A major developer uses an innovative design minimizing the impact of cars on an apartment complex, suggesting that the market is ready for such change.
Big builder Shea Homes City Lights apartment complex in Southern California is different. Most notably, the site contains a centralized parking structure around which the housing wraps like a square doughnut. Pedestrian bridges link the parking structure to units on all four levels, and in all four directions. This innovation frees the rest of the design from traditional car-related constraints, allowing for anything from courtyard design to small, pedestrian-only streets. The result: a model for dense (50-units-per-acre) housing more appealing to the middle class. Could this and related projects be the key to injecting higher-density projects into the mainstream?
Thanks to David Gest
FULL STORY: Big Builder Provides Car-Free Housing Innovation
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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
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Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research