This historic building is so elegant and graceful. It is very traditional, yet interesting with nice design details. I love the windows. Cincinnati is lucky to have this!
Gateway Quarter to expand November 2, 2008
While projects here and nationally have been staled by the looming credit crisis and slouching economy, redevelopment in Over-the-Rhine has barely missed a beat.
Since 2006, dozens of vacant buildings have been transformed into new storefronts and more than 100 condominiums, mainly along Vine Street.
Another 106 condominiums and 15,000 square feet of retail space are under construction as part of a third phase of the Gateway Quarter.
Key to the projects has been 3CDC’s use of New Market Tax Credits, a federal program created by Congress in 2000 as a way to draw private development dollars into struggling neighborhoods.
3CDC got the city’s first installment of $50 million in tax credits in 2004 and last month announced it had landed another $35 million.
Building Valued Neighborhoods Conference October 9, 2008
The Building Valued Neighborhoods conference sponsored by the City of Cincinnati and the Urban Land Institute, included a variety of perspectives: developers, architects, city/county staff, and political leaders. The conference showed how form-based codes, also called smart codes, can be useful tools to build well-designed neighborhoods. Form-based codes have the following goals:
1. Providing certainty for developers and residents alike as to what future development will look like. Rather than creating an adversarial situation with a zone change and a conventional zoning code, form-based codes define the form of future development in a design-based public participation process.
| Conventional Zoning | Form-Based Code |
| What can’t be done (prescriptive) | What can be done (proscriptive) |
| Minimum setbacks | Build-to lines |
| Focus on use and density | Focus on built form, streets, public realm |
2. Creating a mix of housing types to meet the changing market demand. Families with a married couple and children only make up about 23% of the housing market. Other groups are “settling” for typical suburban single-family homes when they would prefer something different. Traditional neighborhood development can accommodate a variety of single-family homes, townhomes, apartments, shops, and public facilities to meet the market demand.
3. Encouraging efficient use of land and preserving natural resources (“Smart Growth”). Allowing for a mix of uses and compact development encourages pedestrian activity and makes transit use more feasible. Conventional zoning encourages large lot sprawl and undesirable streetscapes. Form-based codes provide a tool for clustering development when desired.
4. Adding value to quality of life by creating desirable public places. Form-based codes focus on “transects” that can vary from urban to suburban to rural. By focusing on the appropriately designed form for the transect, development has character. Streets are a major focus in form-based codes. Buildings address the street creating a more appealing atmosphere, and amenities such as street trees contribute to creating a place where people enjoy walking, shopping, and relaxing.
Conference Website
http://cincycharacter.com/
Lenox Village – Regent Homes
http://www.regenthomestn.com/
Gulch Redevelopment – Downtown Nashville
http://www.nashvillegulch.com/living/index.html
Examples of Traditional Neighborhood Development
http://www.tndtownpaper.com/neighborhoods.htm
Nashville’s Form-Based Code
http://www.nashville.gov/mpc/
Louisville’s Form-Based Code
http://www.louisvilleky.gov/PlanningDesign/
Cincinnati neighborhood wins “Best in America” October 9, 2008
The early Cincinnati suburb of Mariemont made the list of the American Planning Association’s top ten neighborhoods in the country. I am especially impressed at how character is maintained with Columbia Parkway running through the middle of it.
The Origin of New Urbanism’s Persistent Image Problem September 10, 2008
This insightful article gives a bit of context to the “new urbanist” view.
The cause of this odd mismatch between New Urbanists and old urbanists goes to the root of how American cities are built. The new urbanist’s ideology was forged as a reaction to the suburban built environment as they found it, one urban thinkers have had a small role in shaping. Nearly as soon as they allowed themselves to believe their ideas had created the suburbs, center city intellectuals began a decades-long ineffectual barrage on their culture, form, and aesthetics, while meanwhile celebrating urban life. (Works by Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs, Herbert Gans, William Whyte fit into these categories.) And suburban growth, minimally or rarely designed by intellectual leaders, barreled on, oblivious to the protestations of critics. The growth was often planned, but by profit-motivated companies and pragmatic municipal governments.
The Origin of New Urbanism’s Persistent Image Problem | Planetizen.
Form-based zoning codes in Cincinnati September 9, 2008
Form-based codes encourage traditional neighborhood development patterns. Rather than focusing on separating uses like conventional zoning codes, form-based codes address the relationship of buildings to the design of the street, with an eye toward public spaces and community benefits.
Soapbox Cincinnati has a great article about form-based codes.
The value of historic windows July 23, 2008
The Preservation Nation blog addresses the issue of replacing wooden windows in historic buildings in the name of “green design” and energy efficiency. I cringe when I see “green” advocates show images of old windows leaking heat from a building. That approach is so one-sided. The Preservation Nation Windows Tip Sheet does a great job of systematically and objectively presenting the issue and giving balanced information for decision making. Energy efficiency of the overall building should be considered over solely focusing on windows. Adding insulation could give you a lot more energy savings for the amount of investment. I especially like the points under “My Windows Are Old and Drafty, Why Shouldn’t I Buy New Ones?”
Something I would like to see is a cost-benefit analysis toolkit that would allow people to compare the money spent, energy savings, and design quality of keeping or replacing windows in different situations. There is certainly a qualitative element of the analysis in determining the value of historic windows. Original windows often almost seem like part of a building’s “soul.” I appreciate the effort to ask people to stop and think before making window replacements in the name of energy efficiency. It might also be useful for people to see some before and after photos of window replacement projects to better visualize the impacts replacement windows can have on the design.
And, what about encouraging architectural salvage for those instances where the windows are not going to be saved? That’s another approach to encouraging green design in new buildings, and in renovation projects, by using salvaged architectural elements that do not require new resources for their construction.
Beautiful new buildings July 16, 2008
Apartment Building in New Jersey
Bachenheimer Building, Berkeley, CA
Blogger CityKin posted a picture of a beautiful new apartment building in New Jersey designed by architect Marieanne Khoury Vogt. The color, the texture, the design details, the scale, and even the interesting curved corner contrasting with the hard edge, the lovely windows, all made me see this building as a work of art, and part of a place where I’d like to be.
It reminded me of one of my favorite new buildings in Berkeley, CA, the Bachenheimer Building, designed by Kirk E. Peterson and Associates Architects. The Berkeley building is in a prominent location, and is a focal point in downtown Berkeley as you are traveling north on Shattuck toward University Avenue. My favorite design details are the arched windows and the Mediterranean-inspired tiles. The mixed-use building manages to look clearly new, while blending with the historic buildings in the neighborhood.
These new urbanist buildings are both neo-modern and neo-traditional. I’d love to see this level of design quality around Cincinnati… They are not just buildings, they are pieces of public art that contribute to a genuine sense of place.
Imagine if we could have had something a little better than Neyer’s new Columbia Square Building, which has few redeeming qualities, and certainly is not consistent with the historic buildings on the other corners.
Columbia Building, Cincinnati, OH
