Architectural ConservationInfill Design

• In urban planning, infill is the rededication of land in an urban environment, usually open space, to new construction.• Infill also applies within an urban polity to construction

on any undeveloped land that is not on the urban margin. • The slightly broader term "land-recycling" is sometimes

used instead. Infill has been promoted as an economical use of existing infrastructure and a remedy for urban sprawl. • Its opponents view it as overloading urban services,

including increased traffic congestion and pollution, and decreasing urban green-space

Introduction

• There’s a shift happening in the built environment right now. Suburban land is becoming increasingly scarce, and rural land is being pushed to inaccessible distances. Meanwhile, it’s more attractive than ever to live and work in the city, and less desirable to be stuck in traffic. While these challenges can be difficult to confront, they are also motivating us as a society to produce thoughtful solutions in urban settings. These constraints are producing an architectural paradigm shift.

• One of the most successful solutions that we’re seeing in the built environment is urban infill. It’s a broad term with many applications and today’s post takes a crack at defining them as well as calling out some exemplary projects.

Infill as a Solution

• Infill development has the potential to have dramatic effects on urban density and urban form. • But the role for future infill development depends on the

interplay of complex economic, political and regulatory forces.• The New Urbanists, who include architects, urban

planners, and developers, emphasize many of these same advantages in support of infill development.• Infill development is often seen as an opportunity to

address sprawl and its associated problems while at the same time revitalizing and growing existing communities.

Infill as a Solution

• Both smart growth and new urbanist advocates push for “smart growth” policies and provide much of the underlying rationale for their use. Smart growth advocates seek to change current patterns of low-density dispersed development (Downs 2001).

Infill as a Solution

Example of a potential urban infill site

• It increases the density of the built environment.• It builds and fosters community.• It focuses on the reuse and re-positioning of obsolete or

underutilized buildings and sites. • It activates neighbourhoods, making them more useful

and livelier for longer periods of the day and night.• It uses what is already there to its advantage, as opposed

to starting with a blank canvas.

Factors Involved

• Although urban infill is an appealing tool for community redevelopment and growth management, it is often far more costly for developers to develop land within the city than it is to develop on the periphery, in suburban greenfield land. Costs for developers include acquiring land, removing existing structures and testing for and cleaning up any environmental contamination.

• Scholars have argued that infill development is more financially feasible for development when it occurs on a large plot of land (several acres).

• Large scale development benefits from what economists call economies of scale, and reduces the surrounding negative influences of neighbourhood blight, crime, or poor schools.

• However, large scale infill development is often difficult in a blighted neighbourhood for several reasons. These include the difficulties in acquiring land and in gaining community support.

Challenges

• Amassing land is one challenge that infill development poses that greenfield development does not. Neighbourhoods that are targets for infill often have parcels of blighted land scattered among places of residence. Developers must be persistent in order to amass land parcel by parcel, and often find resistance from landowners in the target area.

• Developers must deal with regulatory barriers, visit numerous government offices for permitting, interact with city management that is frequently unwilling to use eminent domain to remove current residents, and generally engage in public-private partnerships with local government.

• Developers also meet with high social goal barriers in which the local officials and residents are not interested in the same type of development. Although citizen involvement has been found to facilitate the development of brownfield land, residents in blighted neighbourhoods often want to convert vacant lots to parks or recreational facilities, whereas external actors seek to build apartment complexes, commercial shopping centers, or industrial sites.

Challenges

Design Approach

• INFORMATION GATHERING & DOCUMENTATION

• The first step is figuring out what’s so.

• This pertains to whatever information the city has on file for the site and can include previous permits, record drawings, code variances, grandfathered design elements, possible liens on the property, and so on.

• Any other regulatory agencies should be contacted at this time, including community groups, for possible covenants or protected view corridors.

• If a survey is not available, it’s usually a good idea to engage a surveyor to produce one.

• This step also involves walking the site, getting a feel for the area and talking to the owner/users about project goals.

Design Approach

• MUNICIPAL CODE REVIEW & DOCUMENTATION

• Municipal codes govern what you can (and can’t) do with regard to the size, placement and use of the project.

• It regulates everything from the property setbacks and height limits to whether screens are required around the garbage dumpsters.

• Having a good knowledge of the municipal and building codes allows us to have confidence and command with the design possibilities of a project.

• It’s an exercise in organization, focus, and asking the right questions. While it’s not glamorous, it’s a necessary step to achieve exceptional architecture.

Design Approach

• BUILDING CODE REVIEW & DOCUMENTATION• The building code for most cities is typically an amended

extension of the International Building Code.• By the time you add in the State and City Amendments, it’s

a brick of a book.• It regulates everything from the size of a handrail to the

maximum distance a person should have to walk through a building before reaching the public right of way. • Similar to the municipal code, tackling this book requires

patience and discipline. The reward is a good understanding of the design possibilities.

Design Approach

• LAND USE AND BUILDING CODE COACHING• The amount of data gathered and interpreted from the

various codes typically leads to a list of open-ended issues, questions and items requiring further clarification. • A concise list of the most important questions typically

allows the city to provide enough clarity to proceed on to the schematic design.

Design Approach

• SCHEMATIC DESIGN• The design possibilities that

result from the municipal code, building code, and coaching sessions are then explored and applied to physical form. • Generating images like the

diagrams below, which compare two separate designs based on different construction types, floor areas, building heights and paths of egress.

Design Approach

• PRICING• Design is meaningless without at least some basic pricing

guidelines. • Pairing the schematic design schemes up with a cost breakdown

of everything we know and anticipate about the project.• Typical pricing exercises are an itemized list of all the different

categories of construction including soft costs (permits, design fees, consultants). • Clients have a variety of goals and aspirations, but typically

money is one of the key levers for making decisions on how to proceed with the project.

Design Approach

• DELIVERABLES• The final schematic design package includes the

condensed notes from the codes studies, minutes from the city coaching sessions, the critical code related spreadsheets, the diagrams illustrating the basic design possibilities and the cost estimates.• It’s a tight, cohesive package that allows an owner or a

development group to make sensible, smart decisions about doing good design.

Design Approach

Examples

• An extraordinary example of urban infill, the design involves a complete renovation to the guts of an existing brick building and the insertion of an additional floor on top.

• By introducing two restaurants, a bike/coffee shop, and offices to the neighborhood, the Kohlstrand urban infill fires on all cylinders (not to mention housing the best oyster bar in town).

SEATTLEKolstrand Building by Graham Baba Architects

• The Agnes Lofts urban infill is one of the reasons Seattle’s Pike-Pine corridor is a destination neighborhood.

• Nestled in between its older, industrial neighbors, the building brings 24 double-height residential lofts with ground floor (and sub-floor) commercial spaces to the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

• The crisp glass box design glows at night and leverages the potential of an active intersection in Seattle’s most vibrant neighborhood.

SEATTLEAgnes Lofts by Weinstein A|U and developed by Dunn + Hobbes

• Replacing a couple of dark and derelict buildings, the Park Modern urban infill injects a diversity of uses to Seattle’s North-Ave neighbourhood. Ten condominiums, two town homes, a café, a salon, and an architecture firm extend the pedestrian zone of Seattle’s U-District, pre-emptively filling in the blanks between two future light rail stations, and re-energizing a once gloomy part of town.

• Successful urban infill also increases the safety of cities by placing more eyes on the street, echoing the words of Jane Jacobs.

SEATTLEThe Park Modern by BUILD LLC

• Known for its density and highly constraining topography, San Francisco has its fair share of inspiring infill projects throughout the city. And with this unique set of contextual challenges, these buildings possess a dynamic quality that is true to place.

SAN FRANCISCO

1234 Howard Street by Stanley Saitowitz

PS House by IwamotoScott Chattanooga Street Duplex by Zack | de Vito

The Porter House by SHoP Architects

• Celadon at 9th and BroadwayThe tower of the sustainably-designed building is scaled to match surrounding historic buildings.

• MVE Institutional

• Liberty CentreThe mixed-use Ohio town centre contains 925,000 square feet of retail space, 100,000 square feet of offices, and 200 apartments and townhouses.

• Courtesy Torti Gallas and Partners

Liberty Centre

• Lincoln Park ResidenceArchitects worked with a tight urban lot and historic preservation guidelines to create a home that connects with the urban neighbourhood.• Eric Hausman

• McConnell ,Virginia and Wiley, Keith, Infill Development: Perspectives and Evidence from Economics and Planning, Washington, DC, (www.rff.org)• Ellman, Tara. 1997. Infill: The Cure for Sprawl?,

Goldwater Institute. Arizona Issue Analysis 146.• http://blog.buildllc.com• http://www.archdaily.com

References