Exterior Design Strategies for Placemaking Downtown

Claiming leftover outdoor space with innovative lighting, paver suspension systems, and colorful modular decking
This course is no longer active
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Sponsored by Bison Innovative Products, IRONSMITH, and Kim Lighting
Celeste Allen Novak, FAIA, LEED AP

Learning Objectives:

  1. List components of urban platemaking that provide financial, community, and sustainable benefits to residential and commercial projects.
  2. Develop strategies to provide shade that reduces the heat island effect in communities, by planting both new and mature trees using innovative paver suspension systems.
  3. Define approaches to energy-efficient outdoor lighting and the application of LED lighting to Dark Sky requirements.
  4. Discuss the advantages of pedestal-based gravity roof decking to provide outdoor settings that promote health and healing using materials that are FSC certified or have recycled content.

Credits:

HSW
1 AIA LU/HSW
GBCI
1 GBCI CE Hour

Architect James S. Yu, AIA, principal at SY Design in Port Huron, Michigan, has an LED lighting model for an outdoor installation resting in the middle of his studio workspace.

Yu is reluctant to allow the developer to install the new LED lighting designed to accompany a gateway to Port Huron, because it looks so great in his office. Once installed, this energy-efficient LED light sculpture will provide an exciting entry to the new riverfront boardwalk along the St. Clair River that divides Canada from the U.S. By working with manufacturers, he was able to adjust the amount of lighting required for this heavily trafficked area so that the unique, colorful display will not disappear in the ambient lighting. Says Yu, “we were able to work with a lighting color consultant to identify the appropriate light intensity to maximize visibility. This project highlights a new community gathering space for Port Huron.”

He is one of many architects who understand that their mission is not just to design buildings, but to claim a “third place”—that social gathering space for people to live, work, and play both outdoors and indoors. These design professionals are becoming placemakers. They are creating new urban environments using innovative new materials, lighting, and planting techniques. They are motivated by research and development statistics that show outdoor amenities add value both for healthy communities as well as for the bottom line.

Placemaking

“At recent conferences and in professional journals, the advantages of claiming outdoor spaces by using color, materials, lighting, and vegetation to create new, imaginative outdoor spaces is becoming a smart development tool. Young millennials are choosing to live in dense urban environments and are seeking new lifestyle amenities. Developers are finding that they can add market value even as they shrink housing units to maintain affordability, by adding exterior amenities. Rooftop gardens, outdoor kitchens, entertainment areas, putting greens and urban retreats increase the value of these downtown properties. Young professionals are asking for these amenities in the housing that they are selecting. The added advantage is that outdoor amenities also build community,” says Lisa von Gunten, president of Bison Innovative Products.

This large “neighborhood park” is five stories above the ground in this apartment complex at 4545 Center Boulevard, Long Island City, New York. A modular, pedestal deck system allowed for the installation of an entertainment center, outdoor barbecue, putting green, playground, and gardens.

Image courtesy of Bison Innovative Products

This large “neighborhood park” is five stories above the ground in this apartment complex at 4545 Center Boulevard, Long Island City, New York. A modular, pedestal deck system allowed for the installation of an entertainment center, outdoor barbecue, putting green, playground, and gardens.

 

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Originally published in Architectural Record
Originally published in August 2014

Notice

Academies
Exterior Design Strategies for Placemaking Downtown
Buyer's Guide
Suspended Paver System
IRONSMITH's patented Paver-Grate™ suspended paver system lets you design over—instead of around—tree areas for optimized planting, tree health, and pedestrian comfort. The Paver-Grate System seamlessly provides root space without impeding on pedestrian walk areas.
IRONSMITH
www.ironsmith.cc
LED Landscape Luminaires
Founded 80 years ago, Kim Lighting, a Division of Hubbell Lighting, is known throughout the world as a premier designer and manufacturer of high-performance, high-quality, architecturally relevant landscape lighting, offering a broad array of styles in the latest LED technology.
Kim Lighting
www.KimLighting.com
Solutions for Elevated Decks
Bison Innovative Products include: Bison Deck Supports, made in USA with 20% post-consumer recycled materials; Modular Bison Cubes with recycled content, custom colors, finishes, and sizes. Commercial-grade modular Bison Wood Tiles with a Class A Fire Rating, standard and FSC-certified species and custom sizes available.
Bison Innovative Products
www.BisonIP.com