Community

Neighborly Homes

Urbanist
Orlando_001

Orlando, Florida

Neighborly homes is both a noun and a verb. It is the term that best describes how homes fit well together. This term is that additional sense that we all have to know that the street is right. It is the urban design equivalent of the term umami from the food world.

Neighborly homes is a term first coined by Habitat for Humanity in their national Pattern Book for Neighborly Housing. This body of work was completed through a grant in partnership with the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art and Urban Design Associates. The Pattern Book took on the challenge of explaining how to build new infill housing.

It is quite a challenge to explain to two generations of suburbanites that it is ok to have variety on a street. It is a relatively new idea that a community or street would be composed of one house type, and constructed by one builder. Traditional neighborhoods are aggregates composing a whole.

Habitat Pattern Book

The Habitat for Humanity Pattern Book simplified the issue into an easily understood idea. There is no complexity in the idea, and therefore it is understandable to a large audience. Neighborly Housing is both a positive and desirable outcome for a community.

Portsmouth_001

Portsmouth, Virginia

Neighborly homes include a variety of housing types of similar form. Its not about density, but about design. The American Urbanism Studio provides the opportunity to see this in American Cities.

The New Tradition

The New Tradition

Urbanist

Cottage_Court_002American Urbanism provides us many lessons on how to make great places. New development and buildings should recognize the local context and contribute to the living tradition of  the neighborhood in which it is built. This is the new tradition.

A Tradition is defined as a continuing pattern of culture beliefs or practices.  This is the sharing or the handing down of a behavior or activity. Traditions are living practices, and each generation adds and builds on these traditions. The same is true in our cities.

American Urbanism is historically rich and includes patterns that we can all learn from. As practitioners, we are part of this living tradition where we continue these urban patterns, and continue to add and enrich these traditions.

Traditional urbanism and architecture is not prescriptive. The traditions found in our cities provides us descriptive lessons that we can continue to grow and develop.

Cottage_Court

Concord Riverwalk

Concord Riverwalk in West Concord, Massachusetts, is new project that encapsulates the new tradition. Concord River Walk is a Pocket Neighborhood which grew out of the work and research of Ross Chapin. This pattern of housing is not new to American Urbanism.

Pocket Neighborhoods became outlawed with the adoption of Euclidian Zoning and the mechanization of the home building industry. Through the research of traditional urban patterns, there has been a revival of this housing type.

 

American Civic

American Civic

Urbanist

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American Urbanism places special attention to civic architecture. These buildings are located in prominent locations, utilize the finest architecture, and provide a home for civic activities. These buildings are commonly refered to as the special buildings.
ARCADIA CITY HALLLocation:121 Hickory St., In front of Fire Department

County: DeSoto
City: Arcadia
Description: The Town of Arcadia was settled in 1883, incorporated in 1886, and became the county seat in 1888. By the late 1880s the population was 300. On Thanksgiving night 1905 the town burned. Three brick stores survived. Using only brick or block, rebuilding began immediately. Most of those buildings remain today. During World War I with its two flying schools, Carlstrom and Dorr Fields, Arcadia became known as the “Aviation Capital” of Florida. The land for Arcadia’s first city hall (140×142) was a pineapple patch bought in 1917 for $3,000 from Fred and Ida Gore. City Hall was designed in the Mediterranean Revival style and was furnished in June 1926 at a cost of $45,216, including all furnishings. A section of the original nine-foot office counter and steel shelves for the vault are still in use. The fire station first housed a solid, rubber-tired, auto driven hose wagon with chemical tanks and a 1924 American La France fire truck which is still owned and running. The original 20-foot brass fire pole and the 400-pound siren are to be placed in the City Hall Museum. In 2004, restoration of City Hall began with funding from the Florida Division of Historical Resources and the City.
Sponsors: THE CITY OF ARCADIA AND THE FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF STATE

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