Table 3 Residence Districts: Bulk Regulations For Residential Buildings

<table><thead><tr><th rowspan="2">District</th><th rowspan="2">Maximum<br>Floor Area<br>Ratio<sup>1</sup></th><th rowspan="2">Minimum<br>Required<br>Open Space<br>Ratio<sup>3</sup></th><th colspan="2">Minimum Required<br>Lot Area<sup>4</sup><br>(in sq. ft.)</th><th rowspan="2">Minimum<br>Required<br>Floor Area<br>(in sq. ft.)<br>Per<br>Room</th><th colspan="2">Corresponding Dwelling Units<br>or Rooms per Acre</th></tr><tr><th>Per<br>Dwelling<br>Unit</th><th>Per<br>Room</th><th>Dwelling<br>Units<sup>6</sup></th><th>Rooms</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>R1-1</td><td>0.50</td><td>150.0</td><td>9,500</td><td></td><td></td><td>4</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>R1-2</td><td>0.50</td><td>150.0</td><td>5,700</td><td></td><td></td><td>7</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>R2</td><td>0.50</td><td>150.0</td><td>3,800</td><td></td><td></td><td>11</td><td></td></tr><tr><td>R3</td><td>0.50</td><td>150.0</td><td></td><td>375</td><td></td><td>(25)</td><td>116</td></tr><tr><td>R4</td><td>0.75</td><td>80.0</td><td></td><td></td><td>205</td><td>(35)</td><td>158</td></tr><tr><td>R5</td><td>1.25</td><td>40.0</td><td></td><td></td><td>215</td><td>(56)</td><td>252</td></tr><tr><td>R6</td><td>2.00 to 2.43</td><td>30.0 to 33.5</td><td></td><td>106 to 96</td><td></td><td>(90 to 100)</td><td>415 to 440</td></tr><tr><td>R7</td><td>2.88 to 3.44</td><td>18.0 to 22.0</td><td></td><td>81 to 72</td><td></td><td>(120 to 134)</td><td>538 to 573</td></tr><tr><td>R8</td><td>4.88 to 6.02</td><td>8.0 to 10.7</td><td></td><td>53 to 44</td><td></td><td>(186 to 220)</td><td>822 to 968</td></tr><tr><td>R9</td><td>6.54 to 7.52</td><td>4.2 to 6.2</td><td></td><td>42 to 39</td><td></td><td>(228 to 248)</td><td>1,037 to 1,062</td></tr><tr><td>R10</td><td>10.00<sup>2</sup></td><td>None</td><td></td><td>30<sup>5</sup></td><td></td><td>322</td><td>1,452<sup>5</sup></td></tr></tbody></table>

¹ When a range of floor area ratios is shown, the lower is for lowest building typical of the district, and the higher is the maximum achievable in the district for taller buildings.

² The floor area ratio shown is exclusive of the bonuses for plazas, arcades, etc. which can increase FAR by 20 percent.

³ When a range of open space ratios is shown, the lower is the minimum required at the lower floor area ratio shown, and the higher is the minimum required at the higher floor area ratio shown.

⁴ When a range of required lot areas per room, or rooms per acre, is shown, the first number is the density permitted at the lowest open space ratio shown, and the second is the maximum density permitted in the district.

⁵ The lot area requirement and number of rooms per acre shown are exclusive of the bonus for plazas, or arcades, which can reduce the lot area requirements up to 17 percent and increase the possible rooms per acre up to 20 percent in this district.

⁶ Dwelling units shown for R3 to R10 Districts are computed by assuming 4.5 rooms per dwelling unit.

GENERAL MOTORS TECHNICAL CENTER, DETROIT

<table><tr><td>Designer</td><td>Eero Saarinen and Associates. Architects: Smith, Hinchman and Grylla, Architect-Engineers</td></tr><tr><td>Date</td><td>Completed 1954</td></tr></table>

Above. Plan of General Motors Technical Center.
Right. The distances within the site are scaled
to the automobile.

A square mile north of Detroit is the site of the General Motors Technical Center, one of the first large-scale campuses for industrial research and management in the Outer City. The combination of a rectilinear and a concentric pattern is a basic feature of this design. A rectilinear plan is often monotonous, but in this case the careful spacing of structures around the central lake, with parking and services on the sides not facing the lake, has yielded a result of unusual sophistication. It is difficult to exaggerate the influence of this center upon later developments. The standards it set have been a challenge and an inspiration to almost every major research and industrial complex that followed.

Central to the design is the enormous rectangular lake, six feet deep and just over a third of a mile long. All distances within the site are scaled to the automobile. One hesitates to attempt a walk, even between neighboring buildings. The horizontal spread of the buildings is a major determinant of the surface scale. The only strongly vertical elements are an elliptical watertank upon a slender tower 138 feet high, fountains playing in the lake, and chimney stacks.

Five major building groups serve the following functions: research, process development, engineering, styling, and service and technical administration. Most of the buildings are huge roofed spaces with elaborate piped services, such as gas, water and oxygen.

The architecture is simple: metal panels with porcelainized enamel surfaces have been placed over rectangular frames of structural steel. Only one building is not rectilinear. This is the auditorium, a circular shape that immediately attracts the eye with its contrast.

187

MAP B

THE VILLAGE
OF
BROOKLYN
1816

Compiled from the First Village Map
of that date by Jeremiah Lott, and
from Poppleton and Lott's Map
of the Pierrepont Estate of 1819.

Pierrepont, N.Y.

Conventional street grid

A conventional scheme for development of the site shows 1427 single family houses on about 205 acres. Houses are placed according to zoning lot requirements on a street system previously adopted by the City. The result is a disastrously barren environment, and all of the natural character of the site is destroyed.

Riverside

E E Childs, developer. Frederick Law Olmsted, developer. 1869

In 1869 E E Childs and the Riverside Improvement Company commissioned the landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and his partner, architect Calvert Vaux, to plan 'a suburban village' on a 1600-acre site on the Des Plaines River, just nine miles west of Chicago's central business district.

Although Riverside now seems a marvel of architecture integrated into nature, much of the site was flat farmland when Olmsted was retained. An observer of 1869 noted that the site presented 'a plentiful lack of improvements, and an overwhelming generosity of raw prairie wind and waste prairie land which were anything but inviting'. When completed, however, Riverside presented 'at once an elegant drive, a handsome park, and a delightful suburban city'.¹

Riverside, and to a lesser extent Llewellyn Park, established the principle that a suburban community could be planned as a unit and would retain its identity as the urban conurbation engulfed it, provided that it was carefully protected by greenbelts, gates and other barriers.

Having rejected a gridiron plan as 'too stiff and formal for such adornment and rusticity as should be combined in a model suburb', Olmsted introduced a complex interlace of lavishly planted curvilinear streets to distinguish the site from the surrounding prairie and enhance its modest elevation and scattered forest.² His plan called for a park along the river on flood land which would not be valuable for residential or commercial development. In this park Olmsted envisioned a parkway to connect Riverside to Chicago. To complement the plan, Vaux designed a series of Gothic structures, with restless intricacies to enhance the romantic qualities of the development.

Riverside was plagued by financial troubles from the start. In order to encourage people to visit it as a resort, a hotel was built in the early 1870s to a design by William Le Baron Jenney. Riverside, unlike Llewellyn Park, had a town centre, that included the railroad station, a hotel, commercial and institutional buildings, and water towers which have become a symbol of the community.

Notes

1 H Mayer and R C Wade, *Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis*, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1969, p 184.

2 S B Sutton, editor, *Civilizing American Cities: A Selection of Frederick Law Olmsted's Writings*, MIT Press, Cambridge 1971, p 47.

1

2

1 Olmsted, Vaux & Co, original plan, 1869

2 Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Station, early 1930s

24

A NEIGHBORHOOD CENTER IN THE COUNTRY CLUB DISTRICT

KANSAS CITY DEVELOPER
PIONEERS INTEGRATION
OF HOUSES AND STORES

THE COUNTRY CLUB DISTRICT, Kansas City, Mo., was started by the late J. C. Nichols, and his associate J. C. Taylor, in 1908. It was then a 10-acre tract of swamp land, five miles south of the city and in a direction completely opposite to prevailing suburban growth. Today it spreads over 5,000 acres.

Inspired by a bicycle trip through Europe, Nichols determined to reproduce, in Kansas, a town as practical and beautiful as one of those ideal Garden Cities he had seen in England. Now the population of 50,000 is satisfied spiritually by 17 churches, educationally by 15 schools, and recreationally by 4 golf courses. For esthetic nourishment there is "The World's Greatest Outdoor Art Gallery," a million dollars worth of imported statuary, fountains, columns, and wellheads, scattered through the public parks and along the roadways.

Nichols realized very early that he would have to provide good shopping facilities. On the Kansas City edge of the District is a large downtown-type shopping area, the Country Club Plaza. Ten smaller neighborhood centers are distributed through the various subdivisions.

In creating the Country Club Plaza, Nichols intended to build a more profitable, more beautiful, and more convenient type of downtown shopping center. Nichols saw that if this was to substitute for downtown, it must contain a well-balanced group of stores giving complete and slightly competitive shopping. Apartment houses ring the store area. They act as a buffer strip between one-family houses and stores. They also produce more condensed buying power, with a profitable walk-in trade.

There had to be, of course, ample parking space. Nichols believed the most popular parking spot to be at the curb, directly in front of the store where the customer wanted to shop. Intermediate blocks reserved for parking held he considered necessary but less desirable.

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80

81

Piano generale con indicazione
delle destinazioni d'uso
e del sistema viario.

Master plan indicating
purposes to which areas will
be put and the road system.