Downtown urban design review in American cities : a comparative study of San Francisco and lowertown models

Abstract

The primary concern of this study is to find out how the mechanism of urban design review can be used as an effective means to regulate downtown development, with reference to American cities. The study began with an overview of the historical background of urban design review. Phenomena that would have significant impacts on the evolvement of the mechanism were discussed. These included the tradition of designing a city as an entity, evolution of legislation for development control, and federal public programs related to urban development. A brief account of current practice of urban design review was also presented. Two models of urban design review were then selected for detailed study: the model of San Francisco which represents an approach which is to strengthen the existing city legislative framework for an eventual mandatory review of all downtown development; and the model of St. Paul's Lowertown which represents a more dynamic review approach administered by a private non-profit organization. One project each, i.e. One Sansome Building (Citicorp Center) in San Francisco and Granada Royale Hometel in Lowertown, were then studied in detail to demonstrate the performance of these two models. Comments on the performance were given at the end of each study. The whole study was completed with a comparison between the San Francisco and Lowertown models. Some generalized important factors for an effective and efficient urban design review mechanism were concluded.

Comments

Print version in library: https://catalog.wustl.edu:443/record=b2535631~S2

Author's Department

Graduate School of Architecture

Document Type

Restricted Thesis

Date of Award

5-1-1984

Language

English (en)

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