Innovation
DPZ's work has brought international attention to urbanism and its postwar decline, being among the first to advocate a return to sustainable, environmentally-responsive, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use and compact urban growth. A significant aspect of DPZ’s work is its innovative use of planning regulations which accompany each design. Tailored to the individual project, the codes address the manner in which buildings are formed and located to ensure that they create useful and distinctive public spaces. Architectural style, often based upon local building traditions and techniques, are also codified within the regulations. In the last five years, DPZ has also been continually developing a new model zoning code called the SmartCode. This is based on an analytical tool called the Transect, which classifies degrees of urbanism within a continuum from urban core, through general urban neighborhoods to rural wilderness, and promotes a system of zoning according to that structure. The growing acceptance of traditional neighborhood development and of form-based regulation has inspired many municipalities across the country to adopt the SmartCode.
The firm’s method of integrating master plans with project-specific design codes and regulations is currently being applied to sites ranging from 10 to 10,000 acres (40 km2) throughout the United States. Abroad, DPZ projects are underway in Scotland, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Mexico, Brazil, Spain, England, Russia, Turkey, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Urban redevelopment plans for existing communities include those for Baton Rouge, Louisiana; West Palm Beach, Naples, Sarasota, and Fort Myers, Florida; and Providence, Rhode Island. In addition, the firm undertook the comprehensive overhaul of the City of Miami's zoning code, dubbed Miami 21, which was passed in May 2010.
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Famous quotes containing the word innovation:
“Both cultures encourage innovation and experimentation, but are likely to reject the innovator if his innovation is not accepted by audiences. High culture experiments that are rejected by audiences in the creator’s lifetime may, however, become classics in another era, whereas popular culture experiments are forgotten if not immediately successful. Even so, in both cultures innovation is rare, although in high culture it is celebrated and in popular culture it is taken for granted.”
—Herbert J. Gans (b. 1927)