The City of Pasadena California approved design guidelines for housing and mixed-use buildings

The City of Pasadena, California, approved design guidelines for housing and mixed use buildings throughout much of the city in October. Created by Moule & Polyzoides of Pasadena, Design Guidelines for Neighborhood Commercial & Multi-Family Districts is one of the most thorough and useful municipal design documents New Urban News has come across. The specifics relate to Pasadena, but the principles apply everywhere.

Highlights include excellent diagrams for massing and scale of buildings and frontages. The document includes a particularly detailed description of styles. The “Main Street” style section is useful for T5 zones (low-rise, mixed use commercial areas) anywhere. The section on Arts and Crafts housing has broad applicability as well.

The document treats “Twentieth Century Modernism” — the kind prevalent from the 1940s to the 1970s — as a style that is described in detail. Architects are strongly encouraged to use the language of Modernism in a consistent manner. Postmodernist styles, however — in this document they are called Contemporary Pluralism — are treated as “a style with personal rules that need to be explained building by building,” says architect Stefanos Polyzoides. For a copy, go to http://ww2.cityofpasadena.net/planning/deptorg/dhp/Guidelines/designguidelines.asp