Nico Larco

Pedestrian-Friendly Environments and Active Travel for Residents of Multifamily Housing: The Role of Preferences and Perceptions

This article examines the relationship of the built environment to physical activity in suburban multifamily housing developments in a medium-sized city, testing Alfonzo’s (2005) model of decisions regarding active travel. All complexes were within one-quarter mile of a shopping area with a major grocery store, but varied in pedestrian friendliness. Survey data were gathered on travel behavior to the stores, sociodemographic characteristics, preferences for an “active” environment, and perceptions of the extent to which their environment promoted activity. Multilevel analyses showed that residents in more pedestrian-friendly areas had significantly more active travel and less driving travel, indicating a substitution, rather than a supplementation, effect. Results remained when preferences for an “active” environment were controlled and, in most cases, when perceptions of the environment were controlled. It is suggested that Alfonzo’s model of decisions regarding walking behavior be amended to include direct influences of urban form on travel behavior.

Sustainable urban design – a (draft) framework

Abstract This paper provides a roadmap or guide to help urban designers and researchers understand the elements and topics in urban design that should be considered when addressing sustainability. It describes ‒ within the realm of urban design ‒ what is to be sustained, the metrics for this and the urban design elements that contribute to those metrics. A matrix organizes the urban design elements by topic and scale to help urban designers and researchers relate these disparate aspects, identify areas of synergy and serve as a basis for comparison when trade-offs are present.

Untapped density: site design and the proliferation of suburban multifamily housing

Suburban multifamily housing is an often overlooked housing typology that is the fastest growing housing market in the United States and holds strong potential for achieving smart growth goals in suburbia. This paper focuses on understanding the roots of suburban multifamily site design and development. Through case studies of suburban multifamily development in Oregon, Arizona, Florida, and Massachusetts, this paper looks at the specific ways in which regulation, typical development practice, and design culture have shaped the current pattern of suburban multifamily development. It then proposes ways in which current planning, development, and design practices might shift in order to take advantage of this growing housing trend to create multi‐modal, more livable, and less congested suburban communities.

Both/And: Merging Global and Local Identity through Design. A Case Study of Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires

With the rise of globalization, many municipal governments have developed large areas of their cities specifically to attract global capital and labour. While these areas are designed, in part, for a global audience, the fact that physical development is geographically fixed means it is also often used and given meaning by local residents. Although this mixed condition of global and local influences is often described as confrontational, it is possible to merge these influences to create areas that have a hybridized identity that is both local and global. This paper presents the case study of the centrally located and formerly derelict port area of Puerto Madero in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Global and local influences are made manifest in the redesign and revitalization of this area through formal characteristics, architectural language, social narratives and the design and planning process. The lessons gleaned from this case study can be used as a strategic foundation for future design and development in cities facing similar global/local issues around the world.

Autonomous Vehicles and the Built Environment: Exploring the Impacts on Different Urban Contexts

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) offer a new entryway into society-wide conversations regarding transportation, functions of cities, the use of streets and, ultimately, urban sustainability. AVs are likely to disrupt urban spaces from city centers to the suburbs and rural edges of cities. This chapter focuses on these places. It tests potential changes to the built environment in two different urban contexts; a street-car suburban location (circa 1920s–30s) and a post-war suburban location. The outcomes from these tests are used to offer insight into how autonomous technology may have different impacts across space. The outcomes also reveal AVs may impact modal decisions differently based on location, and how planners and policy makers might frame built environment solutions to promote sustainable and livable urbanism.

Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities (EPIC): Harnessing University Resources to Create Change

University–community collaborations, that is partnerships between universities and community organizations, cities, etc., have significant potential to advance both, education and urban innovation. Urban areas face a number of constraints in identifying and advancing innovations as city and community leaders may lack access to the latest scientific evidence and examples of best practice. Additionally, administrative structures can hinder interdisciplinary interactions between departments and the nature of decision-making in the urban political context overall tends to contribute to a culture of risk aversion that undermines creative problem solving. Universities can help communities address these challenges by channeling the work of faculty and students to critical problems and opportunities facing urban areas while at the same time universities and their faculty and students benefit from engagement with the realities of urban planning and decision-making. In 2009, a new, unique, large-scale, and purposeful university–community partnership program was developed at the University of Oregon to help bridge the city–university gap and in 2016 over twenty-five other universities have subsequently adopted and adapted what is now known as an “Educational Partnership for Innovation in Communities (EPIC)” framework. This chapter describes the replicable framework and highlights three university-based programs, all of which include substantial engagement of urban planning programs. Further, the chapter makes the case for campus and societal leadership by planning educators and programs across the globe.

Site Design Criteria

This section is divided into 10 different topic areas. Each topic is a part of a collection of characteristics that make up well-connected, livable and vibrant communities. The topics are arranged based on their scale and complexity. The recommendations for each topic area work best as a complete set of design guidelines, but are not mutually exclusive. They can be used together or as individual elements. Each topic area has a direct link to increasing the connectivity in and around a multifamily housing development.

Code Guide Appendix

Service/loading and parking access points should not typically be located where build-to lines are specified and should be located along tertiary streets. Where a project does not have frontage on a street designated for a Service/Alley Frontage Type, consideration can be given to alternative locations for service access points where the alternative locations minimize pedestrian and vehicular conflicts. (Clarendon Sector Plan Chapter 3)

Hybridizing Place: Global and Local Identity in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires

The large-scale global flows of capital, culture, products, and labour have shifted the identity of place and have elevated the visibility of some cities far beyond their regional or national level. As cities vie for global presence, they must inevitably address the reality of local presence. In much of the discourse surrounding globalization and place, local and global influences are described as opposing concepts whose confrontation leads to the destruction of particularization. Through a case study of the revitalized industrial area of Puerto Madero in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this paper documents an example of a hybridized local and global identity. The developers and designers of Puerto Madero, a mix of public and private entities, created this hybridized identity through the actual physical development as well as the process and narratives associated with this development.