Building Types for Town and City Building
by Ramon Trias

Through the years, downtown areas and early neighborhoods of numerous older American cities and towns have decayed, and the image of these communities has suffered. The reversal of this trend and revival of our urban heritage has become a top priority in Florida and throughout the nation.

The rebuilding process is truly an art form of mixing old and new architecture and planning methods. A major challenge typical of every city attempting to do this lies in establishing planning and regulatory tools that promote new construction of appropriate building types and preservation of existing structures.

Often, cities endure contradictions between city codes and community goals without finding an effective way to revise zoning ordinances and land development regulations to address this issue. This problem arises from the use of "modern" and generalized zoning ordinances, and land development regulations that do not reflect the local architectural and urban heritage. As the newer model codes are adopted with few amendments, local features fade into the background. For example, the required minimum lot widths for new house parcels are often larger than many existing platted lots, making older houses nonconforming and those individual lots obsolete. The required setbacks are often deeper than the typical building line of older commercial buildings, encouraging demolition of historic buildings in favor of parking lots. Street and driveway design standards are often inconsistent with the existing street grid, eroding the pedestrian quality of the neighborhoods.

Public opinion also is often in direct opposition to the philosophy underlying a city's zoning code, which suggests that old buildings and places are bad and should be replaced by new ("better") buildings. Furthermore, most modern zoning requirements are abstract and difficult to understand, since no examples of buildings or diagrams of possible development are included in the regulations. However, once buildings are constructed following these concepts, it becomes clear that they do not fit within the existing neighborhoods and districts.

While these contradictions and conflicts seem fairly evident, few cities correctly identify what is causing them and then revise their codes to resolve them. More often than not, cities further regulate and separate uses in great detail, yet do not address architectural issues beyond setbacks and density. Urban issues are generally left to the control of departments of public works or engineering, with little policy direction that would ensure appropriate coordination with land uses or building types. The results are unplanned growth, the suburbanization of the city and general frustration of anyone involved in the process of making a city.

Fort Pierce, Fla., has addressed these problems head-on and successfully reclaimed their city as an attractive place to live. From 1995 through 1997, the city prepared redevelopment plans for the downtown, special districts and older neighborhoods with the help of extensive public input. The city organized five week-long planning charrettes, where the citizens collaborated with a team of professionals in the preparation of detailed plans for particular areas of the city. The common theme throughout the process was the preservation of "old" Fort Pierce and the revitalization of historic areas.

Once the community had charted a clear plan for the future, they crafted the solution to the problem of ineffective regulation. New planning and regulatory documents were developed in two phases. First, the city carefully examined its existing conditions and built environment until it fully understood its own urban heritage. Second, the lessons learned from the existing conditions were recorded in new regulatory documents and codes that were easy to understand. Hence, the idea of creating a building-type booklet (heavy on graphics and light on text) became a reasonable alternative to conventional planning and regulatory documents.

The new documents played a key role in accomplishing the following critical goals:

• Eliminate contradictions between the building types citizens envisioned for preserving and revitalizing the historic integrity of their city versus what was being built under the old codes (suburban, out-of-context development)
• Illustrate how new and old buildings can coexist to reestablish the lasting value and attractiveness of the city as a place to live
• Clearly communicate the city's favored design ideas and building types to potential investors, developers and property owners

This last point is especially important, since it is unlikely that a developer of a relatively small infill project could afford to spend any resources on historical research and conceptual urban design.

Following is a collection of architectural drawings and renderings depicting a wide range of historic buildings representative of the building types that define and make up the city of Fort Pierce. These illustrations are contained within the city's new codes and building regulations. Included in the collection are examples of residential buildings (single and multi-family), commercial and mixed-use buildings, and public buildings (city hall, police station, church). While every city will have its own defining architectural character and history, these three categories of building types are fundamental components of every well-designed city.

Building type illustrations, based on a careful study of existing buildings, provide an invaluable tool for redevelopment. As architects, builders, planners, developers and so many others struggle to build structures within the constraints of the inner city, effective design concepts are essential. Although the illustrations are far from plans ready for construction, they supply a range of "pre-approved" concepts that help fulfill the revitalization goals of a community. This information should simplify the design and approval process, and enhance the architectural and aesthetic quality of an era. As time goes by, new buildings inspired by these images will fill the gaps in neighborhoods and districts of authentic towns and cities. With the support of other city policies and citizen efforts, the final result should be a complete community where new and old are placed side by side on equal terms for the benefit of all.

Mixed-Use Building: Hotel

The conceptual mixed-use hotel's floor plans. The main, second, and third/fourth floors house retail space (and the hotel lobby), offices, the hotel rooms and suites, respectively. A parking ramp is accessed from the second floor.

A hotel, with stores and restaurants on the first floor and offices on the second floor, was designed during a public charrette. The building was to be located on a site fronting a new street built by the city along the waterfront, and was to be part of a redevelopment plan that would include a new public library, a public parking garage and two other mixed-use buildings. The Mediterranean architectural style was based on the best historic buildings of the area (Old City Hall, Arcade, Sunrise Theater and other commercial buildings from the 1920s). The program and the size of the building were based on market projections. The city owned the land and a public marina adjacent to the site. A private developer was to build the project.

Courtyard Apartment Building

The main and upper floor plans for Trias and Harden's conceptual courtyard apartment building. In each residence, common and family rooms are found on the main floor; three additional bedrooms reside on the upper floor.

Poorly designed apartment buildings are a source of blight in the inner city. Many of the problems associated with higher densities may be improved with better building and site designs. A very resilient building type, which was used effectively in the 1920s, is the two-story courtyard apartment building. Its success as a multi-family residence was a result of careful design of indoor and outdoor spaces, creating a variety of protected places around the building that enhanced the quality of life of the residents and the appearance of the neighborhood. Such design ideas were used in this project, a typical small apartment building for inner-city infill projects.

House

The floor plan for the above single-family house, with family and entertaining rooms on the main floor, and bedrooms on the upper floor.

The most studied building type in America is the single-family house. Countless plan books are devoted to the subject, and many architects specialize in custom houses. Nevertheless, few new houses built on infill sites are designed to take full advantage of the features of existing neighborhoods. Part of the problem is that most new houses are based on design ideas developed for suburban sites. Urban sites have different design requirements. In this case, the house has a front porch and a garage in the back, just like many of the older houses in the surrounding neighborhood. This design is possible because the blocks have both streets and alleys, a great luxury in today's housing industry, but common in many inner-city neighborhoods. This house adapts its floor plan and site plan to the features of the neighborhood. The results are improved quality of life for the resident and better overall appearance of buildings along the street.

Charleston Side Yard House

Floor plans for a typical Charleston side yard house.

This house is based on an old American building type, the Charleston side yard house. It is an effective design for higher-density single-family houses, where land is scarce and an urban solution is appropriate. The side yard house requires an alley for cars, as the street frontage is too narrow to incorporate a garage. One of the advantages of the house is that the outdoor spaces can be designed as extensions of the indoor rooms, since neighboring houses help to shelter adjoining patios. In the proper climate, this strategy enlarges the living spaces in a small house and creates a comfortable environment in a fairly dense setting.

Ramon Trias is City Planner for Fort Pierce, Florida. This article appeared originally in TND Series Volume III, a collaborative effort between HomestoreTM Plans and Publications and Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.