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…someplace.

Now let’s go…

…someplace else.

Which place is more appealing to visit?

Which place feels more welcoming to spend our time and money?

Which place would we rather preserve for our children and grandchildren?

Would you be surprised if you found out that all of these places are in the same city of Shelby, North Carolina? There are cities and towns all over the country that seem completely different depending on where you are in the community. Here are some other communities whose downtowns look different from their highway strip developments.

Marshall, NC– population 840

Hendersonville, NC—population 10,420

We’re going to spend some time analyzing why this is, and what gives a community its identity unique from all others—in other words, what makes a community “someplace” instead of “anyplace.”

We’ll start by looking at how we design our individual buildings;

and then move to how we arrange our buildings on streets.

We’ll discuss how we build and landscape our streets and other public spaces;

and what we can do to create better places where we want to spend time, rather than hurry through.

Let’s begin by looking at the way buildings are designed. There are several principles that deal with individual buildings and how they relate to people as well as to other buildings.

We’ll start with SCALE. Scale can be defined as the size and shape, or the relationship of width and height of one building as it relates to people and to other buildings.

Another design element is ORIENTATION. It can be defined as how the building faces the street. We are used to seeing buildings that are parallel to the street as opposed to being on a diagonal.

The SETBACK is the distance between the building and the street. When several buildings line up in a row, they form an EDGE.

There are several common ROOF SHAPES. The roof is a major visual element and should be carefully considered as to the proportion, texture, color and compatibility with the proposed building style and those of neighboring buildings. Similarities in roof shapes create visual continuity in the streetscape.

Another element is the relationship of solids to voids in a wall. Think of windows as being the “eyes” of a building. When there are no or few openings in a building wall…

… it seems forbidding, not inviting. What is the proportion of blank wall to doors and windows—in other words, does the building have eyes?

What kind of building material can be seen from the street: brick, stone, granite, marble, tile, stucco, wood shingles…

…metal, concrete block, plywood, vinyl siding, or other material?

Articulation refers to elements that project out or are recessed to create a more interesting and less monotonous appearance such as awnings, balconies, bay windows and recessed doors.

Ornamentation and trim are decorative elements including tiles, shutters, glass block…

…stone or wood carving, columns or other elements that add interest to the building.

What colors are used on the building—do they add or detract from the community’s appearance?

Next we’ll look at how we arrange our buildings on streets. At the turn of the century, cities and towns were designed for pedestrians. This meant that sidewalks were wide enough to accommodate groups of people…

…and buildings were placed next to the sidewalk so those walking by could look in the windows.

Merchants prided themselves on attractive window displays to entice people walking by to come inside. Windows also had the advantage of promoting interactions between people walking by and those shopping or working inside.

The buildings themselves were interesting to look at. Often they were built with patterns in their brickwork, had special carvings or other kind of ornamentation on the façade to catch the eye of people walking by.

The buildings were part of marketing the business.

Buildings were designed to have an individual identity. They were also designed to fit in with neighboring structures. Buildings were often constructed of materials that were available locally, so a regional type of architecture sometimes developed.

Buildings were meant to be permanent.

Property owners were generally local, so they wanted buildings that would reflect favorably on them, their families and their businesses. When they built new buildings, they assumed these structures would be there for several generations.

Many buildings were two or more stories high. Owners of the building sometimes had their store on the ground floor and lived upstairs. Later on they may have rented out the upstairs for office space.

Buildings were built next to one another on the same block, so it was easy to walk from store to store.

Signs were placed at a height and location where people could see them from the street. They were attached to the face of the building or projected across the sidewalk.

Trees were planted next to the curb.

This provided shade for the people walking by and made the buildings cooler as well.

On-street parking took care of the needs of people who drove to town.

It also provided a buffer for pedestrians from passing traffic.

The buildings and trees lining the street gave a feeling of enclosure, like being in an outdoor room. This area, including the facades of buildings, sidewalks, landscaping and streets is called the STREETSCAPE.

The works of popular artist Thomas Kinkade often show street scenes from small towns, past and present.

You can see many of the design elements that make for a comfortable and inviting streetscape in his paintings.

Downtown was the heart of the community. Since it was the center for people to live, shop, work and worship there were civic buildings as well as public spaces for people to gather. These public spaces are also known as the PUBLIC REALM.

Downtown was the place to remember notable people and events. It’s where our memories are, where we commemorate our past…

…and where we celebrate special events today.