4.4 Transparent and Interesting Façades Ground-level façades help define neighborhood character. They offer a sense of safety and comfort when they provide a clear view into retail and other nonresidential space, help avoid great expanses of blank walls, and provide unshuttered windows, especially at night. Optional items (f), (g), and (h) in NPD Credit 1, Walkable Streets (NPDc1), contain criteria to help projects achieve these design standards. To encourage a clear view into shops and other retail spaces, your municipality can amend zoning regulations using criteria from NPDc1 optional item (f). The regulations can require that all ground-level retail, service, and trade uses that face a public space have clear glass on at least 60 percent of their façades between three and eight feet above grade. In addition, the regulations can impose a limit on blank walls along building façades in accordance with NPDc1 optional item (g). Specifically, the zoning regulations can require each façade that abuts a sidewalk to limit blank walls without doors or windows to no more than 40 percent of the façade (or 50 feet, whichever is less). Other design concepts that can break up blank walls include landscaping, murals, articulation of the wall plane, and street furniture. Finally, using criteria from NPDc1 optional item (h), the regulations can require that ground-level retail, service or trade windows be kept visible and unshuttered at night. Security bars over windows are consistent with this design standard if they allow a view of interior spaces.
Bethesda Row sidewalk, Bethesda, MD Source: Federal Realty
Champaign, Illinois Champaign consulted the LEED-ND pilot rating system while developing the Urban NeighborhoodResidential, Urban Neighborhood-Activity Center, and Urban Neighborhood-Corporate districts (UN-R, UN-AC, and UN-C) for its Curtis Road Interchange. Design requirements for the UN-AC district include minimum transparency requirements for façades facing the right-of-way or other common area (see City of Champaign, IL, code section 37-329.3). For façades between the height of three feet and eight feet above the walkway grade, at least 60 percent of linear frontage must comprise windows or glass entrances.
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