Building Stock The existing building stock of the neighborhood significantly influences what kinds of businesses can operate in the district and can define the district’s future growth. There are four primary types of buildings in the Bowdoin Geneva commercial district: residential triple-deckers, mixed-use triple-deckers, one-story commercial buildings, and four to five-story civic buildings. Though individual buildings can vary in dimensions, the building types on the right show typical dimensions for each type of building. As noted in the previous section on zoning, clustering of building types prevents the district from feeling like one continuous commercial area. The typology map shows four clusters of commercial and mixed-use buildings, which are primarily one-story commercial and mixed-use or converted triple-decker buildings. These commercial buildings are broken up by corridors of triple-decker residential buildings and one group of civic buildings around Coppens Square. The divisions in building typology would complicate an effort to use architecture to physically unite the Bowdoin Geneva commercial district into one continuous corridor.
Building Setbacks
The building stock in Bowdoin Geneva was also evaluated according to the buildings’ varying relationships with the street. The relationship to the street varies widely across different parts of the district, creating a spectrum of privacy and integration with the public realm among existing buildings. For example, buildings that are set back from the road and angled away create a more private feeling around their entrances, whereas buildings that open directly to the sidewalk indicate that pedestrians are welcome. The latter may be especially appropriate for businesses.
Storefronts
When evaluating the existing building conditions for businesses and commercial uses, we also assessed window transparency to see how easy it is to see inside each business. We categorized buildings into varying levels of transparency. Only 24 percent of storefronts were considered “transparent,” or not blocked by signage. Almost 60 percent of storefronts were partially blocked by signage or grates, and an additional 17 percent were fully blocked. Blocked storefronts detract from stores’ attractiveness to customers and contribute to feelings of unsafety on the street and within stores due to limited visibility from outside and inside businesses. The highest concentration of very transparent storefronts is in the Central Bowdoin cluster of the commercial district.
Typical Building Typologies COMMERCIAL
MIXED-USE
RESIDENTIAL
48’
36’ 12’ 51’
64’ 102’
32 / EXISTING CONDITIONS
CIVIC
52’
48’
36’
84’ 50’
37’