Perimeter Building

The buildings need not abut the pavement or sidewalk directly, but can step back into a small front

Along the sides of streets and lanes, there is a need for buildings to form attractive, active edges. At the same time, there is also a need for the buildings to be exposed to light and open space, and to include yard zones to form transitional layers from public to private. They can do this by lining the edges of the blocks, forming perimeter buildings.

Therefore:

Create perimeter buildings that abut the streets surrounding each block, with almost continuous building frontage to the maximum extent possible. Create variety in the building form with step-backs and setbacks, and layers of semi-private space.

When … Within Perimeter Block (p. 105), create buildings at the edges. Build some of them on Small Plot (p. 108), with fine-grained features at the streetscapes. Use Place Network (p. 90) to create layers and articulations of space along the frontages...

Then Create Ornamental Construction (p. 157) and Human-Scale Detail (p. 154) along the frontages of the buildings....