ATTACHMENT I
Design Guidelines Applicable to the Project
Design-Related Policies in the Land Use Element of the General Plan:
4.10: Locate and design buildings to relate to and frame major public streets, open spaces, and cityscape…
4.11: Require that development demonstrates a contextual relationship with neighboring structures and sites addressing such elements as building scale, massing, orientation, setbacks, buffering, the arrangement of shared and private open spaces, visibility, privacy, automobile and truck access, impacts of noise and lighting, landscape quality, infrastructure, and aesthetics.
6.1: Require new development and changes to existing development to be located and designed to respect the defining elements of Pasadena’s character and history such as its grid pattern, block scale, public realm, courtyards, paseos, alleys, neighborhoods and districts, building massing and heights, significant architecture, and relationship to the mountains and Arroyo Seco.
7.1: Design each building as a high-quality, long term addition to the City’s urban fabric; exterior design and building materials shall exhibit permanence and quality, minimize maintenance concerns, and extend the life of the building.
7.2: Allow for the development of a diversity of buildings styles. Support innovative and creative design solutions to issues related to context and environmental sustainability.
7.3: Require that new and adaptively re-used buildings are designed to respect and complement the defining built form, massing, scale, modulation, and architectural detailing of their contextual setting.
10.7: Encourage sustainable practices for landscape materials, landscape design, and land development.
23.1: Design and modulate buildings to avoid the sense of “blocky” and undifferentiated building mass, incorporate well-defined entries, and use building materials, colors and architectural details complementing the neighborhood, while allowing flexibility for distinguished design solutions.
23.3: Provide appropriate setbacks, consistent with the surrounding neighborhood, along the street frontage and, where there are setbacks, ensure adequate landscaping is provided.
25.4: Require that new development protect community character by providing architecture, landscaping, and urban design of equal or greater quality than existing and by respecting the architectural character and scale of adjacent buildings.
Design-Related Policies in the Central District Specific Plan:
5.b.: Allow for a range of architectural styles and forms that provide visual interest and quality design through flexible massing and façade standards.
5.h: Use durable, high-quality materials that exhibit a sense of permanence on all sides of a building, but particularly at the street level and entrances.
6.a.: Incorporate private and common open space areas that correlate to a building’s size and number of residents.
6.f.: Encourage ground level pedestrian passages and common spaces with a strong functional and visual connection to the street for safety; use integrated site planning to solidify links between interior and exterior.
Design Guidelines for Neighborhood Commercial and Multi-family Residential Districts:
1.1 Relationship to Public Realm. Buildings should be oriented to positively define and frame adjacent public streets, and/or public or common spaces, while promoting the collective form of neighborhoods by:
• Matching or complementing adjacent building setbacks; • Matching or complementing adjacent building heights and massing; • Completing the streetscape pattern of the street they front.
2.2 Activating the street. New multi-family and mixed-use buildings should be designed with frontages that activate the street by providing direct access to their ground floor dwellings and commercial spaces.
3.2 Lots adjacent to historic structures. Buildings on lots adjacent to historic structures or civic (public) buildings should be designed in a manner that safeguards the prominence and integrity of the historic or civic structure.
5.1 Front yard continuity. The front-yard landscape of new buildings should be continuous and coordinated with that of existing neighboring ones.
7.2 Side and rear elevations. The rear and/or side elevations of new buildings that are visible from the public realm should be designed with equal care and quality as the front or principal façade.
8.1 Entrances into buildings. New buildings should be entered directly and prominently from the street through a lobby, or indirectly through a covered or uncovered passage.
Entrance ways and doorways should be clearly identifiable as prominent points of access into buildings and their form should dominate all other openings.
11.1: All buildings should incorporate: a full array of architectural elements associated with their chosen style; the compositional, structural, and constructional logic associated with that style; and the material logic associated with that style.
12.1 Simplicity. Building masses should be organized as simple and well-scaled volumes. Excessive roof breaks and overly complicated hipped or gabled roofs should be avoided.
12.4 Proportion. Building masses and building facades should be designed with simple, harmonious proportions. Arbitrary proportions should be avoided. All architectural elements (porches, balconies, canopies, doors, windows, etc.) should relate stylistically and proportionally to one another.
13.2: Authentic materials are encouraged. Faux or fake materials are discouraged. New materials (such as architectural composite panels) should not imitate other materials, but should reflect their own identity.
13.4: The use of synthetic materials is discouraged unless they can be shown to display an ability to age in a manner similar to or superior to the natural material they replace.
13.5: Two or more wall materials may be combined on one façade, but should be located one above the other with lighter materials above more substantial materials.
16.2: Amenities. Courtyards and forecourts should provide design elements such as seating areas, fountains, and/or outdoor fireplaces to encourage their use as outdoor rooms or gathering places.
16.3 Courtyard and forecourt frontage. Ground floor uses – whether residential or commercial – should be accessed through appropriate frontage elements such as porches, arcades, shopfronts, etc.
16.6 Opening to street. Courtyards should be visible to people passing by on the street (even though the latter may not have access to the courtyard). The opening from the street to the courtyard may be either gated or completely open to the street but should be unobstructed by garden walls or other solid elements that impede the views into and out of the courtyard.