COMMUNITYPLANNING
THE LANDINGS
PROJECT OVERVIEW:
During the third year in the Landscape Architecture program I received my first project with a real-life aspect to be included in it: zoning. This was a group project in which we developed a community from a piece of land in Centre County, Pennsylvania, just a few miles from the Penn State campus. Each group received different requirements for land use in the categories of open space, lot/building coverage, and roads. My group’s requirements were to plan a community comprised of 55% open space (including 10% nature preserve and 5% community garden), 35% lot/building coverage, and 10% roads. Also, we were required to utilize a cluster layout to save on infrastructure.
MY VISION:
The major challenge in this project was to plan a successful community while adhering to the zoning requirements of Ferguson Township. Our objective in this plan was to create a sustainable, mixed-use community while encouraging walkability and connectivity, promoting a sense of community through the use of public open space and adjacent land uses. Connectivity will be achieved via systematic use of bike and pedestrian trails that not only connect our individual neighborhoods with one another, but with the larger circulatory system of State College as well. Mixed use will be an important design element of the community including small markets and stores as well as community gardens, all of which will help to make this a self-sustaining, community oriented neighborhood.
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