Your place wants to be expressive and “local” but what happens when rules won’t oblige?
Designing Local Principal Kyle Ezell and Wendy Moeller, Principal of Compass Point Planning offered solutions to the Northeast Ohio American Planning Association Conference in Cleveland on November 13. The information presented was the heart of the mission of what we do, what we believe, and why we are passionate about our services that help communities.
Creativity is Good. Implementing Creativity is a Lot Better!
In the presentation, Ezell proved how cities, towns, and neighborhoods have better economies and provide higher qualities of life when their personalities shine through. This is why many places are thinking about ways to create a sense of place to make their places stand out. In Cleveland, Ezell showcased work completed by Designing Local and how communities are using the Designing Local planning process to identify elements that are at the core of a community’s personality. Wendy Moeller joined in to discuss opportunities for making sure that creativity can live through municipal regulatory frameworks. Local governments are not known for allowing design that is outside of the box to make it through their review processes.
The Takeaways from Cleveland:
1. The more people (locals, visitors- everyone) who become attached to a place makes that place become more competitive for jobs, visitors, businesses, and new residents.
2. Places can’t tell their local stories very well without clearly defining the essence of their values and culture with specific phases and words. Designing Local calls this process “extracting the essence” of a place.
3. The “extracted essence” of a place becomes a”local palette” that produces “local design.” This local palette is then able to be used by architects, landscape architects, engineers, business owners, and citizens who creatively interpret this palette to help shape the look and feel of their community. (This inspirational palette shouldn’t be taken literally but act as an inspiration for creative design.)
(Above) A local design palette to inspire creativity.
(Above) An ordinary parking garage.
(^) A widely-beloved local icon.
(Above) A nuanced, truly local design treatment. Rendering by MKSK.
This example above was based on a flower. No flowers were plopped onto this garage; the colors were used to represent the flower but the finished idea was inspired by the “local palette” from the creative inspiration from the designer’s mind.
Another example: A pedestrian bridge designed by a famous architect. This architect has replicated basically the same bridge design all over the world. Through the Designing Local process, the values and culture distillation process can offer this architect inspiration to design a truly local pedestrian, bridge that can still fit within his style and expression. The completed bridge now features elements gleaned from this ‘local palette’, bringing the story of the place into the design.
Anything else that is put on the ground in a community can be inspired by the local design palette.
The point is not to tell designers and developers exactly what to do. The point is to encourage as much creativity to interpret local values as possible!
4. Then there are the rules. How can we make sure that local rules don’t kill the creativity? Considerable attention to an assessment of the most effective planning/zoning tools must be paid to ensure that the previously described creative work can properly manifest. In other words, attention to the implementation is crucial.
Example: A retail development that includes a strip mall and a McDonald’s. Locals want retail development designs to match their values. Architects can use the local design palette to create a McDonalds that everyone can love. Local planners should look at their regulatory system and determine the best alternatives. Perhaps it’s a standard zoning code that provides the most flexibility. Maybe a “form-based” code is the way to be most creative? Perhaps a planned unit development (PUD) is best? Outcomes will be different in each of these choices, but planners should know that there are many ways to get to “local.” Understanding these outcomes and choices is important.
5. Now test it! Did the buildings, houses, signs, infrastructure, (and everything else) express the local values you were expecting to see?
How do these recently constructed houses, buildings, and other developments compare to what existed before the creative local planning process and the new tools?
Testing your expectations is an important last step in the implementation process.
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We believe that every place should look like themselves. Design should be creative, not forced! If you want to learn more about Designing Local’s creative process please check out The Essence of Athens Plan, a winner of four major planning/landscape architecture awards. This is the pilot plan and a good example of the creative “local design” process. Write to Kyle@designinglocal.com to discuss the tools of implementation and how we can work with your community.
