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