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Do Urban Design Qualities Add to Property Values? An Empirical Analysis of the Relationship Between Urban Design Qualities and Property Values
Abstract
Urban design qualities have the potential to contribute to the sense of safety, comfort, engagement, and overall neighborhood satisfaction perceived by residents, thus can be related to higher property values. Yet, many of these urban design qualities are highly conceptual, require extensive data collection and are subject to various interpretations. As a result, there is little empirical evidence on how street-level urban design qualities are related to property values. Drawing on Multi-level Modeling, this article employs a highly cited dataset on urban design qualities in New York City to provide a statistical analysis of the direct relationship between these qualities and property values. Controlling for confounding factors, this article identifies “imageability” in the street-level environment as a featured urban design quality with the most statistically significant association with property values. In addition, research findings suggest that “transparency” of building facades are positive predictors of property values, whereas the complexity of the built environment exhibits a negative correlation with property values. Policy implications for planners, urban designers, and developers include designing guidelines and street layouts that encourage memorable civic image and identity. While investing in building facades with greater transparency would yield higher property values, complexity in the urban environment, particularly in neighborhoods seeking investment and attracting capital should be treated with care by all parties involved
... For instance, De Nisco and Warnaby (2014) discuss the influence of the physical environment on the quality of shopping streets and analyse three aspects of the physical environment -physical design, space layout, and external appearance are analysed. Hamidi et al. (2020) The second aspect of the physical environment concerns people's perspectives on the physical environment. For instance, Mouratidis and Hassan (2020) visually evaluate the asymmetry, ornamentation, and appearance of the physical environment to compare contemporary and traditional architectural styles to study the correlation between the physical characteristics of architecture and people's emotional well-being. ...
... Being aware of the physical environment, acting as a physical context along with other factors, and creating opportunities for the passive experience Ma et al., 2021). In this study, we involve varying types of relevant influencing factors (both spatial (different spatial characteristics of the physical environment) and non-spatial (people's adults' familiarity with sites)) to determine people's different degrees of sensory attention to playing children in the study sites, rather than separately studying the influence of the physical environment on people's experiences (e.g., Aletta et al., 2016;Hamidi et al., 2020). ...
... Meanwhile, we are aware that the physical environment, acting as a physical context 430 and along with other factors, creates opportunities for the passive experience Ma 431 et al., 2021). Thus, we did not separately study the influence of the physical environment 432 (e.g., Aletta et al., 2016;Hamidi et al., 2020), but studied adults' sensory attention to playing 433 children considering the influence of both spatial (different spatial characteristics of the 434 physical environment) and non-spatial factors (people's adults' familiarity with sites) in the 435 present study. 436 ...
The motivation of this thesis is to conduct ‘research for urban design’. It refers to conducting research to produce knowledge on how people’s public life takes place in urban public spaces. The knowledge can be used to fill the gap of the mismatch between designers' own understanding of the usage‐spatial relationship and people's actual use of space.
This thesis contributes to knowledge of people’s passive experience of public life in urban public spaces. It specifically explores how playing children influence adults’ passive experience of public life at the micro‐scale of urban public spaces in Copenhagen, Denmark.
... If the dependent variable is the natural log of the inflation-adjusted price, then the magnitudes of the statistically significant (p < 0.01) parameters for the accessibility characteristics show that infrastructure increases prices by +0.005% and walkability increases prices by+2.99%. The latter result on the magnitude of the effect of the accessibility characteristic walkability is higher than the magnitude of the effect in the empirical literature from Hamidi et al. [55]; that is, +2.99% versus +1.10%. ...
... Overall, results show how scale affects walkability valuation estimation in residential markets and where the market succeeds and/or fails to capitalize the value of walkability into prices. The magnitude of the price effect of walkability is probably high here because transactions, not assessments [55], best measure outcomes in residential markets. Methodology indeed matters [39], especially when infrastructure manifests on prices at a global scale and walkability manifests on prices at a local scale. ...
Capturing the value infrastructure investments add to the residential market is a longstanding policy to defray their expense. Unfortunately, estimates of the added value of infrastructure, generally, and estimates of the added value of walkability, specifically, are scarce. Novel, multiscale models free independent variables to manifest simultaneously at different scales of analysis to greatly improve specifications to precisely estimate walkability valuation. Results from analysis of years of transactions within walking distance of heavy rail stations suggest that walkability adds value available for capture locally, not systemically. Stakeholders confront myriad problems to replicate the accessibility characteristics shown to add value given the distinct cluster where walkability adds value available for capture in a heavy rail system.
... P a d a praktiknya terdapat dua kelompok besar terkait model penelitian. Kelompok pertama adalah kelompok yang menggunakan data sekunder atau data pasar aktual seperti harga transaksi atau harga sewa dari pihak ketiga (Hamidi, Bonakdar, Keshavarzi, & Ewing, 2020;Kauko, 2003), faktor lokasi yang didapat dari pihak ke tiga (Rahadi et al., 2020), informasi iklim (Hino & Burke, 2020) atau data jaringan transportasi dari otoritas terkait (Li, Wang, Callanan, Lu, & Guo, 2020). Kelompok kedua adalah kelompok yang menggunakan data primer yang diperoleh dari kuesioner atau wawancara Kauko, 2003;Strand & Vågnes, 2001). ...
... Faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi nilai ini memungkinkan data diperoleh dengan dua cara, dari pihak ketiga atau diperoleh langsung dari pelaku pasar, bisa pembeli atau pemilik aset. Data yang disediakan pihak ketiga melingkupi data terkait harga jual, harga penawaran, atau harga sewa (Hamidi et al., 2020), data spasial yang diperoleh dari otoritas yang menyediakan (Cohen, Coughlin, & Zabel, 2020;Dubin, 2003), atau data karakter bangunan seperti luas tanah, luas bangunan, jumlah kamar (Abidoye & Chan, 2016). Namun, pada hedonic price model diperlukan data kualitatif yang harus dikonversi menjadi angka seperti variabel yang ada pada atribut lingkungan, seperti kualitas jalan, kualitas air, kualitas udara, ataupun atribut-atribut lainnya terkait lingkungan (Abidoye & Chan, 2016). ...
State asset management is conducted in a transparent and accountable manner. One notable requirement that has to be met is the value of the assets. Such value is estimated by a qualified government valuer based on certain valuation approaches. This process normally carries a degree of subjectivity. This research uses statistical procedures to identify property attributes that significantly affect residential property value based on the government valuers’ perception. For this purpose, a set of questionnaires was distributed to government valuers who are part of the Directorate General of State Assets Management (DGSAM). These questionnaires contained property attributes identified from the literatures and validated by several property valuers at the DGSAM and PKN STAN. There were 285 valuers who provided their responses in this research, which was slightly higher than the anticipated number of participants. Further analysis from these responses shows that non-structural property attributes, one that are not directly related to property physical attributes, are indicated to be more significant in affecting residential property value. This research however only involves DGSAM’s valuers and thus, is rather limited in nature. The results reported in this paper as such should be interpreted accordingly
... A nascent literature examines the impact of urban greenery on the housing market. Researchers have found that proximity to green spaces results in an increase in residential property values ranging from 3% to above 20% depending on the specific types of green space and the urban context in comparison (Ye et al., 2019b;Arvanitidis et al., 2009;Crompton & Nicholls, 2019;Fu et al., 2019;Hamidi et al., 2020). ...
... In column (4), we find that the Low, Medium and High GVIs remain positive and statistically significant to commercial real estate rents. We also find the proximity to parks yields economically positive and statistically significant impacts on commercial real estate rents, in line with literature on proximity to urban green spaces Morancho, 2003;Ye et al., 2019b;Arvanitidis et al., 2009;Crompton & Nicholls, 2019;Fu et al., 2019;Hamidi et al., 2020). We find the coefficients of the GVIs, the proximity to parks and subway stations, and the surrounding sidewalk width are stable and consistent with results from previous columns. ...
Urban street-level greenery is empirically documented to improve mental and physical health, increase productivity, increase urban environmental equality and reduce carbon footprints. In addition, these benefits raise residents’ welfare, which has been correlated with increases in residential house prices. We measure street-level greenness in New York City through a novel Green View Index (GVI) using Google Street View images, and assess the impacts of greenness on commercial real estate prices. Using a sample of office transactions, we spatially correlate Google Street View Images for New York City over the 2010 to 2017 period. We find an 8.9% to 10.5% statistically, economically and positive transaction premium and a 5.6% to 7.8% rent premium for offices with low to high street-level greenness relative to those building transactions spatially correlated with very low greenness. Estimations are robust t with proximity to parks, subway stations, sidewalk widths, household income levels and investments by Building Improvement Districts, as well as other vital and standard office valuation features. By documenting the role of greenery in commercial building valuations, our results give a more complete understanding of the value of greenness in urban environments, as well as the economic role that urban landscape architecture, planning and development has upon cities.
... Furthermore, previous studies have substantiated the critical role of urban landmarks on social mobility patterns [9,[49][50][51]. In addition, the visual qualities of building façades in creating attractive streetscapes [52][53][54][55][56][57][58], and fostering more sociable and walkable urban areas have been investigated so far [13,[59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66]. Therefore, this study is unique in its focus, underscoring the novelty and originality of the work, and its contribution to the body of literature. ...
This study investigates the innovative use of street puppet theatre performances on the façades of commercial buildings to stimulate social gatherings in smart cities. This research investigates the impact of a unique musical puppet show held throughout the 2024 holiday season in the well-known shopping mall El Corte Inglés in Madrid, Spain. This study utilises both quantitative and qualitative methodologies, such as space syntax analysis and empirical observations. It uses the UCL Depthmap 10 software program to assess urban morphology and identify integrated and segregated areas. Observations and video recordings were conducted to analyse social gatherings and behaviours during the performances. The findings reveal that these performances attract diverse audiences and foster social engagement, transforming commercial façades into vibrant public spaces. The study concludes that such innovative uses of urban architecture can significantly enhance the sociability of detached and segregated urban spaces. The research demonstrates that this particular dynamic façade not only fosters social sustainability by creating lively urban spaces but also contributes to economic sustainability by attracting potential customers to commercial centres. This research advances the discourse on smart city development and public space utilisation, offering valuable insights for urban planners and policymakers on leveraging interactive urban façades to enhance public engagement and revitalise underutilised spaces.
... Table S1 presented the measurement of microscale streetscape in details for this work. Briefly, according to the framework and prior research [28,38,41], imageability was usually measured by crowd concentration index and greenery within a street segment. Enclosure was evaluated by sky view factor and building-to-street ratio. ...
The association between built environment and physical activity has been recognized. However, how and to what extent microscale streetscapes are related to running activity remains underexplored, partly due to the lack of running data in large urban areas. Moreover, few studies have examined the interactive effects of macroscale built environment and microscale streetscapes. This study examines the main and interactive effects of the two-level environments on running intensity, using 9.73 million fitness tracker data from Keep in Shanghai, China. Results of spatial error model showed that: 1) the explanatory power of microscale streetscapes was higher than that of macroscale built environment with R² of 0.245 and 0.240, respectively, which is different from the prior finding that R² is greater for macroscale built environment than for microscale streetscape; 2) sky and green view indexes were positively associated with running intensity, whereas visual crowdedness had a negative effect; 3) there were negative interactions of land use Herfindahl–Hirschman index with sky and green view indexes, while a positive interaction was observed for visual crowdedness. To conclude, greener, more open and less visually crowded streetscapes, can promote running behavior and enhance the benefits of land use mix as well. The findings highlight the importance of streetscapes in promoting running behavior, instead of a supplement to macroscale built environment.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-024-19605-4.
... Plaisant and Sulas (2018) highlighted the role of cohesion in improving the quality of social life and liveability, contributing to the resilience of urban form. Transparency is considered human activities observed on street edges or in public spaces (Hooi & Pojani, 2020), associated with higher mobility and vitality on the street (Hamidi et al., 2020). Table 3 presents the qualitative indicators of the place-image dimension. ...
... For instance, Lynch (1960) finds that people's wayfinding is guided by points of reference, landmarks, that are easily identifiable elements with clear figure-background contrast. Hamidi et al. (2020) identify imageability and transparency as the physical features of urban design that are most significantly associated with property values in the surroundings, as they make places recognisable and allow people to see through the edge of streets. ...
People's passive experience constitutes a major part of their public life in urban public open spaces. While many public life studies examine the influence of the physical environment, others show people influence other people's public life. How children influence others' public life is rarely studied.
This article studies sensory experience – examining whether adults' passive experience of children playing is pleasant or unpleasant, and sensory attention – descriptively studying various factors influencing adults' attention to children playing.
The study was conducted through an on-site questionnaire-based survey (N = 1810) at five study sites in Copenhagen, Denmark. The sites were selected through a systematic analysis of the spatial characteristics of the physical environment, which describes different spatial and visual relationships between playgrounds and their
adjacent public open spaces providing for the varying spatial potential for adults' passive experience of children playing.
The study reveals that children playing overwhelmingly creates pleasant experiences for adults at the study sites. Besides the different spatial characteristics from the spatial analysis, the sites' shape, the playground's
spatial proportion within the sites, and adults' site familiarity may also influence sensory attention to children playing. While the article does not present precise design guidelines, it provides valuable insights into urban design practices.
... For instance, Lynch (1960) finds that people's wayfinding is guided by points of reference, landmarks, that are easily identifiable elements with clear figure-background contrast. Hamidi et al. (2020) identify imageability and transparency as the physical features of urban design that are most significantly associated with property values in the surroundings, as they make places recognisable and allow people to see through the edge of streets. ...
... Numerous studies have shown that urban design can change the economic and property values [8], spatial and functional values [9,10], landscape values [4,11,12], and cultural and historical values [13,14] of blocks by optimizing their spatial features. These spatial features include walkability [15][16][17], block-form and land-use mix [18], and others. ...
Beijing, capital of China, and its exuberant waterfront is supposed to be a significant component of the city’s charm. However, due to urbanization and population growth, Beijing’s waterfront is experiencing a variety of issues, needing comprehensive urban design and overall value assessment. The main purposes of this study are to develop an urban layer system of waterfront urban design and to assess the current and expected value of Beijing’s waterfront. Beijing’s waterfront was divided into four urban layer subsystems: ecological subsystem, spatial subsystem, demand subsystem, and cultural subsystem. This study includes the waterfront of 26 rivers and 9 lakes, which are divided into 54 waterfront segments by main roads. This study assessed the current and expected values of 54 waterfront segments in Beijing with the urban layer system by citizen questionnaires, expert questionnaires, and field surveys. A series of maps and radar maps were generated to visualize the assessment results. This study analyzes and describes the characteristics of four urban layer subsystems and different waterfront segments, based on a comprehensive evaluation of the value of Beijing’s waterfront. It provides strategies for the master urban design of Beijing’s waterfront. Furthermore, the results of this study and the urban layer system can provide insight on waterfront urban design.
... Rural agricultural products can quickly reach the urban distribution market and then connect with consumer groups outside the region. At the same time, the developed traffic road network is more conducive to attracting urban social capital that can be integrated into the countryside and which can provide sustainable impetus for the development of rural industries [22,23]. Overall, research findings guided by these location theories demonstrate that traffic roads, urban centers, and industrial scales can generate centripetal and centrifugal forces in urban and rural areas, thus affecting their scale of development and the direction of industrial development. ...
Rural revitalization, as a major strategy with the goal of realizing the overall development of strong agriculture industries, beautiful rural areas, and rich farmers, is an effective way of alleviating the loss of talent, land, capital, and other elements in rural areas and a possible cure for “rural diseases”. However, “rural diseases” faced by villages are very different, and thus exploring suitable strategies for rural revitalization is beneficial to the implementation of rural revitalization strategies and the promotion of urban–rural integration. Based on location theory, this paper constructs a point–axis–domain three-dimensional spatial location theory model that integrates market location, traffic location, and natural location and combines the coupling coordination model to comprehensively study the vitality and development directions of Qingdao’s rural areas. Results found that Qingdao’s high-level and medium–high-level coupling coordination areas are the main types of coupling coordination, accounting for 45.19% and 47.48%, respectively. Based on the development status of Qingdao, this study explores development directions for rural revitalization poles as well as high-level, medium–high-level, and medium-level coupling coordination areas and suggests the following: rural revitalization poles should play a demonstration role in rural revitalization in terms of industrial development, rural civilization, social governance, public service construction, etc.; high-level coupling coordination areas should focus on building modern hi-tech agriculture and rural marine tourism industries; medium–high-level coupling coordination areas should strengthen the building of satellite towns and promote industrial transformation and upgrading; medium-level coupling coordination areas should actively develop ecological environment conservation models and establish a characteristic mountainous eco-tourism industry. Thus, the findings provide important scientific reference for the implementation of rural revitalization.
... Yet a city's vitality and appeal are evaluated by how well the city attracts businesses and their employees and offers them workspaces that meet their demands, i.e., how a building's quality is perceived. Empirical analyses have spotlighted various ways of seeing dimensions of quality, such as green building or well-being (Zhao et al., 2021), building design (Hamidi et al., 2020), or the workspace's flexibility (Pajević, 2021). As Buitelaar et al. (2021) noted, buildings are complex, evolving systems, and their general obsolescence is a critical point when certain dimensions of quality no longer meet the stakeholders' expectations. ...
L'objectif de la gestion urbaine est de gérer une ville de manière efficace et dynamique, ce qui signifie attirer des emplois et des résidents pour répondre aux attentes de ses populations. Ancré dans la littérature marketing sur la qualité perçue (Zeithaml, 1988), nous proposons une mesure de la qualité perçue des immeubles. Notre indicateur considère la qualité comme le résultat de la perception de l’ensemble des acteurs de l’écosystème urbain. Lorsque cet indicateur est appliqué à un, plusieurs immeubles ou une ville entière, il permet de rendre compte d’un niveau de qualité désiré par ceux qui font, vivent dans les immeubles et la ville.
... Nevertheless, the three settlements' organic urban morphologies and high density are similar to many slum areas in the global South and therefore statistical results could parallel a close trend in developing-world cities. Future empirical investigations should examine the degree to which these findings exist elsewhere. Another limitation is that the current research did not test the impact of other causal factors of economic activities such as building typologies (Narvaez et al., 2014;Thai et al., 2019), building heights (Ratti, 2004), and other urban design qualities (Hamidi et al., 2020) due to data unavailability. Also, the spatial lag variable was computed in this study based on Euclidean distance rather than network metric distance. ...
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Identifying the economic potential of informal urban areas is a topic of increasing interest for policymakers and practitioners in less developed countries, yet little is known of how informal street design influences the type and count of business opportunities. By adapting a space syntax framework, this study aims to quantitatively verify the association between the street design of informal areas in Cairo and patterns of home-based businesses in areas where small business prevalence is high. This paper contributes to the literature by developing a methodology which is fit for testing hypotheses, allows to control for the influence of unobserved factors, and which extracts the spatial rules, trends or logics of business patterns. The results show that street accessibility is an important factor in encouraging (or discouraging) the settlement of home-based businesses. Home-based businesses are spatially distributed along the local primary streets, which provide flows of potential customers. Our findings contribute to a better knowledge base for understanding how different types of economic activities and the spatial properties of the built environment relate to each other, how street design may impact on the emergence of small and micro-enterprises, what kind of business may suit isolated laneways, how informal business activities can be anticipated and managed, and how land use regulations can be improved.
... 1) Enhancing the model by the addition of more morphological parameters, such as percentage of blind spaces (Holanda, 2002), the degree of inter-visibility of entrances (van Nes & López, 2010), perimeter and type of façade (Canuto & Amorim, 2012), and other urban design qualities (Hamidi, Bonakdar, Keshavarzi, & Ewing, 2020) could have the potential to influence the pattern of urbanity. 2) Exploring other cases and contexts. ...
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Informal urbanism has been generally studied within social, economic and political frameworks, yet little is known of how it performs in terms of urban vitality. The aim of this article is to better understand the urban vitality of informal settlements and how they can be improved by using a combined morphological approach that encompasses street-network accessibility, building density, land use diversity and transformability index. This study focuses on the city of Cairo, which has experienced rapid urban growth over the last seven decades. Much of this growth has concentrated in informal settlements on the outskirts of the metropolis. Taking Manshiet Nasser district as a case, we measured the degree of urban vitality of the area through a combination of Space Syntax, Spacematrix, and the Mixed Use Index (MXI). Informed by a transformability index (TI), the results can be used as part of the design process to (re)develop unattractive areas. The findings show that this combined approach works as a diagnostic tool for detecting development potential and, therefore, underpins the identification of cost-effective ways of intervention, for enhancing vibrant urban environments.
... Beyond impacting well-being, the extent to which a ground floor is engaging or not can also influence the success of streets as thriving social-economic centres. They contribute towards influencing property values (Hamidi et al., 2020), affect access to differing businesses and amenities (Mehta and Mahato, 2019), and prominently display levels of urban deprivation and decline (Kickert, 2016;Talen and Jeong, 2019). However, while this is understood, there remains limited systematic analysis of distinct factors that affect direct pedestrian engagement with street edges, particularly, the influence of their subdivision across different scales. ...
There have been numerous attempts to identify what makes the ground floor interfaces of street edges engaging for pedestrians. Their subdivision has often been highlighted as important, predominantly, in line with functions along their length. However, the effect of subdivision on street edge engagement has not been empirically tested. We use mobile eye-tracking to systematically examine where and for how long pedestrians visually engage ground floors in relation to their subdivision. We consider three scales of subdivision: morphologically defined plinths (different building ground floors), territorially defined segments (different areas of territorial ownership) and spatially defined micro-segments (different spaces separated by pillars and partitions). Results show that segments dominate ground floor visual engagement, with micro-segments also having a significant influence. Plinths were shown to have no direct effect upon such engagement. We subsequently use these findings to show how subdivision should be approached by design decision-makers when seeking to actively encourage pedestrian engagement with ground floors along street edges.
... Nevertheless, the three settlements' organic urban morphologies and high density are similar to many slum areas in the global South and therefore statistical results could parallel a close trend in developing-world cities. Future empirical investigations should examine the degree to which these findings exist elsewhere. Another limitation is that the current research did not test the impact of other causal factors of economic activities such as building typologies (Narvaez et al., 2014;Thai et al., 2019), building heights (Ratti, 2004), and other urban design qualities (Hamidi et al., 2020) due to data unavailability. Also, the spatial lag variable was computed in this study based on Euclidean distance rather than network metric distance. ...
The spatial layout of built environments influences the distribution of commercial activities. As literature has shown, commercial activities can enhance the process of urban consolidation of informal areas (Hillier et al, 2000; Shafiei, 2007). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the correlation between spatial factors and the distribution of internal and edge commercial land use by applying new methodological means, such as a combined space syntax analysis of the street network with Inter-visibility (van Nes & López, 2010), and statistical analysis of the economic issues and band analyses. The cases used in this study are three informal areas in Cairo: Ezbet Bekhit, Ezbet Al-Nasr and Abu Qatada. These settlements are selected because they are predominantly self-grown and have not been influenced by city plans or land use regulations. This research attempts to underpin the following questions: Are the distribution and rate of commercial activities mainly driven by the local spatial composition of the area itself? Or, is it more related to how the settlements are embedded in the overall structure of the city? As it turns out, this research has demonstrated in detail that the distribution of commercial activities takes place on the plots that are located along the spatially most integrated, most distributed and most inter-visible parts of the neighbourhoods in relationship to the whole of the city. The results of this empirical study contribute to further understanding of a theory of an optimal distribution of plots, in which effective land use is defined as an interaction of two core factors: inter-visibility and spatial accessibility. This two-variable approach can be used strategically as a tool to guide the regeneration of informal settlements and transferring economic integration to deprived areas of the city.
... Other studies also show that the ability to image and transparency and visibility into the space increases the value of the property with the greatest impact, respectively. These findings show that the complexity of space has a negative relationship with the value of assets, while they do not show a statistically significant relationship between inclusiveness or human scale and property value [15]. ...
During the last decade, many criteria have been proposed for lively and active urban spaces and streets; these spaces can be changed according to culture, habits, urban management policies, and various factors. Since the central factor of vitality is the presence of human beings in the environment, urban designers and planners can consider any phenomenon that facilitates human activities in the urban spaces by providing patterns and pedestrian designs in the city. Accordingly, the question arises that how can the appropriate criteria for evaluating pedestrian axes in any urban context (here city of Rasht) be identified according to its unique characteristics? And accordingly, among the conceivable options of pedestrian streets in the cities, which one will have more capabilities to improve pedestrian traffic? Therefore, in this article, while reviewing the criteria among the existing theoretical foundations for the realization of vibrant urban pedestrian spaces, visual data are collected from the streets of the historical context of Rasht and its main streets and are evaluated according to the obtained criteria. According to a review of theoretical sources, I resulted in 13 criteria from theories in urban design for use in qualitative analysis: open and green spaces, linkage, transparency, human scale, security, coherence of all elements, imageability and legibility, complexity, inclusiveness, vitality, enclosure, comfort, and order. The three main historical streets of Rasht are the main road of the bazaars, Alam al Hoda, and Pirsara. Based on the qualitative analysis and the criteria found, among these routes, Alam al Hoda pedestrian street has a huge comparative advantage for planning and reviving the pedestrian streets in the historical context of Rasht.
Public space quality is a multidimensional concept. Urban design quality and physical disorder represent it from the perspectives of design and maintenance, respectively. However, the practical relationship between these two factors remains unclear, raising questions about the necessity of measuring multiple dimensions of public space quality simultaneously. Based on classical studies and theories, this study developed index systems for both factors. Utilizing artificial virtual auditing and deep learning models, including FCN and SegNet, the street visual quality of two Chinese cities was assessed from the perspectives of urban design and physical disorder using extensive street view images. The correlation between these two factors was explored. The results showed that the Spearman correlation coefficients for urban design quality and physical disorder were 0.308 and −0.085 in the two cities, respectively, indicating weak or unclear correlations. Additionally, the fit and explanatory power of the linear and nonlinear regression models constructed were poor, further demonstrating that it is difficult to predict and explain one variable using the other. In the robustness test, the results were further validated by including control variables related to urban vitality, cultural characteristics, and urban development, considering the impact of the distribution of the street view images, drilling down to more granular dimensions and extending the scope of the study to a wider area. The levels of design and maintenance of streets cannot be conflated or substituted, and neither can independently represent the overall space quality alone. Both are indispensable, making it crucial to separately assess and address space quality issues from different perspectives. These results broaden our understanding of high-visual-quality street space and provide references for urban planners and stakeholders in improving street space quality.
Context and background
Air pollution and its effects on residential property values is well
elucidated in real estate economics literature but compensation and local
property tax implications arguably remain unsettled.
Goal and Objectives:
This paper examined the relationship between sulphur dioxide emissions
from a mining smelter in Mufulira, Zambia and its effects on residential
property values on a neighbouring township of Kankoyo.
Methodology:
The study uses Hedonic-pricing and the Contingent Valuation Method in
empirically understanding the air pollution effects and property values.
Results:
The study found that Kankoyo residents pay 13.2% less rent than their
counterparts in a comparable township of Chibolya (control- which is not
affected by SO2 fumes). Despite evidence from the rental market, Kankoyo
residents pay the same property tax as Chibolya residents- based on a
rateable value assessed by the relevant authority. By implication, property
tax valuations do not capture environmental infringements on property
rights of Kankoyo residents. The study thus argues that a mechanism
should be devised to tax the polluters and compensate the affected
through some property tax rebate.
Value uplift refers to the increase in property value attributable to proximate transportation infrastructure. The empirical literature is generally supportive of the argument to capture a fraction of such additional value to operate public transportation systems. Unfortunately, attention to the relative value of different transportation infrastructure besides rail infrastructure is not evident in the literature. The gap in the literature is problematic because an accurate estimate of the total revenue potential from present transportation infrastructure investments is not realistic nor is an accurate estimate of the value uplift potential from future transportation infrastructure investments realistic. In order to fill the gap, adoption of a geographically-weighted approach expands the temporal scale of analysis to more than a decade and the spatial scale of analysis to an entire heavy rail system in order to properly contextualize the value uplift from pedestrian infrastructure and from rail infrastructure. Results advance the state of knowledge on value uplift to show the range of value uplift attributable to walkability in proximity to heavy rail stations. Overall, the results warrant further research to better understand why the estimate of the value uplift attributable to walkability is higher than the estimate in the empirical literature.
Perception of space is a multifaceted process, where humans may direct their behaviour within the environment through the influence of sensory stimuli, cognitive processing and subjective evaluation. Yet in streets, perceptual studies commonly focus on the physical structure of the environment while undermining the psychological and subjective components that shape the environmental perception. This paper has adopted a perceptual-cognitive approach to construct a multisensory perceptual social and physical model. It addresses visual, auditory, haptic, and olfactory stimuli as well as pedestrians’ preference score to extract main components of the street perception. Critical review of the literature, the expert’s validation, a pilot study, and the exploratory factor analysis are thoroughly used in this study. Factor analysis extracted eight components associated with perception, including Sociability, Mobility, Convenience, Contentment, Urbanization, Pollution, Safety, and Nature. The results exhibit and discuss the latent correlations between street attributes and perception.
This study examines the relationship between street-level urban design perceptual qualities and walking behavior in the City of Dallas. While the city has the potential to experience growth in pedestrian activities, it exhibits a very low level of walking activity, placing it as one of the least walkable cities in the nation. To assess the impact of urban design qualities on walkability, we collected data on 23 features related to urban design, 11 built environment variables characterized as D variables comprising diversity, density, design, distance to transit, and destination accessibility. The sample included 402 street block faces in Dallas Downtown Improvement District. Accounting for spatial autocorrelation, we found that two urban design qualities, among five, including image-ability—such as a memorable quality of a place, and transparency—as to what degree people can see beyond the street’s edge—significantly influence pedestrian volume in downtown streets. These findings are in agreement with the two previous studies that used the same methodology in different cities (New York City, NYC and Salt Lake City, UT). According to the findings of these three studies, the other urban design qualities including human scale, complexity, as well as enclosure, are not playing a significant role in walkability, despite the theoretical justification and the extensive operationalization efforts. The findings of this study draw policy makers’ attention to creating more appealing and walkable places through the implementation of these urban design qualities.
This paper estimates the impact of quality design attributes on real estate value through empirical investigation of the owner-occupied multifamily residential sector. The methodological design is based on spatiotemporal modelling using a unique data-set of 424 Belfast City Centre apartments sold during the period 2000–2008. The key findings indicate that urban scale aspects of quality such as connectivity and vitality associated with building density add to real estate value. At the building level, quality features highly valued by home buyers are namely appropriateness of material quality, fenestration and massing to the surroundings. These key criteria are considered to have a significant visual perception compared to more complex concepts such as identity, material choice and overall condition. The contribution to knowledge involves extending the hedonic model to incorporate a wider selection of design quality variables; and improving estimation through the use of spatiotemporal modelling.
In this paper we propose a categorization of green space into eight different types and quantify their impact on housing prices in the city of Aalborg using the hedonic house price method. The categorization was made manually according to an idealized description of the eight types of green space and a rating system in which each green space was rated according to accessibility, maintenance levels and neighboring negative land-use. The hedonic house price schedule for each of the green spaces was estimated using a generalized additive model, which allows for a data driven adjustment of underlying omitted spatial processes. To our knowledge the use of a spatial generalized additive model is novel to the hedonic valuation literature. We find that types of green space, which are rated highly in terms of accessibility and maintenance level, have high implicit prices whereas types with low ratings are not identified or provide ambiguous results. Green space buffering unattractive land-use such as infrastructure and industry is found to provide negative implicit prices despite controlling for the negative neighboring land-use. Our results clearly indicate that green space is not a uniform environmental amenity but rather a set of distinct goods with very different impacts on the housing price.
Examining differences across school district boundaries rather than school attendance zone boundaries has several advantages. These advantages include being applicable when attendance zones are not available or less relevant to educational outcomes as arises with within district school choice and for examining the effect of factors like school spending or property taxes that do not vary within districts. However, school district boundaries have often been in place for many years allowing households to sort based on school quality and potentially creating distinct neighborhoods on either side of boundaries. We estimate models of housing prices using repeated cross-sections of housing transactions near school district boundaries in Connecticut. These models exploit changes over time to control for across boundary differences in neighborhood quality. We find significant effects of test scores on property values, but those effects are notably smaller than both OLS and traditional boundary fixed effects estimates.
Enclosure is important because of neurological effects and the evolutionary theory of environmental perception and preference. This article reports on a study in which six physical features were found to account for 93% of the variance in judged enclosure for Parisian street scenes: picture format, proportions of views covered by walls, proportions of views covered by ground, average lightness of the scene, depth of view, and number of sides open at the front of the scene. Methodological and substantive implications for the evolutionary theory of environmental perception and preference are discussed.
Previous work in neurophysiology suggests that enclosure is such an important feature of the environment that there is a specific region in the brain responding directly to environmental enclosure. Previous experimental work suggested that 5 environmental features cause impressions of enclosure: the proportion of the scene covered by walls, the proportion of the scene covered by ground, how light or dark the scene is, the depth of view, and the number of sides open at the front of the scene. Direct quantitative replication of these results was obtained for a sample of 21 artificial scenes. Responses of judged safety were also obtained. Safety was most strongly correlated with the lightness of the scene (r = .82).
We estimate the effect of design on the assessed values of new housing units in high-poverty Chicago census tracts with a parcel-based hedonic regression in which we distinguish between three urban design types: enclave, traditional neighborhood development (TND), and infill. We find that urban design significantly affects housing values, and infill housing is more highly valued than either enclave or TND housing. We also examine the influences of individual urban design features and find that residents prefer entrances that face the street, and facades constructed from the same material as adjacent buildings. They also prefer parking in front of their homes, and to be buffered from public streets. We interpret the former to be preferences for greater integration into the surrounding neighbourhood, consistent with our findings on infill.
This article examines the effects of walkability on property values and investment returns. Walkability is the degree to which an area within walking distance of a property encourages walking for recreational or functional purposes. We use data from the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries and Walk Score to examine the effects of walkability on the market value and investment returns of more than 4,200 office, apartment, retail and industrial properties from 2001 to 2008 in the United States. We found that, all else being equal, the benefits of greater walkability were capitalized into higher office, retail and apartment values. We found no effect on industrial properties. On a 100-point scale, a 10-point increase in walkability increased values by 1–9%, depending on property type. We also found that walkability was associated with lower cap rates and higher incomes, suggesting it has been favored in both the capital asset and building space markets. Walkability had no significant effect on historical total investment returns. All walkable property types have the potential to generate returns as good as or better than less walkable properties, as long as they are priced correctly. Developers should be willing to develop more walkable properties as long as any additional cost for more walkable locations and related development expenses do not exhaust the walkability premium.
This article is a quantitative literature review on the correlations between preference and mystery, complexity, legibility, or coherence for three classifications of environments: all, natural and built. A literature search located 61 articles covering 12,452 participants and 3125 scenes. Data suitable for a quantitative review were found in 28 of those articles, covering a total of 6288 participants and 1820 scenes. There was a considerable degree of heterogeneity in the data for all environments, for natural environments, and for built environments, indicating that results have not been reproducible. Studies using expert panels to rate coherence, legibility and complexity produced smaller results than did experiments using the same population of respondents for preference and the other variables. Implications for planning future work efficiently are discussed.
Although transit accessibility premiums have been rigorously studied at the local and regional levels for more than 40 years, drawing conclusions about premiums on a national scale requires a meta-analysis. Estimating effect size is a primary purpose of a meta-analysis. Effect size was calculated in 2007 by using pre-2003 studies but has not been studied since. This study sought to fill gaps in the literature by conducting a regression analysis and a thorough meta-analysis that reviewed 114 studies published from 1976 to 2014. Of 114 U.S. and Canadian single-family studies, a sample of 45 single-family studies was selected for further analysis. Compared with the previous meta-analysis, the current analysis found that, overall, U.S. and Canadian studies reported lower premiums on average for single-family houses. The average single-family home premium of 2.3% was significantly lower than the 4.2% premium calculated by the previous meta-analysis. It was found that reported transit premiums were decreasing over time as more variables, such as walkability of station areas, were statistically controlled. It was also found that compact regions with greater accessibility via transit produced higher transit premiums and transit premiums were neutral with respect to technology (light versus heavy rail) once regional compactness was controlled for. These findings suggest that to get the most out of transit investments, planners and public officials must make an effort to create compact regional development patterns and that single-family housing may not be the best use in areas close to transit.
One major limitation currently with studying street level urban design qualities for walkability is the often inconsistent and unreliable measures of streetscape features across different field surveyors even with costly training due to lack of more objective processes, which also make large scale study difficult. The recent advances in sensor technologies and digitization have produced a wealth of data to help research activities by facilitating improved measurements and conducting large scale analysis. This paper explores the potential of big data and big data analytics in the light of current approaches to measuring streetscape features. By applying machine learning algorithms on Google Street View imagery, we generated objectively three measures on visual enclosure. The results showed that sky areas were identified fairly well for the calculation of proportion of sky. The three visual enclosure measures were found to be correlated with pedestrian volume and Walk Score. This method allows large scale and consistent objective measures of visual enclosure that can be done reproducibly and universally appli- cable with readily available Google Street View imagery in many countries around the world to help test their association with walking behaviors.
It seems an article of faith that because ridership catchment receives the largest share of riders within the first 0.5 mi (0.80 km), the design of transit-oriented development should be limited to 0.5 mi (0.80 km). But design of transit-oriented development requires another consideration: how the commercial real estate market responds. Unfortunately, much of the research into the commercial real estate value or rent premiums associated with transit station proximity is designed to reinforce the 0.5-mi (0.80 km) presumption. This paper reviews the literature and implications of ridership studies and research into commercial value and rent premiums with respect to distance from a transit station. The paper then reports research into transit station–related office rent premiums in the Dallas, Texas, metropolitan area. To the authors’ knowledge, this study is the largest of its type undertaken on this question. Among the findings are that the premium extends 1.85 mi (2.98 km) from transit stations, with 25% ...
Vintage effects have received considerable attention from economists in the context of house prices. Although strongly related, the impact of architectural building styles on prices has not been studied yet. Using a cross-sectional hedonic price analysis including building styles of recently developed homes in the Netherlands we find a significant price premium for housing with neo-traditional architecture. Extensive intervention by local authorities on the supply side of the housing market seems the most probable explanation of this effect. The decreasing price premium over time reflects the impact of supply restrictions on price, but also indicates that style does matter.
By measuring twenty streetscape features and numerous other variables for 588 blocks in New York City, we were able to identify variables that explain pedestrian traffic volumes. We found significant positive correlations between three out of twenty streetscape features with pedestrian counts after controlling for density and other built environmental variables. The significant streetscape features are the proportion of windows on the street, the proportion of active street frontage, and the number of pieces of street furniture. This study provides guidance for streetscape projects that aim to create walkable streets and pedestrian-friendly environments.
Urban designers recognize the importance of perceptual qualities to an active street life but have had little empirical evidence to support the claim. Recent research has developed measurement protocols for urban design qualities related to walkability. A subsequent study conducted in New York City confirmed the explanatory powers of the measures. However, New York City is exceptionally walkable. This study seeks to validate urban design qualities in terms of walkability in Salt Lake City, Utah. This research validates specific micro-urban design measures of walkability while controlling for spatial autocorrelation, finding that imageability, in addition to transparency, adds significantly to walkability.
By taking advantage of two recent data sets with exceptional spatial detail, this research is a comprehensive and spatially disaggregate study of the relationship between the built environment and residential property values in the Boston, Massachusetts, metropolitan area. The study computes 27 built environment variables at a 250 m x 250 m grid cell level, uses factor analysis to extract five built environment factors to mitigate multicollinearity, and integrates built environment factors into hedonic price models. Spatial regression techniques are applied to correct spatial autocorrelation. Residential property values are found to be positively associated with accessibility to transit and jobs, connectivity, and walkability and negatively related to auto dominance. Built environment effects depend on neighborhood characteristics.
Research has generally failed to explore whether the effect of neighborhood characteristics on home values has changed over time. We take a long-range view and study decadal changing home values in the southern California region over a 50-year period, from 1960 to 2009. We focus on the effects of racial composition and measures associated with the New Urbanism on changing home values. We find that whereas neighborhoods with more racial/ethnic minorities and racial mixing experienced relative decreases in home values in the earlier decades, this effect has effectively disappeared in the most recent decade and actually became positive for some measures. We also found that certain characteristics associated with the New Urbanism—population density, older homes, a lack of concentration of single family units—show stronger positive effects on home values in the most recent decades. Resumen La investigación ha fallado generalmente al explorar si el efecto de algunas características de los barrios en el valor de las viviendas ha cambiado a lo largo del tiempo. Tomamos una visión de largo plazo y estudiamos cambios en los valores de las viviendas a lo largo de décadas en la región del sur de California por un periodo de 50 años, de 1960 a 2009. Nos enfocamos en los efectos de la composición racial y medidas asociadas con el Nuevo Urbanismo para cambiar el valor de las viviendas. Encontramos que mientras barrios con más minorías raciales/étnicas y mezcla racial experimentaron disminuciones relativas en el valor de las viviendas en las primeras décadas. Este efecto ha desaparecido efectivamente en la última década y de hecho se ha vuelto positivo de acuerdo a algunas mediciones. Encontramos también que algunas características asociadas al Nuevo Urbanismo –densidad de la población, viviendas más antiguas, falta de concentración de unidades de vivienda unifamiliar—muestran un efecto positivo en el valor de las viviendas en las décadas más recientes.
Access to train stations is highly valued and this is reflected in the premium price of residential property near train stations. Transit-oriented development (TOD) and the amenities provided by mixed-use development may also provide value to consumers. The analysis presented here evaluates the median property valuations surrounding eight transit stations with TOD using residential property valuation data provided by Zillow™, an on-line real estate listing firm. A hedonic regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between median block-group-level residential property valuations and the distance to the station with TOD and other stations with direct, non-stop access to New York City, while controlling for demographic and housing variables. Spatial econometric software and techniques are used to control for spatial autocorrelation. Results suggest that while the mixed-use development typically found with TOD is likely valued, proximity to stations with direct access to New York City leads to higher relative property valuations.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of urban design quality on the real estate value of commercial office property. Empirical evidence based on quantitative research into the added value of quality design on real estate performance has seen little advancement during the past two decades. Office sector hedonic analysis has been predominantly characterised by a piecemeal approach focusing on specific attributes and lacking a holistic approach to the effects of design quality on real estate value. This paper brings forward new empirical evidence to assess the added value of quality design based on quantitative analysis of office sector performance in the historic urban core of a UK city.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a unique dataset of 279 Belfast City Centre office properties rented during the period 1995‐2009, this study employs regression analysis to estimate a hedonic pricing model based on a composite range of variables. The contribution of this study is the complementary utilisation of quantitative and qualitative methods to generate variables incorporating a holistic approach to design quality at three different levels of investigation: interior; exterior/architectural; and urban scale.
Findings
The key findings show that higher design quality specifications in the three levels (interior, exterior and urban scale) can generate rent premiums. Aspects of quality design that include connectivity and building facade distinctiveness enhance corporate image; and material quality appropriateness adds to real estate value whereas the lack of preference for tall buildings and high‐end interior quality specifications in historic cores reflect market reactions to economic trends.
Practical implications
This paper provides investors and developers with insights about those aspects of quality design that are highly valued by office tenants in historic urban cores. This is especially significant in the downturn of the property cycle with investment priorities playing a crucial role in a project's economic viability.
Originality/value
This study bridges a significant gap in the literature concerning hedonic investigation of the added value of quality design on real estate performance. This holistic approach using quantitative and qualitative methods and incorporating urban design variables constitutes a unique approach to quantifying quality impacts on real estate value.
Natural amenities play an important role in explaining intra-regional economic growth, because they increase the competition between places and the relative demand for housing. This paper shows that these relationships are strongly location-specific, such that the magnitude and the direction, of value assessments vary across the urban surface. The analysis in this study addresses spatial heterogeneity in the valuations of preserved open space amenities using Swedish house price data. The results show that marginal valuations of open space amenities are high in locations that are characterised by high population and housing densities and low or insignificant in areas where undeveloped lands are abundant, thus, supporting the hypothesis that a greater competition for those, locational attributes that are in high demand, yet locally scarce, results in higher marginal prices.
Recent consumer surveys and demographic analyses have indicated a growing market for pedestrian- and transit-designed development. Theoretically, this market shift should be reflected in the price people are willing to pay for those styles of development. This article traces the literature that uses hedonic price methods for testing this hypothesis, either by assessing pedestrian/transit-design development holistically or by evaluating its component parts. The literature confirms that the market shift is, indeed, being capitalized into real estate prices and demonstrates that the amenity-based elements of transit-designed development play an important positive role in urban land markets, independent of the accessibility benefits provided by transit.
Architectural quality is a public good characteristic of a building for which a market failure may occur. A hedonic price equation for office space in downtown Chicago is estimated to determine if the value of “good” architecture has been internalized by tenants or owners of commercial buildings. The regression results indicate that a considerable rent premium is paid for “good” new architecture but not for “good” old architecture. The results also yield information about the impact on office rent of other building characteristics such as age, height, location, and amenities.
This study investigates the willingness of homebuyers to pay for co-location with iconic architecture.
Oak Park, Illinois was chosen as the study area given its unique claim of having 24 residential structures designed by world-famous American architect Frank Lloyd Wright, in addition to dozens of other designated landmarks and three preservation districts. This study adds to the limited body of existing literature on the external price effects of architectural design and is unique in its focus on residential architecture. We find a premium of about 8.5% within 50-100m of the nearest Wright building and about 5% within 50-250m. These results indicate that an external premium to iconic architecture does exist, although it may partially be attributable to the prominence of the architect
This study assesses the impact of proximity to light rail transit stations on residential property values in Buffalo, New York, where light rail has been in service for 20 years, but population is declining and ridership is decreasing. Hedonic models are constructed of assessed value for residential properties within half a mile of 14 light rail stations and independent variables are included that describe property characteristics, neighbourhood characteristics and locational amenities. The model suggests that, for homes located in the study area, every foot closer to a light rail station increases average property values by 0.99 (using network distance). Consequently, a home located within one-quarter of a mile radius of a light rail station can earn a premium of $1300-3000, or 2-5 per cent of the city's median home value. Model results further suggest that three independent variables-the number of bathrooms, size of the parcel and location on the East side or West side of Buffalo-are more influential than rail proximity in predicting property values. Individual regression models for each of the light rail system's 14 stations suggest that effects are not felt evenly throughout the system. Proximity effects are positive in high-income station areas and negative in low-income station areas. An analysis of the actual walking distance to stations (along the street network) versus the perceived proximity to stations (measured by straight-line distance) reveals that the results are statistically more significant in the network distance than the straight-line distance model, but the effects are greater in the straight-line distance model, which suggests that apparent proximity to rail stations is an added locational advantage compared with physical walking distance to the station.
Quality and profit are often considered to be connected. The property market is one in which the concept often arises. For example, the definition of prime property is a quality judgement. In property development, the production of high-quality property may be thought to improve returns, or to reduce risk. Considers the question whether (and if so, how) quality in property development (excluding site factors) is likely to lead to high returns. Recently published work defines quality as resistance to depreciation, where depreciation is defined in purely financial (return) terms. Fully considers this work, which concentrates on offices and industrials. Extends this work, describing new research which considers the application of the relevant concepts and quality definitions to shopping centres. Quality and cost are also considered to be connected. In property development, high construction costs may be expected to produce quality. This produces a complex subsidiary question concerning this relationship, which is also addressed here.
This article reviews the literature on place diversity and the quest to use design to promote social and economic mix in human settlements. The article fits together a large literature on the subject of the interrelationship between diversity and place and explores how diversity could be enabled within the context of the city-planning profession. It argues that the linkage between city planning—defined in its traditional sense as a profession concerned with the design of cities—and place diversity is understudied. Four distinct though interrelated theoretical bases for diversity are discussed: place vitality, economic health, social equity, and sustainability. The article argues that the promotion of place diversity requires focused effort on the part of planners, and that design-based strategies are an appropriate part of that effort.
To improve community appearance, planners need to know how the public evaluates the cityscape: their evaluative image of the city. This article presents research aimed at uncovering this information. In two U.S. cities, Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, we interviewed 220 residents by phone and 180 visitors face-to-face, asking them to specify areas they liked and areas they disliked visually and to describe the physical features accounting for their evaluations. From each interview we prepared an evaluative map of the city. We then overlaid these maps to produce for each city and for residents and visitors separately a composite map—the evaluative image of the city. The evaluative maps suggest effects of city structure and experience, and they indicate five desirable features—naturalness, upkeep, openness, order, and historical significance. By showing the identity, location, and likability of visual features, evaluative maps provide a basis for a visual plan.
To inform metropolitan land use planning, this article reviews studies that examine the determinants of residential property values. The review suggests that property values provide a sensitive index of the effects of planning and the problems planning is designed to address. Furthermore, it reveals that planning can contribute to problems of housing affordability. However, this does not represent prima facie evidence that planning has failed; nor should the potential of such effects preclude the adoption of metropolitan plans. Instead, the evidence suggests that metropolitan planning can contribute to the solution of housing affordability problems as well as to their cause.
Problem: A redevelopment aim of numerous Western world cities is to attract creative firms to formerly abandoned or neglected districts. While some studies propose that visual assets of neighborhoods may attract creative entrepreneurs to certain districts, few have explored how visual features are important for creative entrepreneurs and provided meaningful planning knowledge.Purpose: This article examines the influence of district visual form as perceived by creative entrepreneurs on their location decisions. It suggests how this knowledge is usable for development of cultural production districts.Methods: I conducted 63 interviews with creative entrepreneurs in three districts in The Netherlands: the Eastern Docklands in Amsterdam, the Lloyd Quarter in Rotterdam, and the Hortus Quarter in Groningen. These districts accommodate relatively more firms in creative industries than do other districts within the same cities, but they are visually disparate in terms of architecture and urban spaces.Results and conclusions: This article demonstrates a significant relationship between district visual quality and the location behavior of creative entrepreneurs. Moreover, there is more than one visual model for cultural production districts. Urban design, architecture, waterfronts, and parks may have various forms, provided that they single out one place from other, mainstream places. The overall visual character of the district needs to be perceived as distinctive, whether deliberately designed as such or not. Because the visual quality of the district contributes to increased creative productivity, creative entrepreneurs use their relative freedom of location within cities to achieve quality of place at work.Takeaway for practice: Cities that aim to attract creative entrepreneurs to certain districts should use strategies to achieve district visual quality. I draw on my findings to point at several planning strategies to inspire flexible, localized approaches to the development of visually distinctive cultural production districts. These strategies can be alternated and adjusted over time, according to a district's existing visual quality, availability of government resources, and the changing constraints and opportunities of a region's cultural production system.Research support: Dissertation support from Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands. Dissertation Fellowship from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, Cambridge, MA, USA. The Netherlands Institute of City Innovation Studies (NICIS), The Hague, and the municipalities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Groningen cofinanced the fieldwork.
While concerns about traffic safety were central to the development of conventional community design practice, there has been little empirical examination into the relationship between community design and the incidence of traffic-related crashes, injuries, and deaths. This study examines the relationship between community design and crash incidence. It presents a brief historical review of the safety considerations that helped shape conventional community design practice, followed by the results of negative binomial models developed from a GIS-based database of crash incidence and urban form. The authors find that many of the safety assumptions embedded in contemporary community design practice are not substantiated by the empirical evidence. While it may be true that disconnecting local street networks and relocating non-residential uses to arterial thoroughfares can reduce neighborhood traffic volumes, these community design configurations appear to substitute one set of safety problems for another. Surface arterial thoroughfares, arterial-oriented commercial uses, and big box stores were all found to be associated with an increased incidence of traffic-related crashes and injuries, while higher-density communities with more traditional, pedestrian-oriented retail configurations were found to be associated with fewer crashes. Intersections were found to have a mixed effect on crash incidence. We conclude by discussing the likely reasons for these findings - vehicle operating speeds and systematic design error - and outline three general design considerations that may help address them. © 2013 selection and editorial material, Michael Hibbard, Robert Freestone, and Tore Øivin Sager.
Following decades of both planned and market‐driven decentralization of cities and city‐regions, urban policy makers are now extolling the virtues of the compact city. The model which is held up as a good example is that of the traditional European city which is relatively dense and fine‐grained. The model that is no longer considered sustainable (economically and socially as well as environmentally) is the sprawl, strip or edge city, more often than not planned around the automobile. One question is the extent to which this European model of the good city transfers to the UK context. The author would argue that a number of engrained attitudes to city planning (and indeed city life) persist which together might undermine attempts to stimulate more active and culturally confident cities. Nevertheless, if we are to have more active and better cities, we need to know how best to manage, develop and design them. This paper argues that the city is a phenomenon of structured complexity. Good cities tend to be a balance of a reasonably ordered and legible city form, and places of many and varied comings and goings, meetings and transactions. What might appear to some as disorder is very often simply the everyday rhythm of city life. In the absence of such activity, cities can lose their urbanity and eventually become suburban in character. The large part of this paper contains an exposition of the principles of good city form, activity, street life and urban culture. That is to say, urbanity itself. By reference to a number of cities, the intention is to show that it is perfectly possible to plan for and design the active city.
This study attempts to comprehensively and objectively measure subjective qualities of the urban street environment. Using ratings from an expert panel, it was possible to measure five urban design qualities in terms of physical characteristics of streets and their edges: imageability, enclosure, human scale, transparency and complexity. The operational definitions do not always comport with the qualitative definitions, and provide new insights into the nature of these urban design qualities. The immediate purpose of this study is to arm researchers with operational definitions they can use to measure the street environment and test for significant associations with walking behaviour. A validation study is currently underway in New York City. Depending on the outcome of this and other follow-up research, the ultimate purpose would be to inform urban design practice.
Studies relating urban design to health have been impeded by the unfeasibility of conducting field observations across large areas and the lack of validated objective measures of urban design. This study describes measures for five dimensions of urban design - imageability, enclosure, human scale, transparency, and complexity - created using public geographic information systems (GIS) data from the US Census and city and state government. GIS measures were validated for a sample of 588 New York City block faces using a well-documented field observation protocol. Correlations between GIS and observed measures ranged from 0.28 to 0.89. Results show valid urban design measures can be constructed from digital sources.
A hedonic housing price model, implemented for the Dallas region, reveals a housing market structured around multiple nodes, some of which give rise to positive and others to negative externalities. The utility/disutility derived from relative location is capitalized into the size and quality of the housing stock and the nature of neighborhood amenities. The result is a convergence of space and built form.
Beautiful places: The role of perceived aesthetic beauty in community satisfaction, Regional Studies. This research uses a large survey sample of individuals across United States locations to examine the effects of beauty and aesthetics on community satisfaction. The paper conducts these estimations by ordinary least-squares, ordered logit, and multinomial logit. The findings confirm that beauty is significantly associated with community satisfaction. Other significant factors include economic security, schools, and social interaction. Further, community-level factors are significantly more important than individual demographic characteristics in explaining community satisfaction.
Over the past two decades, the tension between public and private interests in the use of land has given rise to state-level legislation seeking to limit government controls on private property. In 2004, voters in Oregon approved Measure 37, which required payments to private landowners for reductions in the value of their property resulting from land-use regulations. The central economic question behind Measure 37 and compensation statutes adopted in other states is, what is the effect of land-use regulations on property values? Economists investigating this question have typically estimated hedonic property value models with regulations included as exogenous regressors. This approach is likely to be invalid if the parcel characteristics that determine property values also influence the government's decision about how to implement regulations. We use Regression Discontinuity Design (RDD) to study the effect of the Portland, Oregon, Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) on property values. RDD provides an unbiased estimate of the treatment effect under relatively mild conditions and is well-suited to our application because the UGB defines a sharp treatment threshold. We find a price differential on the western and southern sides of the Portland metropolitan area ranging from 140,000, but no price differential on the eastern side. Support for Measure 37 was fueled by price differences such as these among parcels subject to different regulations, but one must be careful not to view current price differentials as evidence that regulations have reduced property values.
In this paper, we examine whether implicit prices of neighbourhood design features in the housing market vary significantly
across traditional, neo-traditional, and conventional suburban neighbourhood types. The set of neighbourhood design features
we examine here include neighbourhood development density, street network connectivity, pedestrian access to transit and commercial
stores, and land use mixture. Using data from Washington County, Oregon, we first use statistical procedures to identify distinct
neighbourhood types. We then employ hedonic price analyses and a series of spatial Chow tests to obtain implicit prices of
design attributes for houses in each neighbourhood type. We find that traditional design features such as higher street network
connectivity and better pedestrian access to transit and commercial stores are valued more in the traditional and neo-traditional
neighbourhoods, and that conventional neighbourhood features such as lower housing density and higher degree of homogeneous
land uses are valued more in the suburban neighbourhoods.
Crime serves as an important catalyst for change in the socio-economic composition of communities. While such change occurs over a long period of time, crime is capitalized into local housing markets quickly and thus provides an early indicator of neighborhood transition. Using hedonic regression, we quantify this “intangible cost” of crime and extend the crime-housing price literature in several important ways. First, we disaggregate crime to the census tract level. Second, using longitudinal data, we examine changes in crime in addition to the neighborhood levels of crime. Third, we differentiate between the effects of property crime and violent crime. Fourth, we also disaggregate our sample into groups based on per capita income of the census tract. Finally, we show that it is vital to account for the measurement error that is endemic in reported crime statistics. We address this with an instrumental variable approach. Our results indicate that the average impacts of crime rates on house prices are misleading. We find that crime is capitalized at different rates for poor, middle class and wealthy neighborhoods and that violent crime imparts the greatest cost.
Mixing land uses has become one of the key planning principles of the Smart Growth movement and other land use planning strategies. This article analyzes the impact on the prices of single family houses when mixed land uses are included in neighborhoods. We first develop several quantitative measures of mixed land uses through the use of Geographic Information System (GIS) data and compute these measures for various neighborhoods in Washington County, OR. We then incorporate those measures in a hedonic price analysis. We conclude from this research that housing prices increase with their proximity to—or with increasing amount of—public parks or neighborhood commercial land uses. We also find, however, that housing prices are higher in neighborhoods dominated by single-family residential land use, where non-residential land uses were evenly distributed, and where more service jobs are available. Finally, we find that housing prices tended to fall with proximity to multi-family residential units.
Many economists criticize the concept of the composite commodity'of housing that forms the basis of modern urban economics. As a result, much empirical work has been produced that attempts to estimate the household demand for housing and locational characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of the literature. The theoretical foundations of the literature and the econometric procedures employed are analyzed and critiqued. In addition, the empirical results are examined in order to identify any patterns that exist. The principal conclusion of this survey is that the theoretical basis is sound, but the econometric applications leave much to be desired. One consequence is that the literature has produced few empirical regularities. Another is that more studies using better estimation procedures and better data are needed before it can be safely argued that the composite commodity concept is replaced by the characteristics approach.
This study examined neighborhood satisfaction in relation to naturalness and openness. It used Geographic Information System (GIS) and Landsat satellite imagery to physically measure the environmental attributes. Through path analysis it examined the relationship among the attributes, resident ratings of those environmental attributes, their satisfaction with them, and their overall neighborhood satisfaction (n = 725). We expected overall neighborhood satisfaction to relate to the resident's ratings of the environmental attributes and to the physical measures of them. The path model showed that overall neighborhood satisfaction was associated directly with the physical measure of building density and indirectly with the physical measure of vegetation rate through perception and evaluation of them. The perceptions and evaluations of the attributes related to one another. With refinements, GIS and Landsat data geo-related to survey data can offer a powerful tool for understanding the complex nature of neighborhood satisfaction and behavior.
This paper presents the results of an empirical study of nonresidential urban land values in the Dallas metropolitan area. The data base consists of 467 vacant land transactions from 1978 to 1982. By concentrating on sales prices of vacant land rather than improved property, problems normally encountered from use of appraised values or improved properties are eliminated. Separate models are developed for industrial, commercial, and office land. The study focuses on the tendency toward agglomeration for consumers of each land use as measured by the impact on land values in the central business district, suburban nodes, and other employment concentrations. The results provide insight into a number of influences on urban land value and offer evidence that office land derives greater benefit from agglomeration than does commercial or industrial land.
In this paper, we attempt a formal analysis of the virtues of new urbanism, a movement hailed as the most significant movement in urban planning and architecture in this century. We proceed using the tools of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to develop quantitative measures of urban form. We then incorporate those measures in a hedonic price analysis. We find that our measures of urban form capture meaningful differences in the characters of urban neighborhoods that could well have direct impacts on the utility of urban residents. Further, we find that such differences are capitalized into residential property values. The results imply that some but not all of the design features of new urbanism provide benefits for which urban residents are willing to pay.
The urban environment and modes of transport are increasingly being linked to physical activity participation and population health outcomes. Much of the research has been based on either health or urban design paradigms, rather than from collaborative approaches. Previous health reviews in the urban design area have been constrained to perceptions of the neighborhood or walking behaviors, consequently limiting the understanding of built environment influences on physical activity modalities. This review focuses on existing evidence surrounding various urban design factors and physical activity behaviors. Based on the available evidence, fostering suitable urban environments is critical to sustaining physical activity behaviors. In turn, these environments will provide part of the solution to improving population health outcomes. Key urban design features attributable to transport-related physical activity are density, subdivision age, street connectivity, and mixed land use. Future directions for research include consistent use of transport and health measurement tools, an enhanced understanding of traffic calming measures, and further collaborative work between the health, transport, and urban design sectors. Presenting these findings to transport and urban design audiences may influence future practice, thereby increasing the sustainability of health-related physical activity at the population level.
This research measures the influence of transit-oriented development (TOD) on the San Diego, CA, condominium market. Many view TOD as a key element in creating a less auto dependent and more sustainable transport system. Price premiums indicate a potential for a market-driven expansion of TOD inventory. A hedonic price model is estimated to isolate statistically the effect of TOD. This includes interaction terms between station distance and various measures of pedestrian orientation. The resulting model shows that station proximity has a significantly stronger impact when coupled with a pedestrian-oriented environment. Conversely, station area condominiums in more auto-oriented environments may sell at a discount. This indicates that TOD has a synergistic value greater than the sum of its parts. It also implies a healthy demand for more TOD housing in San Diego.