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1Urban Design Portfolio

Urban Design Portfolio

Dave Munson

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1. Malvern Transit-Oriented Development, page 4

Transit-oriented development scenarios in a small town.

2. 5M Project, page 6A development for the new economy.

3. Rio Waterfront, page 10Repurposing an industrial waterfront for a post-industrial city.

4. Boston: Beyond the Car, page 14Redesigning Boston for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit users.

5. West Poplar Infill Plan, page 22Tracking and planning for change in a Philadelphia neighborhood.

6. Hammarby Sjöstad, page 26Analyzing TOD in a redeveloped Stockholm neighborhood.

7. Jeddah Form-Based Code, page 30Regulating building form in an area ripe for new development.

8. Lower Northeast Plan, page 34Working with the City of Philadelphia to plan innovative solutions for this district.

9. Wilmington TND, page 38Creating traditional urbanism in an underdeveloped neighborhood.

10. Personal ProjectsIllustration and rendering techniques, page 42.

Creating a series of Baroque axes across Philadelphia, page 44.

Redesigning Phoenix to be more climate-adaptive and transit-supportive, page 46.

Applying the San Francisco Better Streets Plan to Spanish Fork, Utah, page 48.

Contents

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Malvern Transit-Oriented Development

Company: Whitman, Requardt & AssociatesPartners: Adrienne Eiss, Brad Giresi, Jeff RiegnerClient: Borough of Malvern, PADate: January 2013–PresentLocation: Malvern, PA

The Borough of Malvern is an old railroad suburb of Philadelphia, with a well-developed main street just south of its train station. However, the north side of the tracks is currently an underutilized industrial park. My job was to come up with conceptual designs of what could be built on that north side to take greater advantage of the transportation opportunities at the site. I proposed several concepts which included high-density residential development and solutions for shared parking between the station users and residents.

View of the station area from King Street.


Concept 1•

Smaller mixed-use buildings built over parking with liners.

•Concept 2

Some larger buildings with a shared parking

structure.

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5M Project

Company: SiteLAB Urban StudioPartners: Laura CrescimanoClient: Forrest City DevelopmentDate: November 2012–January 2013Location: San Francisco, CA

The 5M Project, at 5th and Mission in SoMA, San Francisco, is a new kind of work space. Branded as “a place for artists, makers, students, changemakers, entrepreneurs, tech, and food,” it is designed for the new economy, with the sort of amenities that attract young, creative workers. I researched cowork spaces and amenities such as food trucks in cities across the country, and designed infographics to show how they compare.

The development will take advantage of underutilized parking lots and be in scale with recent new development in the area

(image by team).


The growth of cowork spaces and food trucks are indicators of the new creative economy.

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MapsThough other cities may have more of these types of facilities, San Francisco often has more cowork spaces and food trucks per capita than competing markets.

GraphsIn the top two graphs, compare the traditional downtown districts on the left of these graphs with the creative neighborhoods on the right—neighborhoods that are growing often have a more bal-anced mix of residents and work-ers. The lower two graphs compare populations for each district.

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Rio Waterfront Plan

Company: University of PennsylvaniaPartners: Connie Chang, Adam Childers, Adrian Fine, Jeff Harris, Lizzie Hessmiller, Aaron Kurtz, Anne Leslie, Ben Phillips, Natalie Robles, Maurie Smith, Andy WangClient: City and State of Rio de JaneiroDate: January–May 2012Location: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Port of Rio de Janeiro in the city’s North Zone has long been the dirty back door of the city, as opposed to the sandy beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana in the South Zone. But new opportunities, including shifting economic interests and development opportunities as a result of the upcoming 2016 Olympic Games, have changed the landscape of the port and its environs. Our task was to find ways to channel these opportunities into a plan for the area. Our proposal included streamlining port operations, job training to allow residents to clean up the bay, creating connections to neighborhood services, and creating a development plan, which was my focus as part of the project.

Development in the old port area would scale down from a peak where the Canal do Mangue meets the port to the existing 3-story scale at the edges.


New highrise development and improved public spaces will create wonderful views, both along the port and towards the mountains (including Christ the Redeemer) to the south.

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Parcels Pedestrian Access


Articulation and Parking

Guidelines will help future development to smoothly transition into the existing fabric while maintaining a high standard of design.

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Boston: Beyond the Car

Company: University of PennsylvaniaPartners: Barrett Lane, Andy Wang, Hadley Yates, Caitlin ZachariasDate: September–December 2011Location: Boston, MA

Working with a team of urban designers, we imagined what Boston would look like if it were to move beyond the car as the principal means of transportation. We imagined a city where, instead of cars, bikes and transit were given the priority on streets. After developing ideas for how this would work on the city-wide scale, we then selected specific sites to work on; I focused on Gately Square, the area between the Symphony Hall and the Orange Line stop on Massachusetts Avenue.

Improvements at Gately Square would connect two existing transit lines via a proposed third line, create a grand new station with natural light, create infrastructure for an expanded bike network, and create public spaces which would encourage interaction between the Symphony Hall and its neighbors.


The major issues facing Boston are the radial nature of its transit network, the congestion in the center caused by cars, and the concentration of walkable squares in the center. We proposed creating radial transit links, responsive systems in the center, and new squares throughout the city (images by team).

A system of car-free “bike highways” would correspond to major transit routes (image by team).

Issues and Strategies

LATERAL RESPONSIVE BALANCED

Location: Gately Square, Boston, MADate: December 2011Media: Photoshop, Illustrator, SketchUp, MaxwellPartners: Barrett Lane, Andy Wang, Hadley Yates, Caitlin Zacharias

BOSTON: BEYOND THE CAR

The major issues facing Boston are the radial nature of its transit network, the congestion in the center caused by cars, and the concentration of walkable squares in the center. We proposed creating radial transit links, responsive systems in the center, and new squares throughout the city (images by team).

Working with a team of urban designers, we imagined what Boston would look like if it were to move beyond the car as the principal means of transportation. We imagined a city where, instead of cars, bikes and transit were given the priority on streets. After developing ideas for how this would work on the city-wide scale, we then selected specific sites to work on. A partner and I worked on Gately Square, the area between the Symphony Hall and the Orange Line stop on Massachusetts Avenue. Here, the proposals we made about how to move beyond the car were made concrete.

Issues and Strategies

RADIAL CONGESTED CONCENTRATED

DAVE MUNSON • 3512 LANCASTER AVE APT 2E, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19104 • (724) 316-3919 • [email protected]

Solu

tions

Issu

esNetwork Center Squares

The components that make up an ideal public square, if bicycles and transit were given priority over cars.

Expanded bike network: highways and wideways

Bike highwayBike wideway

A system of car-free “bike highways” would correspond to major transit routes (image by team).

BOSTON: BEYOND THE CAR

DAVE MUNSON • 3512 LANCASTER AVE APT 2E, PHILADELPHIA, PA 19104 • (724) 316-3919 • [email protected]

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The components that make up an ideal public square, if bicycles and transit were given priority over cars.


Existing squares, in blue, possess many features of an ideal square and are concentrated in central Boston and its university fringe. Sites throughout the rest of the city, in orange, are identified for improvement using the model, and are concentrated along existing or proposed transit lines.

Harvard Square Copley Square

Andrew Square

Gately Square

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Main StationSeating Spaces

These images illustrate the major features of the proposal that

will make Gately Square a more walkable, transit-friendly part of

Boston’s network of squares.


Low Light

Mid Light

Day Light

Park

Lightwell Crescendo

Natural Light TransitionMain Station

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Daytime

The square would be open to transit and cyclists.


Nighttime

The square would be closed to transit, and cycling would be limited to a certain area, so pedestrians can

have free reign of the square.

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West Poplar Infill Plan

Company: University of PennsylvaniaPartners: Brooke Fotheringham, Jesica YoungbloodDate: October 2011Location: West Poplar neighborhood, Philadelphia, PA

West Poplar is a changing neighborhood in North Philadelphia where my team made recommendations for infill development. After visiting the site and interviewing residents on the street, I made a series of images describing the major corridors, existing characteristics, and areas of opportunity in the area, and how the residents felt that development was “taming” the neighborhood. From this our team created a development plan and proposed streetscape improvements.

Major corridors are where growth is currently focused, while vacant land in the north of the neighborhood present an opportunity for future development.


According to local residents, the “wild” nature of West Popular is being “tamed” by development encroaching from major corridors.

Change in racial composition shows growth in the south of the neighborhood, especially among non-African Americans.

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The maps on the left show the current characteristics of the community.


As shown above, new housing is built in vacant areas, and urban agriculture, which was practiced in the area until the community garden was given up for new condos, is brought

back. Other areas are sites for rehabilitation of existing housing.

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Hammarby Sjöstad

Company: University of PennsylvaniaDate: September 2011Location: Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm has many areas that have moved beyond a reliance on the car, and has many lessons for other cities. An analysis of transit-oriented development in Stockholm, particularly Hammarby Sjöstad, illustrates how land use is integrated with transit and provides for different circulation based on transit mode, with pedestrians having the greatest access.

Areas of redevelopment in Stockholm are tied to access to transit or are planned in coordination with extensions of transit lines.


The bike/ped network (top) is more continuous than the car network (middle), which often comes to T-intersections at the main street. Land uses (bottom) are at their highest intensity adjacent to tram stops.

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Hammarby Alle, the main street in Hammarby Sjöstad, prioritizes transit and allows through access to pedestrians but not cars.


Babordsgatan, a side street, calms car traffic while providing pedestrians with numerous paths accessing green space and water.

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SITE/PARCEL PLAN

39 | SITE PLAN

Retail/Office/Hotel

Retail/Office/Residential

Multifamily

Townhouse

Single Family

Open Space

Public/Institutional

N500 Feet

Fig. 25 - Site Plan.

Jeddah Form-Based Code

Company: University of PennsylvaniaDate: May 2011Location: Former airport, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is planning on building train stations in Jeddah to connect it to Mecca and Medina. The site is near one future station which is on the largely undeveloped former airport site, and is an ideal place for a new transit-oriented development. To better understand the local flavor, I explored the building traditions that are unique to Jeddah or to the larger Hijaz region of western Saudi Arabia. I created two street types, a residential and commercial street, as well as four building types. The plan for Al-Mahatet (The Station) is inspired by traditional ideas in the Arab world regarding privacy, while still providing access to nearby amenities and a variety of housing choices.

Map of building types at Al-Mahatet, a new transit-oriented neighborhood in central Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.


To become better acquainted with the city, I conducted pen on vellum studies of traditional forms. These include a street scene in Al-Balad, the old city (above); a local minaret (top right); and an ornate mashrabiya, a common window screen in Jeddah (bottom right).

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Based on the tall, narrow houses found in Jeddah and Yemen, this townhouse model provides for the needs of smaller, younger families. Although courtyards are not typical of this building type within the region, it is quite common in other parts of the Arab world, and the option is available as shown. Roof access is important, especially if the courtyard is not included, so that families can have access to the fresh air of the outdoors.

HIJAZ HOUSE

53 | BUILDING AND STREET TYPES

Fig. 39 - Axonometric drawing of the Hijaz House.

As illustrated in these pages from the book I produced for the form-based code, street standards use local plants and patterns to create comfortable, lively shopping streets, while modern high-density buildings employ traditional motifs such as screened roof terraces, internal courtyards, and mashrabiya window covers.


Based on the tall, narrow houses found in Jeddah and Yemen, this townhouse model provides for the needs of smaller, younger families. Although courtyards are not typical of this building type within the region, it is quite common in other parts of the Arab world, and the option is available as shown. Roof access is important, especially if the courtyard is not included, so that families can have access to the fresh air of the outdoors.

HIJAZ HOUSE

53 | BUILDING AND STREET TYPES

Fig. 39 - Axonometric drawing of the Hijaz House.

BUILDING AND STREET TYPES | 46

Fig. 27 - Plan drawing showing planting, lighting and shade patterns.

Street RegulationsStreet Regulations

Total ROW Width 95 ft.

Minimum Sidewalk Width 18 ft.

Through Lane Width 10 ft.

Parking Lane Width 7 ft.

Planter Width 5 ft. curb edge to curb edge

Light Spacing Pattern Symmetrical 45 ft. apart

Irrigation and Green Infrastructure

Drip irrigation system; planters double as bio-retention

Recommended Traffic Management System

Signalization

Required Furniture Shade structures, benches, trash cans

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Lower Northeast Plan

Company: University of PennsylvaniaPartners: Connie Chang, Aaron Kurtz, Sandy Ngan, Michael Ruane, Rachel Strauss, Hadley Yates, Jesica YoungbloodClient: Philadelphia City Planning CommissionDate: March 2011Location: Philadelphia, PA

The Lower Northeast District is a planning district in northeast Philadelphia. We conducted a detailed analysis of the historical development and current trends in the district, and identified a number of issues, including a lack of green space, transit connections, and transit-oriented development. Our solutions fill these gaps as well as maximize existing potential.

The major interventions for this project are located

along Roosevelt Boulevard, and inlcude Oxford

Circle, a new public space and transit

center, and the Tower Center, a

former strip mall updated to a

mixed-use TOD.


Today (top), Oxford Circle is an open chasm over Roosevelt Boulevard with little recreational value. Capping the interchange at Oxford Circle could provide for more green space in the neighborhood while providing for comfortable, protected stations for a future bus rapid transit system.

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The Tower Center, currently a car- oriented strip shopping center, could be redeveloped as a mixed-use area with shops, offices and residences oriented toward a new BRT station along Roosevelt Boulevard.

Phase 1

Phase 3

Phase 2

Phase 4

Final Buildout

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Wilimington TND

Company: University of PennsylvaniaDate: February 2011Location: Philadelphia, PA

I used Wilmington as an experimental site to test different design aesthetics, including traditional design, as seen here. While I maintained connections to major roads outside the site, as well as Wilmington’s grid pattern, I made adjustments relative to the river. I used building typologies based on a form-based code to populate the model and used measurements from the Smartcode. Streets were designated as A or B streets, determining which streets had unbroken facades and which ones had parking.


Using a form based code, I developed models for various building types in five architectural styles. I take these models and drop them into projects for quick 3-D visualization and massing, as can be seen on the Wilmington project.

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Wilmington’s grid is adjusted to changes in the landscape and certain corridors are emphasized as mixed-use shopping streets, while other areas host green space in the form of traditional squares and a large waterfront park (above).


Traditional development allows for multiple scales of streets, buildings, and open spaces, as can be seen in this birdseye view (above) and street level image (left).

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Personal Projects

Company: Munson’s City (munsonscity.wordpress.com)Date: September 2010–presentLocation: Philadelphia, PA

Design is not only something I do as part of assigned projects, but also something I take a personal interest in. I have studied traditional building types and city forms, studied design processes, and worked to improve my visual skills on my own time. Some of these works are projects I did for fun, and many have appeared on my blog.

This house is based on principles from Christopher Alexander’s “A Pattern Language.”


Architectural DrawingsThis pavilion (left)was an experiment in how complex geometry can create beautiful forms. It creates an interesting way to mark the convergence of these two paths. This apartment building (below) started as a redesign of a building I lived in and became an experiment in contemporary architecture and rendering programs and techniques.

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Existing

Major Landmarks


Philly Baroque’dThese images come from a blog post about Baroque city planning and show how a series of axes could connect Philadelphia’s major landmarks and cut through the existing urban fabric.

Connecting Axes

New Urban Fabric

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Dubai, UAE

Comparing block patterns in desert cities

Monterrey, Mexico

Phoenix, AZ

Why No One Rides the Train in PhoenixThese images are from a blog post about light rail in Phoenix, Arizona. Phoenix isn’t designed like other major cities in desert areas, and it can learn from their development patterns (left). Step-by-step improvements (above) can take an overly wide suburban arterial and turn it into a sustainable, mixed-use transit corridor.

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Existing

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800

East

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n S

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Adjusted Width


Small-Scale Street Improvements

Large-Scale Street Improvements

San Francisco Better Streets PlanThis series of images was for a blog post where, to show the wide applicability of the standards supported in the San Francisco Better Streets Plan, I applied them to a different SF; the small town of Spanish Fork, Utah. Improvements include street furniture, bus bulbouts, and conversion to a parkway.

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