4.       Development opportunity assessment and parcel testing/one client team (typically a government agency, public/private partnership, or a economic development organization) – led by architect/urban designer and a development finance consultant

-Tim