Analyzing the Response of Urban Design Plans to the Emerging Drivers in the Contemporary Urban Environment of US Cities: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This research examines the substantive content of two urban design plans to assess the extent to which their goals were translated into high-coverage design aspects across the tiers of the design hierarchy. The results showed that both plans have failed to consider design and sustainability as overarching cross-scale elements. The emerging drivers were neither explicitly emphasized nor reflected in the plans’ themes and policies. The translation of the plan goals into design themes, focus areas, and high-coverage design aspects has involved many discrepancies due to low coverage of the related design aspects and to the approach of the plan’s development.