After enthusiastically discussing recent gatherings in Tulsa that encourage Strong Towns, walkability, and other urban concepts I found myself in a discussion with a builder who finally just asked "what counts as a good urban design." I'm not an expert or even among the knowledgeable amateurs, I'm just a nerd who is interested in the subject, so just stammered a bit. I think I conveyed a basic idea, but looking over development threads on here there is no common basis of commparison. No overriding guidance.
So I searched for something online and came up with plenty of
for urban community and overall development grading, or
specifically for larger residential projects, but nothing that would really give a basis of comparison for a discussion of developments in and around Tulsa. Lets get a discussion started and see if we can't come up with something.
I've put a little but of thought into it and came up with a general list to try to start a discussion to end up with something we can use as a basis.
Here are the elements that I've come with so far, in no particular order (again, with a mind towards designs for urban spaces):
- Pedestrian friendly
- Fronted as much as allowed
- Parking (I'd say generally as little as you can get away with)
- Lot ratio allowance utilized (if you can build on 75% of the lot, 4 stories tall, how much of that allowance did you use?)
- Best use of the land/space
- Fit with the area/neighborhood
- Adds net value to the tax base
- Architectural aesthetics
- Quality of materials (“built to last”)
- Reusable (if original tenant moves out, is it easy to use it for some other office, residential, etc.)
- Mixed use (if allowed)
- Zoning exceptions or variance (could positive or negative)
- Uses existing infrastructure (do we need new highway exits, roads, sewers, pipes, etc.)
I've given no real thought to how many "points" each category should be worth or weighted, I figure that's step two after deciding what factors matter.
I'd like input to correct me where I'm wrong, add things I don't know, and otherwise to work out a decent scorecard. What are the proper "grading" criteria, how many points are each worth, etc. when grading an urban project. We discuss them enough on here, it would be interesting to do a rundown like we do for restaurants. Clearly the result will still be subjective and maybe worth non more than most internet discussions, maybe the whole exercise is silly, but lets see what we come up with.