Emphasis on Gardens

The city of Pasadena has quietly approved the concept of an imaginative new construction ordinance for multifamily housing, placing the design emphasis on gardens instead of parking and setbacks.

The plan was drafted by Berkeley’s Center for Environmental Structure, headed by Christopher Alexander, and the architectural firms of Daniel Solomon of San Francisco and Phoebe Wall of Pasadena, with the latter providing particular insight into the landscape and design traditions of the city.

The city hopes that the ordinance, which recently won a coveted citation for urban design and planning from Progressive Architecture (PA) magazine, can soon be put to the test, and has designated a potential building site and issued a request for proposal, hoping to attract an innovative design and development team. Winning awards is nice, the city feels, but building something is better.