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2017 R ena i s s anc e P l an U pdat e | T own of W ak e F or e s t
9.3.9 Ideal Building Height
Building facades play an important role in creating a sense of place through spatial enclosure, as discussed in the previous section. Short one story buildings set back from the street provide no spatial enclosure and therefore create no sense of place. As previously mentioned, good spatial enclosure occurs on White Street near the intersection with Jones Street where buildings 30' tall face each other on opposite sides of the 60’ wide street and sidewalk zone. Following an ideal spatial enclosure ratio of 1:1, buildings could be as tall as 60' on White Street. However, they would potentially overshadow the existing historic buildings that are no more than 40' tall. Instead, an ideal building height along White Street is one that relates well to the existing historic character, 3 stories or about 40' tall. But, taller buildings are more appropriate on other streets, like Brooks and Taylor. For example, Town Hall is some 50–60' tall on the Taylor Street side. Brooks an Taylor are both streets with general widths of about 60'. Future building heights of 5 stories on both sides would create an ideal spatial enclosure ratio on both streets and create a higher quality sense of place. The diagram to the left illustrates ideal future bu lding heights for much of the Renaissance Area. Notably, the terrain slopes down significantly from White Street east to Brooks Street, Taylor Street and Franklin Street. This slope in terrain allows for taller buildings that would not overshadow the shorter historic buildings on White Street.
E Jones Ave
E Owen Ave
oyner Ct
Legend
40' (3 stories) 50' (4 stories) 60' (5 stories) public park or infrastructure
Pine Ridge Ct
RECOMMENDATION 9L: Amend the Unified Development Ordinance to better achieve ideal building heights.
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