City Life Org – Department of City Planning Releases Principles of Good Urban Design Guidebook

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City Life Org – Department of City Planning Releases Principles of Good Urban Design Guidebook

Guidebook Democratizes Urban Design, Helps New Yorkers Incorporate Principles into Neighborhood Advocacy

New Principles Revamp and Expand 2017 Guidelines into Practical, Accessible Guide

New York City Department of City Planning (DCP) Director Dan Garodnick announced the release of the Principles of Good Urban Design, an illustrated guidebook that makes New York City’s urban design principles clear and accessible to the public. With the release of the guidebook, New Yorkers from all walks of life will be better able to put the Principles of Good Urban Design into action in their own communities, whether they’re planners, developers, civic leaders, or any New Yorker who wants to help shape the future of their neighborhood.

This guidebook provides answers on what urban design means, and how planners consider everything from public input to environmental needs to a neighborhood’s history and culture to craft design recommendations that enhance communities. Beyond making it easier to get around and enjoy New York City, good urban design has a tremendously positive impact on our physical and mental health. It makes for a more beautiful and cleaner urban environment, generates economic activity, supports innovation, and encourages play.

The Principles of Good Urban Design help to democratize this aspect of planning with a set of shared values and language through which all New Yorkers can evaluate, discuss, and advocate for meaningful, lasting changes that improve the city’s urban landscape. The four principles are:

  • Enhance people’s daily lives – including with accessible, safe, high-quality public spaces
  • Care for a neighborhood’s history, culture, and identity – including by celebrating existing community spaces or natural resources 
  • Embrace NYC’s dynamism – including with building designs that harmonize with older architecture
  • Confront society’s greatest challenges – including with resilient and public health-focused design decisions 

Each of these principles can have an impact on parts of the city that New Yorkers experience in their daily lives: how space is used on a sidewalk, how parks and open space are laid out, how storefronts and ground floors of apartments interact with the public realm, and how architecture helps to determine the character of a neighborhood.

This release of the Principles of Good Urban Design guidebook is a significant expansion of the initial guidelines, published in 2017. In this guidebook, DCP has fully transformed the principles into a thorough, practical manual that can be applied to nearly any planning discussion in the five boroughs.

Urban design plays an important role in many of the agency’s initiatives. For example, in DCP’s City of Yes for Economic Opportunity proposal, urban design is key to streetscape updates that provide more flexibility in some areas struggling to reach transparency goals and provide more predictability in other areas to ensure safe and active commercial corridors. And in City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, which looks to create a little more housing in every neighborhood, urban design will ensure the thoughtful crafting of building envelopes that respond to their surroundings.

The Principles of Good Urban Design guidebook is the result of input from New Yorkers via an interactive website launched in 2021. Much of the feedback DCP received reflected not only current urban design successes but also the challenges of a city recovering from the worst effects of the pandemic on public life. With the pandemic’s impact still felt today, it’s more important than ever to help New Yorkers get involved in shaping the building blocks of the city we share, as we collectively rethink how we use our public streets, sidewalks, and open spaces.

Department of City Planning
The Department of City Planning (DCP) plans for the strategic growth and development of the City through ground-up planning with communities, the development of land use policies and zoning regulations applicable citywide, and its contribution to the preparation of the City’s 10-year Capital Strategy. DCP promotes housing production and affordability, fosters economic development and coordinated investments in infrastructure and services, and supports resilient, sustainable communities across the five boroughs for a more equitable New York City.

In addition, DCP supports the City Planning Commission in its annual review of approximately 450 land use applications for a variety of discretionary approvals. The Department also assists both government agencies and the public by advising on strategic and capital planning and providing policy analysis, technical assistance and data relating to housing, transportation, community facilities, demography, zoning, urban design, waterfront areas and public open space.


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