The neighborhood
Healthy neighborhoods are the foundation of a healthy society. In their 1990 publication, The City is an Investment in our Future, Thomas Dalbert-Weiss and Geoffrey Ferrell stated:

"Community identity, community values, community leaders—all demand a physical community. The urban neighborhood has a clear center and definite borders. It is the logical base unit of local government, allowing for neighborhood schools, neighborhood councils, fire and police precincts.

"With its necessarily complete range of functions (commerce, housing, government and recreation) and housing types (detached single family, rowhouses, apartments, etc.) the urban neighborhood resists the segregation of society by income level or age, and fosters greater participation in local government. The greater political autonomy offered by the urban neighborhood fosters the feeling of community responsibility."

The neighborhood in the town or city

Neighborhood edge
Towns and cities are formed through the synergy of multiple neighborhoods coming together. Streets that are edges for neighborhoods are, in turn, the central streets of the town or city. Urban edge streets cannot be defined by absence, as in suburban developments or free-standing villages; they must be positive places. In towns and cities, many edge streets will have the biggest, most intense buildings of the neighborhood (see "Commerce and the Traditional Neighborhood," below). A clear edge is a necessity. It establishes the presence of the neighborhood, its beginning and end.

Neighborhood center
Every place requires a heart. The neighborhood center, whether a square or green, provides an identity for the neighborhood. Civic monuments and civic buildings (with possibilities ranging from a neighborhood meeting hall to a privately run day care center) reinforce the center as a symbolic and spatial heart of the neighborhood (although commerce should always be allowed). The neighborhood center should be reasonably close to the geographic center of the neighborhood.

Neighborhood interior streets
Between the edge and the center, the residences along the neighborhood interior streets are the essence of the neighborhood. The street grid should be arranged so that these streets are not convenient routes for cut-through traffic (but never dead-ended). Even in a large city, the neighborhood interior streets can provide a quiet, off-the-beaten-path address.

Commerce and the traditional neighborhood
The primary place for commercial activity is along the neighborhood edge. Here the vitality of the neighborhood is combined with that of the other neighborhoods that make up the town—and the energy of drive-by traffic.

The "Mom and Pop" grocery store (a.k.a. neighborhood commercial) at the neighborhood center is always welcome—and should always be permitted. With commerce at the edge of the neighborhood, along the central streets of the town, the neighborhood benefits from the synergy of the larger town.

The neighborhood center
The neighborhood center is the symbolic, political and aesthetic heart of the neighborhood. For the center to contribute fully to the neighborhood and its residents, however, certain guidelines must be followed:

• Large, canopy trees are necessary for an active, usable neighborhood center. In Trees in Urban Design (1992), Henry F. Arnold said, "The memorable quality of Savannah, Paris, and Old Philadelphia can be attributed as much to the organized patterns of trees as to the architecture and urban design."
• Buildings must face the green on all sides, taking advantage of its value as an amenity and ensuring healthy surveillance.
• Shopfront (retail and office) uses should always be allowed around the neighborhood center, but are not necessary to its success.
• The neighborhood center streets will always be an increment more active than the neighborhood interior streets. The building types around it should be a step more "urban," meaning a building type more comfortable with the increased public activity. A general hierarchy of building types, in order of increasing urbanity, is: house/cottage, bungalow, side yard, rowhouse (attached), small apartment and shopfront (with residences above).
• Civic buildings and monuments (symbolic of the neighborhood's highest cultural aspirations) are positive additions to the center. A community meeting hall unites the symbolic and political center—and provides a forum for real grassroots democracy. Providing a site for a day-care center can place the neighborhood center at the center of daily life for many of the residents.

The neighborhood edge

An "urban" approach to a view-edge: Houses overlook a narrow neighborhood street and linear park along the waterway. The whole neighborhood benefits—not just the houses directly fronting the water. Drawing ©1998 Trent Greenan/Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.

The neighborhood edge is where the neighborhood joins the larger community. While this point can be a seamless and positive transition, the convention for connecting with the outside world, whether the adjacent land is a road or another development, is to treat it as a negative. Perimeter land is dedicated to separating the project from its surroundings. This is due to development practice and government ordinance.

The edge streets that result are little more than traffic collectors. Without the activity and surveillance of building facades along them they are lifeless corridors. Traffic congestion increases as it is concentrated onto fewer streets, versus an interconnected grid of streets that would allow the traffic to disperse.

For the developer, this is a waste of the precious resource of land. For the general public, the loss is greater and longer lasting. Return on both the public and private investment is diminished.

Where settlements sit alone in the land—the free-standing village or suburban greenfield development—the edge is defined by absence. The buildings end and the countryside begins. In order to build healthy towns and cities, a more sophisticated palette of edges is necessary.

The suburban convention for project edges considered an amenity, such as a lake or golf course view, is: subdivide it into lots and sell it. The view-edge is lined with private houses that turn their backs, and garages, to the street. The amenity is now made private: Its value is "capped off" and restricted to immediately adjacent lots; it no longer contributes to the function and value of the neighborhood as a whole.

An urban treatment of a view-edge is to front it with a street and/or a park. The amenity is made public: Value is distributed among all lots.

Neighborhood edge street = town or city central street
True towns and cities are formed through the synergy of multiple neighborhoods coming together. In towns and cities, streets that are edges to the neighborhoods are major streets for the town or city. These streets are the city's main transportation network and knit it together. Commercial uses are natural here.

These edges must be positive places, examples of connection, participation and synergy. "Edge" does not mean "absence" or "void." The best urban edges are great places to be: Boulevards, park blocks and bustling broadway-type streets create valuable real estate, unlike the disconnecting and isolating berms, buffers and barrier walls of conventional development practice. A clear neighborhood edge establishes the existence of the neighborhood. The larger scale of the streets makes it legible to the pedestrian and driver as a distinctive street in the town or city.

Rather than offering us a bucolic "life in the country," development and planning practices of the last sixty years have created suburbs that are little more than an assemblage of walled enclaves.

We need to learn to build in a way that connects with, and contributes to, the framework of the larger town and city. The lessons of traditional cities offer several thousand years of experience. New development practices can learn much from them.

Good streets: The first amenity of traditional towns
Following are examples of street types for neighborhoods, towns and cities. The examples include several ways of making neighborhood edge streets that are also valuable town streets.

Neighborhood interior street

Neighborhood interior street. Trees have been omitted for clarity. Drawing ©1988 Geoffrey Ferrell.

These streets are the first public space of the people who live along them. They are spatially distinct from the busier main and broadway streets. The delineation between the public street and the private block is clear.

The block interiors are spatially distinct; these are the private open space of the residents, for children and gardens. They are the lungs of the city.

The building plans work with this public/private duality, placing the more public rooms to the street side, and the private rooms, such as bedrooms, toward the private backyard and/or in the upper floors.

Neighborhood main street

Neighborhood main street. Trees have been omitted for clarity. Drawing ©1988 Geoffrey Ferrell.

These are the primary streets of the neighborhood. They lead to the neighborhood center (the neighborhood's public "living room") and usually connect to the neighborhood main streets of adjacent neighborhoods. Neighborhood-scale businesses would be located here. These are the working and relaxing streets of the neighborhood. It is important that they are not routes through the city.

The relationship of street, block and residence parallels that of the major city street type (broadway). The scale of the buildings and of their commercial activities is slightly smaller. Neighborhood main streets are a direct analogy to the main street of a village in the countryside.

Neighborhood edge/Town street

Broadway

Broadway street. Trees have been omitted for clarity. Drawing ©1988 Geoffrey Ferrell.

These are the major streets of the town or city. They are part of the primary transportation network for the city. Businesses located here would be of a larger scale, related to the town or region.

Broadway streets tend to be the commercial streets of the town or city. Ground-floor commerce on these streets can be mixed or take on a district theme, ranging from the classic Broadway theater or entertainment district, shopping district (a la New York's Saks Fifth Avenue) or prime office address.

The relationship of street, block and residence plans parallels that of the neighborhood main street. The scale of the buildings and of their commerce varies with the size of the town or city.

Boulevard/Avenue

Boulevard/Avenue. Trees have been omitted for clarity. Drawing ©1988 Geoffrey Ferrell.

Boulevards and avenues are generally part of the town or city traffic network, and tend to have office, retail or apartment buildings along them of a scale appropriate to the town or region. The exception to the rule is the residential "Banker's Row," of grand houses often seen on the periphery of small towns.

The center is occupied by a median wide enough to accommodate at least a double row of trees. This creates a shaded colonnade through the town or city, and provides a comfortable "safe-haven" for pedestrians crossing the street. Boulevards and avenues can accommodate high traffic volumes and provide a high-quality pedestrian environment—a perfect combination for commercial activities.

Park blocks

Park block. Trees have been omitted for clarity. Drawing ©1988 Geoffrey Ferrell.

The character of park blocks varies from "big city" to quiet residential neighborhood. It is an example of a quiet edge street, one that is a memorable event in the town or city (if of significant length), yet carries insignificant traffic. Park-block street-level uses vary widely, from apartments to institutional/civic, to Class A office.

Park blocks provide an extraordinary public space for the town. The streets (a one-way pair) flank a series of park blocks, generally no less than eighty feet wide and with cross streets not farther than 300 feet apart. The blocks must be wide enough to accommodate a grove or a double row of trees around its perimeter. This creates a linear public garden through the town or city.

Neighborhood interior street. Photo by Geoffrey Ferrell.	Neighborhood edge street. Photo courtesy of Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.	Town street. Photo courtesy of Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.

Infill development
Building good neighborhoods, towns and cities is simple, but we have forgotten how to knit our towns and cities together, how to build individual projects that work together such that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

For the past sixty years, the planning and development model has been one of individual, discrete projects. These "pods" of private enterprise go to great lengths to physically disassociate themselves from their surroundings. (See "The Neighborhood Edge"). This suburban approach, combined with the segregation of uses (zoning by government) and segregation by income and age (real-estate industry practice), delivers something wherein the whole is arguably even less than the sum of its parts.

Infill developments that import the suburban approach may sell (due to the current lack of in-town housing), but will damage the long-term health of the town or city.

Infill development often means building within or next to less-valued properties. Marketing residences adjacent to such disparate values is a real problem for the developer. But the simplistic "fix" of permanent walls, barriers and moats only serves to accentuate these differences, creating a permanent barrier to the natural, healthy rise of neighboring property values. In the end it is the value of the entire neighborhood that will ensure and preserve property values. Short-term problems should not be addressed with solutions that have unconsidered long-term consequences.

The health of infill development involves understanding the difference between long-term goals and short-term contingencies.

The problems developers face in infill development are real, as are the problems faced by lower-income residents by gentrification. The renaissance of our towns and cities, as good places for all of us to live, requires creative and thoughtful solutions with interaction between local government, the building industry and citizens.

Infill development must be a part of a larger-scale framework that considers neighborhood and town interconnections, schools, local government, recreation, commerce, and a balance of jobs and housing.

The working of free-enterprise and the market alone will not create good neighborhoods, towns and cities, nor will it preserve the countryside. The market will operate quite robustly within a neighborhood and town framework, but that framework must be constructed and maintained by citizens acting within publicly responsible bodies.

Successful development of our towns and cities requires projects with positive edges that are not barriers to hide behind, but rather connect with and contribute to their surroundings.

This article appeared originally in TND Series Volume III, a collaborative effort between Home Plans LLC and Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.

Go back to page 1
Go back to page 2
Go back to TNDhomes.com home page

Related articles
Reversing the Trend
Building Types for Town and City Building
Community and Privacy
Crime Prevention through Design