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Form-based codes go beyond specifying setbacks and building heights; they provide stronger frameworks and even pattern prototypes for streetscapes, public-private use interaction, building massing, and building placement in relationship to other buildings, the street, and open space.

Bit by bit, form-based codes are making their way into local zoning codes. In the past, FBCs were largely relegated to newly planned developments and urban renewal districts, but more and more they are being adopted in traditional downtowns, villages, and city neighborhoods.

Perhaps the best way to describe FBCs is as a way to legally implement a community vision of what a built environment should look like. Donald Powers, principal of architecture and urban design firm Union Studio, described the process his firm led for Jamestown, Rhode Island. At various community meetings and charrettes for visioning and design, firm members asked Jamestown residents to place green dots on places they liked and red dots on places they didn't like. In so doing, they quickly arrived at a common view of the kind of town spaces that should be encouraged and the kind that should not.

In addition, the firm developed sketches of what the city might look like under a proposed new FBC-based vision for encouraging "green-dot development," contrasted with the kind of development that the current zoning would allow. Such a community-based process is actually easier to pull off, Powers added, than it is to get an FBC enacted into the zoning code! Ultimately, in Jamestown, the conventional zoning ordinance structure was retrofitted to behave more like an FBC, shifting toward communicating a positive vision in contrast to the more typical "defensive" ordinances.

One of the most impressive examples of a new FBC is the one adopted recently by the city of Lowell, Massachusetts. Lowell had previously (in 2004) adopted new citywide zoning that incorporated some elements of form-based codes for the city's residential districts. City Planner George Proakis, who is now director of planning for Somerville, Massachusetts, described the subsequent process for rezoning 15 acres (six hectares) of old mill development in the heart of Lowell's canal district.

Master developer Trinity Financial and architects and planners from ICON architecture led the community through a charrette process that resulted in a new picture of what the Hamilton Canal district could be like: a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly neighborhood near downtown, the arts district, and the city's transportation hubs. From that process emerged a master plan (designed by ICON) and a form-based code (developed by City staff, ICON, and Trinity). The FBC was passed in 2009, and its guidelines are exemplified in the subsequent adaptive reuse of the historic Appleton Mills as live-work apartments.

The trends and topics covered at these presentations give a taste of why Build Boston, year after year, sets the standard for the construction industry in New England and beyond.

Evan H. Shu, FAIA, is an architect with Shu Associates Inc. in Melrose, Massachusetts. He is a contributor to The Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice and is publisher and editor of Cheap Tricks, a monthly newsletter for DataCAD users and computer-using architects.   More by Evan Shu

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SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Bronski sketches historical details by hand. Photo: Matthew Bronski/ Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Extra Large Image SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE This series of sketches illustrates why joints with little or no mortar allow degradation without failure in Roman arches. Photo: Matthew Bronski/ Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Extra Large Image SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Bronski analyzed the effectiveness of a Roman cornice detail using sketches from his notebooks. Photo: Matthew Bronski/ Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Extra Large Image SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE The "shed and shelter" rule helped keep this Renaissance-era building in Venice in good condition until now. Photo: Matthew Bronski/ Simpson Gumpertz & Heger Extra Large Image In a community planning exercise led by the New Urbanist architecture and planning firm Union Studio, residents of Jamestown, Rhode Island, were given green dots to indicate existing city spaces they liked, and red dots for places they didn't like. Image: Courtesy Union Studio Architecture & Community Design Extra Large Image Jamestown ultimately adjusted its conventional zoning ordinance to behave more like a form-based code, incorporating recommendations from Union Studio based on the visioning sessions. Image: Courtesy Union Studio Architecture & Community Design Extra Large Image SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE The city of Lowell, Massachusetts, adopted a form-based code for redevelopment of the industrial Hamilton Canal district. Image: ICON architecture Extra Large Image A 3D rendering of possible development patterns in Lowell's new Hamilton Canal district. Image: ICON architecture Extra Large Image   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.