New Urbanism

After going through the design guidelines I feel like these are the principles in one way or another that the city is trying to achieve and follow: PRINCIPLES OF URBANISM

The principles of urbanism can be applied increasingly to projects at the full range of scales from a single building to an entire community.

1. Walkability -Most things within a 10-minute walk of home and work -Pedestrian friendly street design (buildings close to street; porches, windows & doors; tree-lined streets; on street parking; hidden parking lots; garages in rear lane; narrow, slow speed streets) -Pedestrian streets free of cars in special cases

2. Connectivity -Interconnected street grid network disperses traffic & eases walking -A hierarchy of narrow streets, boulevards, and alleys -High quality pedestrian network and public realm makes walking pleasurable

3. Mixed-Use & Diversity -A mix of shops, offices, apartments, and homes on site. Mixed-use within neighborhoods, within blocks, and within buildings -Diversity of people - of ages, income levels, cultures, and races

4. Mixed Housing A range of types, sizes and prices in closer proximity

5. Quality Architecture & Urban Design Emphasis on beauty, aesthetics, human comfort, and creating a sense of place; Special placement of civic uses and sites within community. Human scale architecture & beautiful surroundings nourish the human spirit

6. Traditional Neighborhood Structure -Discernable center and edge -Public space at center -Importance of quality public realm; public open space designed as civic art -Contains a range of uses and densities within 10-minute walk -Transect planning: Highest densities at town center; progressively less dense towards the edge. The transect is an analytical system that conceptualizes mutually reinforcing elements, creating a series of specific natural habitats and/or urban lifestyle settings.  The Transect integrates environmental methodology for habitat assessment with zoning methodology for community design.  The professional boundary between the natural and man-made disappears, enabling environmentalists to assess the design of the human habitat and the urbanists to support the viability of nature. This urban-to-rural transect hierarchy has appropriate building and street types for each area along the continuum.

7. Increased Density -More buildings, residences, shops, and services closer together for ease of walking, to enable a more efficient use of services and resources, and to create a more convenient, enjoyable place to live. -New Urbanism design principles are applied at the full range of densities from small towns, to large cities

8. Green Transportation -A network of high-quality trains connecting cities, towns, and neighborhoods together -Pedestrian-friendly design that encourages a greater use of bicycles, rollerblades, scooters, and walking as daily transportation

9. Sustainability -Minimal environmental impact of development and its operations -Eco-friendly technologies, respect for ecology and value of natural systems -Energy efficiency -Less use of finite fuels -More local production -More walking, less driving

10. Quality of Life

Taken together these add up to a high quality of life well worth living, and create places that enrich, uplift, and inspire the human spirit 

http://www.newurbanism.org/newurbanism/principles.html

The Congress for the New Urbanism views disinvestment in central cities, the spread of placeless sprawl, increasing separation by race and income, environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness, and the erosion of society’s built heritage as one interrelated community-building challenge.
We stand for the restoration of existing urban centers and towns within coherent metropolitan regions, the reconfiguration of sprawling suburbs into communities of real neighborhoods and diverse districts, the conservation of natural environments, and the preservation of our built legacy.
We advocate the restructuring of public policy and development practices to support the following principles: neighborhoods should be diverse in use and population; communities should be designed for the pedestrian and transit as well as the car; cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public spaces and community institutions; urban places should be framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate, ecology, and building practice.
We recognize that physical solutions by themselves will not solve social and economic problems, but neither can economic vitality, community stability, and environmental health be sustained without a coherent and supportive physical framework.
We represent a broad-based citizenry, composed of public and private sector leaders, community activists, and multidisciplinary professionals. We are committed to reestablishing the relationship between the art of building and the making of community, through citizen-based participatory planning and design.
We dedicate ourselves to reclaiming our homes, blocks, streets, parks, neighborhoods, districts, towns, cities, regions, and environment.

http://www.cnu.org/charter

Guidelines of City & Campus

USC design guidelines

- build upon distinctive character via archr and landscape

- stylistically coordinated

- vary street widths and forms based on hierarchy

- enhances the existing built and landscape environments while creating new campus "fabric" and landmark buildings

- wants to reflect use of campus-research campus in 21^st century

- human scale, more than style, was the most critical factor in a successful campus design

- ‘fabric buildings’ which blend in a frame space rather than make a statement, and ‘landmark’ bldgs., to respond to context, highlighting important intersections

- types of trees corresponding to certain areas and/or streets

- wants to maintain as much natural topography as possible

- sustainable design techniques- particularly water conservation and management

- increase shade, decrease dark paving and dark roofing

Innovista Master Plan

sustainable urban live/work area

development of a world-class waterfront park

revitalize critical areas of downtown and link them to other redevelopment efforts, including the existing Vista arts and entertainment district

planning area places urban, mixed-use development within the framework of Columbia’s historic street grid

Innovista district’s historic grid system will be designed primarily for pedestrians, while others will provide vehicular service and access to parking

distinguishing feature of the Innovista Master Plan will be the Congaree Regional Waterfront Park, celebrating the City’s industrial heritage and riverside location

Mixed-use development at Innovista will create housing, retail and office space in four- to six-storey street-fronted buildings with multi-story parking structures

implementing the Master Plan for the Innovista planning area will permit completion of the Three Rivers Greenway, providing continuous waterfront access and signifi cant recreational amenities to the region’s residents

bring urban housing to downtown Columbia, including the Canal Side residential development along the Columbia Canal, the City Club project and the Kline Property mixed-use development along Gervais Street. A Hilton Hotel is under construction adjacent to the Convention Center and the new USC baseball stadium, which will serve students, residents and tourists

Redevelopment of the property along the waterfront for mixed-use real estate and public park use —and connecting it to downtown—is both a key challenge facing Innovista as well as a singular opportunity for the community. Downtown Columbia currently has limited public access to the Congaree

Urban design

Based on a sustainable “garden city” design concept, the Innovista area will feature landscaped parks, pedestrian promenades, streets that are friendly to both pedestrians and bicyclists, and environmentally sustainable buildings.

The architectural design concept envisions four- to six-story street-fronted urban buildings with parking in multi-story structures

The urban design plan calls for distinctive open space and architectural massing considerations to mark these gateways

The Innovista design concept creates a distinction between streets designed accessible for cars, but designed primarily for pedestrians and bicycles (“A” streets), and streets designed for the automobile (“B” streets) providing efficient vehicular access to all blocks as well as to their service areas

Open space: The open space design concept mirrors the historic street grid, transforming existing and proposed streets into pedestrianfriendly roadways with shade tree canopies, broad sidewalks and traffic-calming measures. It introduces urban, landscaped open spaces to the grid along Greene Street and the gateway districts, and culminates in the Congaree Regional Waterfront Park

The urban design concept for Greene Street is to create a pedestrian street in the European tradition as the primary link between the University and the Congaree Regional Waterfront Park, featuring a narrow right-of-way framed by street-fronted buildings whose ground floors present active commercial uses to the street