UP 503: Site and Physical Planning

2: Understanding Density

This is an extension, in a sense, of the Understanding Space, Distance and Area assignment. Density refers to the intensity with which land is used in a particular place: the number of residential units on an acre of land or the number of square feet in a commercial building. The following exercises are intended to 1) physically engage you with the density of places, and 2) expose you to this place called Champaign-Urbana.

1. A Density Catalog (about 2.5 MB) has been prepared that points to different residential densities, and commercial uses of different intensities, in the local area. After reading this catalog, visit each of the fifteen examples and document using words and photographs the look and feel of these sites. I highly recommend making these visits in small groups; see map of locations you can use to plan visits. When making these visits, take pictures, and record ideas as you consider the following questions:
   
   
1. What are attributes of these sites, other than density, that allow you to differentiate among these sites?
   
2. How are these sites different in terms of these attributes?
3. What do you think of the site?

Feel free to ride bikes, its entirely doable in a few hours.

We will discuss your work in the next lab session. Put your solution in a pdf document in memo format addressed to the TA. Use the class assignment naming convention: assign#_lastname.pdf . Place the file in the course assignment dropoff folder (\\Urban-server2\urban-courses\UP503\_Assignment Dropoff) by the start of class on Th, 6 Sep. Make sure that digital pictures are resized appropriately before inserting into the document.

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