I was on a walk recently (in an unwalkable neighborhood with very few sidewalks!) and came across what is coming to be a common sight - another teardown with a larger new home replacement. Infill development is a controversial issue in any city, but in Lake Oswego it is personal. This is a small town where the character of neighborhoods, and the city, are sacrosanct - not to be tampered with lightly. It's being respectful to one's new neighbors to want to fit in.
BLOG: Yes, building height is an urban design issue
Brian Campbell
In the past I’ve written about controversies over building heights in downtown Portland and along certain corridors on the city’s east side. Height is a frequent topic when it comes to planning issues. It’s a building’s most identifiable feature for the average citizen, and often stands in for concerns about other aspects of urban development that may not be as readily apparent to the untrained eye. Many of these issues fall under the heading of urban design.
Urban design is a specialty that combines elements of planning, architecture and landscape architecture, and indeed all three professions are well represented among those who claim the title of “urban designer.” Urban design can take on vastly different scales – everything from the physical form of an urban region, to the design and placement of street furniture. While a building’s design is the provenance of architecture, its height and how it functions should be dictated by the context in which it is to be placed, which is where urban design comes in.
In a downtown setting, which has the capacity to handle large numbers of people, larger buildings are appropriate. As transportation and other infrastructure capacities diminish, so should the height and intensity of buildings.
Other important things to consider when judging the appropriateness of a building’s design are how the building behaves in relationship to the “public realm,” which is a city’s public and quasi-public open space, and the neighboring buildings and their uses. Key questions are: How does it affect those other uses, how does it relate to the person on the sidewalk, and how does it affect the surrounding natural environment?
Of course, urban design includes a lot more than those basics. Studying and understanding how urban areas work – and then creating vibrant, efficient and beautiful places – is an exciting and rewarding endeavor when done well.
Brian Campbell is an urban and regional planning consultant with 35 years of professional experience in Oregon. He has served as a senior adviser and principal planner for the city of Portland, senior supervising planner with the Parsons Brinckerhoff PlaceMaking division, and planning manager for the Port of Portland.
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