The most successful projects are often guided by design principles that have provided direction in helping to create a sense of place. The Urban Design Principles are created to provide evidence to our clients and staff on a range of elements that together make up a vibrant city environment.
These Urban Design principles are designed:
- To provide guidance on how development contributes to a city’s identity.
- To increase appreciation of the city’s built form.
- To encourage better integration of both public and public-private spaces.
- To inspire the responsive design of new buildings and spaces and their interfaces, focusing on quality and place-making principles.
The Todd & Associates’ Urban Design Principles do not propose concrete solutions, but rather offer flexibility to adapt in our ever-changing environment.
- SITE ORIENTATION/CONTEXT
Understand the interrelationships of the site, with its surroundings (site context/edge relationships). - EMPHASIZE COMPACTNESS
Provide a walkable environment to promote pedestrian activities and efficient spatial arrangement (desire lines). - CREATE DIVERSITY
Provide a range of choices and mix of uses (programmable uses, fronting on spaces). - ENSURE BALANCE
Promote a mix of day/evening, as well as weekday/weekend activity generators (promote a residential base within the immediate downtown area to support activities). - DEVELOP A SENSE OF HUMAN SCALE
Create quality street-level spaces by emphasizing pedestrian activities and providing appropriate building scale (stepping the height of buildings, continuity of street-level activity, and diversity of materials and colors). - CREATE FUNCTIONAL LINKAGES
Provide accessibility and functional linkages (convenient pedestrian linkages should be direct, physically attractive, and encourage walking and edge by streetscape). - BUILD A SENSE OF PLACE
Create a positive identity and pleasant setting for human interaction (a visually pleasing and physically attractive pedestrian space).
