CP6341- Urban Design and Non-Motorized Access

Course Description

Urban design policymaking and its implementation, including an analysis of the behavioral basis for policies that promote quality in built form.  Also examines how these public decisions are made and the role of professionals in this process.

This course will examine the interface between the implementation of urban planning policy and project level design review.  Urban design is defined here as a synthetic framework for the analysis of projects and plans within the context of physical, political, and social elements that affect the function, appeal, and overall sense of place of a particular location.  The premise of the course is that each major developmental action, whether it be a privately funded project or a public infrastructure investment, most often alters the urban environment in some measurable way.  Thus, the implications of each proposal for action need to be measured against existing conditions in combination with other proposed actions within the area of impact before a sense of the resulting physical environment can be estimated.  Existing conditions are understood to include both policy and physical actions taken that affect an area.

To address the issue of how a project fits into the overall context of an area, it is essential to assess existing conditions in conjunction with other proposed actions within that area.  Finally, it is the experience of the user of the project rather than the party responsible for the development of a project that needs to be considered during a project's development.  To address these issues collectively, several regions have implemented design guidelines and in certain cases have created governmental structure to oversee design issues related with the construction of major projects.

The course is structured around these three themes to address context, user experience, and public processes to affect project implementation:

• analysis of particular urban forms as the manifestation of specific policies and programs;

• identifying the interactions between people and the environment; and

• review processes established to represent the public's interest by focusing on the design issues associated with new development.

Considerable emphasis will be placed on the analysis of specific case studies within each of these three sections including different urban forms in the first section, a review of literature on how people use space rooted in environmental psychology, and an assessment of communities that have successfully implemented formal review structures to oversee the project planning, design development, and construction processes.  A great deal of what is required to achieve meritorious design solutions is coordination and cooperation among various public and private authorities.   Therefore, to be effective, an urban design review process will often require strong working relationships between developers, port authorities, local governments, and state agencies.  Actual urban design review processes associated with particular projects will also be used as case studies.  These cases include projects reviewed and implemented under the direction of the City of Seattle's Urban Design Commission and Portland's Public Development Authority.