INTRODUCTION
The Noisette Company wants to ensure that the principles of sustainability and strong urban placemaking are applied to development in the Navy Yard at Noisette. Their vision is for site development and architecture to provide the appropriate level of amenities, support a critical mass of economic and social activity, and contribute to the restoration of natural ecosystems. The purpose of this guide is to provide a framework for the decision making process that will support the creation of the desired character for the Navy Yard at Noisette.
What are the goals of the guide?
Establish objectives and principles that enable a diverse, pedestrian oriented, mixed-use community.
Provide typologies that serve as examples of how the principles work as a system.
Define sustainable design goals and mandatory elements.
Define the options for building placement, parking, and servicing.
Build the capacity for innovation.
Promote human health and safety, beauty and serenity.
The bases for this design guide are the Noisette Community Master Plan and the Noisette Navy Yard Planned Development District (PDD). All development in the Navy Yard at Noisette should apply the recommendations in this guide in support of the Master Plan and in conformance with the PDD.
The Master plan for 3,000-acre Noisette Community - The New American City (completed in 2003) - incorporated planning goals in four areas:
Regenerative land use
Restoring natural systems
Restoring connections – land scape, open space and recreation, transportation, utility systems
Neighborhood design principles
Through a partnership between the City of North Charleston and the Noisette Company, the Master Plan was intended to influence a number of desired outcomes. Development at the Navy Yard at Noisette should support these, as well:
Rebreathe life into the historic city center
Synergize all Quality of Life efforts within the City
Catalyze economic growth Build the City’s financial Vitality Position North Charleston nationally as a sustainable urban center
All development at the Navy Yard at Noisette must contribute to the progress of North Charleston as a community.
SANBORN PRINCIPLES
Healthy Indoor Environment for Occupants
Ecologically Healthy
Socially Just
Culturally Creative
Beautiful
Physically and Economically Accessible
VALUES OF PLACE
Value of Diversity
Value of Beauty and Aesthetics
Value of Accidental Meeting Places
Value of Surprise and Discovery
Value of Resource Efficiency
Value of Leaving Your Mark
Value of Human Form Emerging
TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE: PEOPLE, PLANET, PROSPERITY
As a major element of the 3,000acre Noisette Community Master Plan the Navy Yard at Noisette is based on the principles of the Triple Bottom Line – a balance among people, planet, and prosperity – embodying the belief that sustainable cities must be equally responsive to social needs, environmental responsibility, and economic vitality.
Also like the Master Plan, the Navy Yard at Noisette incorporates principles and values that form the basis for making great places. One key element is the Sanborn Principles, a set of goals that were established in 1994 by a diverse group of visionaries, who described the attributes that would defi ne sustainable communities of the future. These characteristics balance social, economic, and environmental well-being, while recognizing the importance of beauty and the need for continuous evolution in a changing world.
A second fundamental component is the Values of Place, which is a set of statements embodying the essence of timeless design, human-centered building, and personal responsibility. Great places around the world have incorporated these values for millennia.
LOCAL CLIMATE CONSIDERATIONS
North Charleston is located at latitude 32.854N.
Average wind speeds range from 7 to 10 M.P.H.
Average summer high temperatures are in the low 90’s, average winter low temperatures are in the mid to high 30’s
Annual precipitation- 51.53”
Average relative humidity- 73%
The Navy Yard at Noisette was defined by transect zones in the approved Navy Yard Planned Development District. The distribution of land into the different zones allocated development density in the Navy Yard, indentifying the character of development rather than separating uses. This approach to zoning emphasizes the use of building form to create vibrant successfull places and promotes a focus on the connections between built spaces and natural systems. A description of each of the context zones that make up the transect can be found on the following page.
“The greatest flaw in city zoning is that it permits monotony. Perhaps the next greatest flaw is that it ignores scale of use, where this is an important consideration, or confuses it with kind of use, and this leads, on the one hand, to visual (and sometimes functional) disentegration of streets, or on the other hand to indiscriminate attempts to sort out and segregate kinds of uses no matter what their size or empiric effect. Diversity itself is thus unnecessarily suppresssed...”
- Jane Jacobs
THE NOISETTE NAVY YARD PLANNED DEVELOPMENT DENSITY
The Noisette Navy Yard Planned Development District approved in 2004, establishes the zoning requirements for development in the Navy Yard at Noisette. For the areas of the Navy Yard that are targeted for development, the document describes general characteristics, by-right density for residential, frontage requirements, civic space requirements, lot coverage limits, setbacks, building heights, parking requirements, solar access requirements, landscaping and stormwater management requirements. It includes a general description of the following, which is expanded in the site and architectural guidelines in this document:
Mixed use urban center including residential, commercial, recreation and entertainment, schools, community centers, churches and civic uses, and light industrial uses;
Integration of uses and range of densities to establish a live/work/play/ 24hour urban environment and regional center;
Use the forms of buildings and public spaces to create vibrant, successful urban places, in which art is integrated;
Connections to natural systems and creation of open space; and,
Required use of the Noisette Quality Home Standard (residential) and the LEEDTM Green Building Rating System (commercial) to enable higher density development.
Context zones with specific development standards:
CS- Civic Space- dispersed areas of community or civic function that fall into the public realm. This type of development, though must comply with the requirements of the guidelines definded in this document.
T1- Protected Area- areas of environmental sensitivity where development is inappropriate are designated as protected areas.
T4 – General Urban – predominantly residential context with a small portion of appropriate commercial, retail, and institutional development.
T5 – Urban Center – a mixed-use context containing a more equal balance of higher density housing and commercial/retail development.
T6 – Urban Core – mixed-use context with the highest density residential, commercial, and retail development.
Historic Residential Area – former Officers Housing area. Placement of new buildings will respect the character of the landscape and the existing buildings in a campus-like environment
Open space – major elements of defined open space, plus recreational parks, playgrounds, squares, and plazas, appropriate to the context zones. Three percent of the land area of each context zone has been allocated for these open space elements; the locations and nature of these open space elements will be determined as that portion of the Navy Yard is developed.
Civic space will be developed around historic resources, such as the existing Marine Barracks, intended to someday serve again as a facility for public services.
The T4 General Urban context zone has a development pattern of traditional urban neighborhood development of 20th Century America. Residential buildings may have first floor commercial or retail uses to support the neighborhood.
The T6 Urban Core will be someday serve as the urban center for the Charleston metropolitan region, with a general building height limit of 8 stories, mixed with a number of 8-18 story towers.
The history of North Charleston and the Navy Yard is a rich one. The area was thought to be populated by a number of Native American tribes for more than twelve thousand years before the first European colonists arrived. The settlers began establishing towns that centered on agriculture and lumber trading. Plantations developed in areas that were drained to make use of fertile soils without the risks of Malaria. Still, many of the families lived in town, while slaves worked the land. Soon the area became a shipbuilding economy. The Charleston peninsula survived the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, but there is no evidence that any battle ever took place in the immediate Navy Yard area. By the late 19th century, the plantations were gone. Neighborhoods began to creep up from Charleston, and Liberty Hill was already a well-established Freedman’s neighborhood. The area was lightly used for agriculture and industry dotted the shore of the Cooper River.
CHARLESTON NAVAL BASE HISTORY
At the turn of the century in North Charleston, with the pressure of the new naval base, development was influenced by the establishment of the plan by P.J. Berckmans Company. The plan followed the patterns of the Garden City Movement, with its central park, surrounding shopping and industry, residential neighborhoods, and outlying agriculture. The plan was platted and is still visible today in the heart of North Charleston’s fabric. Businesses began to develop along Montague Avenue to support the growth, forming today’s Old North Charleston Business District. Housing began to fill in the Berckmans plan, continuing to the Second World War. The boom in construction made Rivers Avenue a vital corridor for the area. Beyond WWII, as the area transitioned to embrace the car-culture of America, development in North Charleston sprawled out beyond the original city’s boundaries.
After slavery was abolished, the support for agriculture in the very low lying areas north of the City of Charleston waned significantly. Portions of various plantations were purchased by the City of Charleston for the development of a significant park. Nearly six hundred acres were obtained, and surveys and planning were completed between 1895 and 1902. The Park Board hired the famed Olmsted Brothers to design “Chicora Park”. Clearing began, and by 1897 trolley service to the park was established to transport the city dwellers to the pastoral setting. Though the park was very popular, incentives to attract the US Navy’s relocation of the Port Royal, South Carolina, base encouraged the park’s sacrifice.
The US Navy purchased most of “Chicora Park” in 1901. Construction of the Navy Base commenced with development of a number of buildings in the wooded officer’s housing area and in the Storehouse Row district. Development continued and boomed during the Second World War. By 1941, ten thousand civilians were employed at the base. The base continued to influence growth in North Charleston with war time/peace time fluctuations all the way up to its closure between 1993 and 1996. The shipyard at the former base remains an active cultural and historic resource for the North Charleston community.
The purpose of the Navy Yard Review Board is to ensure that all development at the Navy Yard at Noisette is in accordance with the building design, urban design, and environmental goals that are presented in this Design Guide and elsewhere.
Each building or site development project must utilize the Noisette Quality Home Standard (for single family residential projects, including townhouses) or the US Green Building Council LEEDTM Green Building Rating System. Residential projects must have a minimum rating of “Certified” using the Noisette Quality Home Standard; other projects must achieve a minimum Certified rating using the LEEDTM Green Building Rating System for New Construction and Major Renovations, Version 2.1 (or current version).
The review of proposed designs is a mandatory process for all building and site development projects and normally occurs at the completion of each relevant phase of the design and construction process. The sequence of submission and review is:
1. Site Plan / Conceptual Building Design Submission
a. Inventory the existing assets of the planned development site and the surrounding area.
b. Examine the planned uses for the
site and the recommended overall configuration of building massing, as described in the Phase 1 Site Plan for the Navy Yard at Noisette.
c. Prepare an existing conditions site analysis showing all significant built or natural features of the development site and the surrounding area, including existing (or planned) adjacent buildings, infrastructure development, etc.
d. Prepare a conceptual site and building design showing general massing, positioning of the building on the site, planned building uses and space allocations, vehicular, pedestrian, and service access, general landscape and hardscape features, and other relevant items. State the project goals for the site and building.
e. Prepare an assessment showing how the project is expected to meet the Noisette Quality Home Standard, LEED, and mandatory environmental strategies.
2. Building and Site Design Development Submission
a. Show the development of the approved conceptual site plan to respond to the site context and to achieve the project goals.
b. Show the development of the approved conceptual building(s), including plans, elevations, sections, and other information necessary to demonstrate how the project will achieve the project goals.
c. Provide documentation on the building envelope and MEP sys-
tems, including the placement of any equipment that is outside of the building envelope. Provide preliminary sizes and capacity of major HVAC system components.
d. Provide documentation and samples as appropriate for the primary exterior and interior building materials, including sustainable design characteristics.
e. Provide an updated assessment showing how the project is expected to meet the requirements of the Noisette Quality Home Standard, LEED, and mandatory environmental strategies.
3. Building and Site Construction Documents Submission
a. Provide the completed site and building construction documents, based on the approved design development site and building(s) plans.
b. Update documentation on building systems, including final sizing and
placement of major HVAC components.
c. Update documentation and samples as appropriate for the primary exterior and interior building materials, including sustainable design characteristics.
d. Provide an updated assessment showing how the project is expected to meet the requirements of the Noisette Quality Home Standard, LEED, and/or other requirements. Provide final documentation showing how the project will achieve mandatory environmental strategies.
When the building and site construction documents submission has been approved, the project may be submitted to required regulatory authorities for the necessary permits. During construction, the Navy Yard Review Board will monitor progress to assure that the final product achieves the approved design.
Design Feature or Requirement
1. Submit site and building design documentation, including conceptual site plan, building plans, and elevations, per phase requirements in design guide.
2. Submit a preliminary LEED or Noisette Quality Home Standards Checklist.
3. Provide an estimate of funds that will be made available for the integration of public art and describe proposed features.
Project Requirements
1. Demonstrate compliance with the P.D.D. requirements for density, frontage, setbacks, and parking. X
2. The site design addresses designation as a gateway, icon, or landmark site.
3. Specifi ed plants are listed in the South Carolina Atlas.
4. Stormwater requirements from either LEED or the Noisette Quality Homes Standards are satisfi ed.
5. Site service areas are accessed from secondary public ways.
6. Trash, utility areas, and recycling collection areas are screened from view.
7. All plant materials conform to the American Standard for Nurserymen Stock (ANSI-1986).
Site Design Requirements
8. For all surface or structured parking of more than ten spaces, submit a parking plan demonstrating compliance with the P.D.D. and parking requirements in the design guide.
1.Bicycle storage has been provided in the building.
2. For buildings over 50’ in height, a recess line of at least 5’ is established in the massing.
3. In T5 and T6 Zones buildings must include vegetated roofs or other equally effective stormwater management techniques.
4. Signage and awnings compliment the architectural materials and adhere to lighting requirements.
5.Roof equipment is screened from view.
6. Materials employed are authentic, durable, sustainable, compatible and weather gracefully.
7. Utility areas and mechanical equipment are screened as described in the guidelines.
Architectural Requirements
8. Exterior lighting conforms with IESNA recommended Practice Manual (IESNA RP-33-99).
Desirable Design FeaturesYesNoYesNoYesNo
1. T5 or T6 setbacks vary to enhance the transitions from public to private space.
2. Design of edges along secondary public ways is of the same quality as edges along primary public ways.
3. Corners and intersections have special design features.
4. Changes in elevation along public ways accommodate equitable passage for all persons and enhance public space.
5. The project includes an arcaded or covered walk along public space. Public arcades have a depth of at least 7 feet.
6. Fencing and/or site wall designs maintain visual connections between spaces.
7. Permanent irrigation systems are high-effi ciency systems and utilize non-potable water sources.
8. Project proposes removal of “Signifi cant Tree(s).”
Consent is being sought.
9.Stormwater is managed on-site.
Suggested Site Design Features
10.Site wall designed to allow seating.
11. The site design includes a water feature. Feature uses recycled or captured water.
1. Exterior lighting does not contribute to light pollution.
2. Building is oriented to maximize the benefi ts of daylighting and ventilation.
3. Building mass has a human scale and adheres to the PDD requirements.
4. Projections are used to improve environmental performance.
5.Roof is treated as 5th façade.
6.Parapets are embellished
7.Entrance is appropriately scaled.
8.Building setback creates public space.
9.Fenestration maximizes energy effi ciency
Suggested Architectural Features
10. A proportional relationship has been established for the building and its fenestration.
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Therefore, when we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone, let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think, as we lay stone on stone, that a time is to come when these stones will be held sacred, because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor and the wrought substance of them - “See! This our fathers did for us.”
ENVIRONMENTAL GUIDELINES
Objective: Projects in the Navy Yard at Noisette will be required to measure the environmental performance of design and construction. Projects will be required to utilize either the LEED™ Green Building Rating System or the Noisette Quality Home Performance Standards, as appropriate.
Performance Principles for Commercial and High-Rise Residential Buildings:
LEED™ is required for commercial buildings (offices, retail, and service establishments), institutional buildings (including libraries, schools, museums, and churches), and hotels and residential buildings of four or more habitable floors. Hotels and multifamily residential buildings of three floors or less are addressed by the current LEED™ Application Guide for Lodging.
Why LEED™?
The US Green Building Council (USGBC) is a national organization comprised of over 5,500 corporations, government entities, builders and environmental organizations with interests in the green building industry. Recognizing the need for a definitive standard by which the energy and environmental performance of buildings could be assessed, the USGBC developed the Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design LEED™ Green Building Rating System, which has become the definitive consensus performance standard for commercial and high-rise residential building projects in the US and throughout the world. LEED™ buildings have lower energy requirements and a reduced environmental impact; a greater density of development is permitted in the Navy Yard due to the use of this rating system.
LEED™ is structured around five performance categories, with specific prerequisites and credits in each: Sustainable Sites, Water Conservation, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality. Prerequisites are a baseline requirement and do not earn credits; the number of credits earned in the five categories determines the LEED™ certification level: Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum. The project applicant submits documentation of the features that are included in a specific project and the number of credits being sought. The USGBC performs an objective evaluation of the project and determines the performance level that the project has achieved.
LEED™ has additional possible credits for Innovation & Design Process. The intent is to provide design teams and projects the opportunity to be awarded points for exceptional performance above the standards set by LEED™ and/or innovative performance in green building categories not specifically addressed.
The LEED™ Green Building Rating System is a requirement for new construction and major renovation of commercial and high-rise residential buildings in the Navy Yard at Noi-
sette. Individual projects are required to submit documentation for rating by the US Green Building Council, resulting in a LEED™ certified building, or could be designed to achieve a specific LEED™ performance level, as assessed by an objective third party consultant. Projects that go substantially beyond LEED™ Certified or Silver level, to LEED™ Gold or Platinum, are likely to incorporate means for generating energy on site and treating waste on site. The incorporation of such features reduces the impact of a building on the utility infrastructure and could be rewarded by an increase in allowable Floor Area Ratio (FAR) or other favorable treatment. The City of North Charleston should monitor the compliance of specific projects with the Standards as part of the permit and field inspection review process.
Performance Principles for Low-rise Residential Development:
The Noisette Quality Home Performance Standards are applicable for new and major renovation of low-rise residential buildings in the Navy Yard at Noisette.
Why The Noisette Quality Home Performance Standards?
The Noisette development team and the City of North Charleston are committed to delivering high quality, sustainable housing in the community of Noisette. Housing in the Navy Yard at Noisette will exhibit improved comfort, durability, energy efficiency, and indoor environmental quality, while also minimizing the environmental impact of residential construction activities. High quality, sustainable housing is an important element of the overall development strategy to enhance the quality of life in the community of Noisette and preserve / restore local ecosystems and natural landscapes.
The Noisette development team and the City of North Charleston have created the Noisette Quality Home Performance Standards in order to define the specific levels of performance to be attained by low-rise residential development in the Noisette community. These performance standards were developed for the specific climatic and geographical conditions of the South Carolina Low Country. To a greater extent than other residential performance standards, they seek to establish high quality levels for moisture control, human health, hurricane protection, and flood protection. Also, these performance standards specifically recognize that well-designed smaller houses are more efficient users of energy and natural resources than larger homes; the evaluation point structure is designed to reward these characteristics.
The Noisette Quality Home Performance Standards include multiple levels of compliance (Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum), so that minimum performance requirements can be clearly defined while also encouraging and challenging homeowners, builders and architects to far exceed these benchmarks. The Noisette development team and the City of North Charleston intend for the Noisette Quality Home Performance Standards to be a living, evolving document that fosters an attitude of building the absolute best houses that are economically feasible in the Navy Yard at Noisette.
In order to facilitate the process of building better, more environmentally friendly houses, the Noisette Quality Home Performance Standards are intended to educate homeowners, builders, and architects about the environmental impact of residential construction and the fundamental principles of high quality residential construction. The Noisette Quality Home Performance Standards outline primary criteria for high performance, sustainable houses, and then suggest improved construction practices, materials, and technologies which can be used to achieve improved performance levels. The Noisette Quality Home Performance Standards give homeowners, builders, and architects flexibility to develop their own strategies for achieving the desired performance levels, by combining methods described in the Performance Standards or by proposing new, innovative methods.
Mandatory Environmental Strategies
T5 and T6 Buildings must include a vegetated green roof unless the project can demonstrate that other stormwater management strategies are in place that provide equal reductions in the rate and quantity of stormwater runoff.
T4 Buildings must mitigate all stormwater runoff on site.
Each of these categories and measures has specific performance characteristics that earn points if they are included in a given project. A residential builder or developer would complete a worksheet documenting the performance measures to be incorporated in a project and the performance level (Certified, Silver, Gold, or Platinum) that will be achieved.
An objective third party consultant, such as IBACOS, the developer of the Noisette Quality Home Performance Standards, should serve as a coach or guide to assist the builder and the City to implement the Standards. The City of North Charleston should monitor the compliance of specific projects with the Standards as part of the residential permit and field inspection review process.
Projects must meet the criteria for stormwater management included in either the LEED™ Rating System or the Noisette Quality Home Performance Standards, whichever is appropriate for the project.
“An
artist must possess Nature. He must identify himself with her rhythm, by efforts that will prepare the mastery which will later enable him to express himself in his own language.”
- Henri Matisse
Objectives
To create exciting, appealing, and harmonious public spaces by integrating art into architecture, urban design, and the planning of infrastructure at the earliest design state;
To celebrate the Noisette community’s heritage, ethnicity, and civic pride by stimulating collaboration and understanding between artists and the community;
To enhance the Navy Yard’s image locally, regionally, and nationally by insuring the creation of the highest quality public art;
To foster the public’s understanding and enjoyment of public art; and,
To promote artists to live and work in Noisette and to participate in presentations of their art in the community.
The National Endowment for the Arts posits that “a Great Nation Deserves Great Art.” Without question, art enriches our lives. Art, in all its various expressions defines our culture. It is important to the mission of the Noisette Company to incubate the Arts in the development of the Navy Yard at Noisette.
Why?
History provides us with examples of the impact of deliberate programs to support the arts. Among the most successful was the influence of the Medicis, the famed Florentine philanthropic family and servant to the Renaissance. The Medici family spent large sums of their family fortune supporting public art in Florence over generations, in commissioning works of art, architecture and preservation of knowledge. Among the influential Medici sons was “Lorenzo the Magnificent”, named so because of his dedication to supporting the arts and fostering an era of learning, continuing the dedication that began with
his grandfather. Lorenzo de’ Medici’s contribution included support of artists such as Di Vinci, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Boticelli. The family’s efforts made Florence the center of Renaissance while Lorenzo was alive. The artists supported by the Medici family had a lasting global impact on our culture.
Few cities today have the fortune of such a philanthropist’s charity and goodness. The support for the Arts in modern times has often come to rest upon the shoulders of municipal government programs. There are many examples of “percent for
art” programs in the United States, common in the capital programs of State governments and larger cities. These programs usually require that one-percent of a project’s budget must be dedicated to either installation of a piece of art or must go into an endowment for other types of art programs. As positive as these types of programs are, they sometimes fail to find a foundation in the classical principles of the emergence of art- an organic process that develops from the culture of a place, rather than the influence of the vision of a single artist or developer. Even the most well-intentioned programs can result in what
has come to be termed “plop-art”. A play on words, the term is used to describe installations of public art that are considered to be forced, unattractive or inappropriate pieces that are not usually derived from the culture of a place. They find their ways into corporate plazas, public parks, and government buildings, usually because of a program that requires them to be there.
As development progresses at the Navy Yard at Noisette, the Noisette Company will work with the City of North Charleston to develop a comprehensive plan for supporting the Arts. Art in the Navy Yard will include the visual arts, performing arts, and media art, and will be focused in, but not limited to, areas that are identi-
fied in the Site Design Guidelines as Gateways, Icons, and Landmarks. The plan will function to successfully fund and administer an emerging and ongoing program for public art.
Requirements
Each individual building in the T5 and T6 context zones must incorporate public art in some form. The developers and designers may propose elements such as art integrated into the building facade itself, performing art space, an exterior sculpture or dynamic water feature as part of an entry court, a mobile in a public lobby, or other art forms that are appropriate for the location and type of building. Buildings that are located on sites designated as gateways, landmarks, or icons must have the art elements
Establishment and administration of Public Art funding
General Guidelines:
Art projects should be in prominent locations, places that are visually accessible to the public, and places where public life occurs.
Art projects should relate to the nature of the facilities, or the districts where they are located, as well as to the identity of the community as a whole.
Public art should engage aspects of Navy Yard’s landscape, urban form, history and culture that make the community distinct.
Arts projects should be integrated into architectural, landscape, and infrastructure design Artists should be engaged not only to create art projects, but also to infuse various community design and planning processes with creative energy.
integrated in a manner that will give the greatest public exposure. The proposed nature and location of the public art elements must be identified in the Site Plan/Conceptual Design Submission, which will be reviewed by the Navy Yard Review Board. Once the concept is approved in the initial submission, it must be updated in additional detail in each subsequent submission.
CREATE MEMORABLE PLACES AND SPACES
Why does the plan for the Navy Yard at Noisette look this way?
The Noisette Company and City of North Charleston have worked over a number of years with a design team to create a plan that would foster a new identity for the former Charleston Naval Base. The success of developed places has always depended upon the features that make them memorable and enjoyable. People seek places that support a variety of activities contributing to the social framework of our lives, places that allow them to take varying roles, ranging from spectator to active participant. Places in the public realm must provide opportunities for choice: a place to see or be seen; places to work, play, or rest; and places that simply provide a different experience in going from one place to another.
Inherent among the human needs is a person’s desire for access to beauty. We are all drawn to breath-taking landscapes and vistas, captivated by the number of stars in the dark night sky, and soothed by the sounds of water in a babbling brook. Such places and experiences feed our souls and become the memories that make up our lives. These experiences in nature should inform the way we plan experiences in our built envi-
ronment. The places that a person will experience moving throughout the Navy Yard will be designed with the pedestrian in mind. Many of the treasured places throughout the world share this trait, having been designed long before the era of the automobile. Even the streets of Charleston have a charm not found in many other US cities simply because it was planned for the circulation of men on foot or horseback and small carriages. The biggest difference in places that are designed for pedestrians rather than automobiles is that the experience becomes much more rooted in the third and fourth dimensions, impacting all of the senses, as the time taken to experience the space is drawn out in comparison to the way we experience
things while driving in a car. Attention to detail becomes much more important and is strikingly noticeable when it is lacking.
Given that people will experience the Navy Yard much more sensually than many other places in the Charleston region, the approach to creating form is concentrated on the scale of the human. Form-based zoning is supplemented by these guidelines for managing and encouraging a density that supports a desired mix and intensity of uses that is appropriate for the different districts in the Noisette area. The planning of the block structure and streets in the Navy Yard was based on principals for creating healthy spaces. As well, the organization of streets, civic
places, and open spaces is based upon maintaining a healthy natural environment while creating human habitat. Hence, the infrastructure of the Navy Yard is planned to work with natural systems that were long ago short circuited, the block structure is planned to maximize the benefits of solar access and natural lighting, and the organization of districts is based on the preservation of a history that preceded the Navy Yard at Noisette. The Site Development Guidelines that follow are intended to explain how places should be developed to support both a rich urban community and a healthy natural environment.
A street is a spatial entity and not the residue between buildings. - Anonymous
SITING AND ORIENTATION OF BUILDINGS
Objective: The orientation of buildings at the Navy Yard at Noisette should contribute to the creation of a dense, multi-use, 24-hour community that promotes a strong public realm by maintaining a diverse and compact critical mass of activity.
Principles for Block Subdivision: Create massing in buildings that is diverse, yet still reinforces the Navy Yard at Noisette identity.
In the Navy Yard at Noisette, all lots must have street frontage. Development of a monolithic super block is to be avoided by creating rhythm and pattern in building facades. Full development of a block is allowable in the Noisette Navy Yard, but lot division is limited to no parcel smaller than 24 feet in frontage. 24 feet is 1.5 rods- a rod is a surveying measurement of 16 feet. When blocks are not broken down into smaller parcels, the façade should be broken to ensure that the building has a human scale.
Block widths in the Navy Yard vary to promote a variety of lot sizes and development options. The grid is sometimes interrupted to create special places for civic uses, terminations for view corridors, and windows to natural spaces such as the Cooper River or the Noisette Preserve. Density in the Master plan and zoning for the Navy Yard at Noisette has been concentrated along Noisette Boulevard, with the intention that this area will be the new regional center for the greater Charleston Metropolitan Region. The density of this corridor is located so for several reasons. The street has potential to have the highest volume of traffic, making it desirable for business development. The density decreases to the east and west of the immediate blocks on Noisette Boulevard, providing for changes in the various districts at its edge. The density changes at the buildings to the east, where it is desirable to preserve the character of both the Historic Officer’s housing neighborhood and the industrial nature of the active shipyard. The density also changes to the west of the Noisette Boulevard corridor to eventually meet the existing residential neighborhoods of North Charleston with similar density and massing. This will help buildings feel as if they have a better fit in the larger North Charleston community. The varying densities allow for different housing products, accommodating an expanded range of incomes and needs- affordability, size, and different family structures.
Why?
T4 Zone- The 24’ module in a T4 zone is a good dimension for supporting a variety of housing types. As the community has been planned around existing elements, it is likely the end lots on each block will have extra frontage. The remainder of frontage in each block should be divided to provide additional frontage at the end lots, supporting a dual orientation on these blocks to both streets. This will create a frontage on secondary streets, maintaining the public realm where it could become somewhat diluted. Two lots, if dictated by the market, would accommodate a detached single-family home similar in dimension to traditional residential neighborhoods in American cities. Historically, single family home lots were often 40 to 50’ in width and 100’ deep. A lot of this size would support the construction of carriage house type unit at the rear of the lot.
T5 and T6 Zones- These blocks have been subdivided in ways to encourage development that supports activities desired in the various districts at the Navy Yard. The Navy Yard Districts include: Powerhouse Basin, Storehouse Row, Chicora Gardens, the Steel Crib District, and the West Yard. The districts are described on the following page.
District Descriptions
Powerhouse Basin
This district is defined by the historic Navy Base Powerhouse and the new community water feature created to its west. The stately architecture of the Powerhouse is the physical manifestation of the almost century long history of the base that once occupied the area. The basins are important elements in the community-wide stormwater management strategy. These resources will be an anchor for the Navy Yard at Noisette and will be surrounded by elements that will contribute to a 24 hour active community, including a Performing Arts Center, a school, retail shops, a grocery store, a hotel, office space, and multifamily housing.
Storehouse Row
This district is highly influenced by historic buildings of the Naval Base. This area of the base was utilized heavily as a work yard, a place for storing materials and repairing equipment. Its durable and balanced architecture is a valuable pattern to draw upon for future development in the district. Storehouse Row will be a target area for artist work/live lofts, office spaces, unique retail shops, and industrial character multi-family housing.
Chicora Gardens
This area is dominated by the charming pastoral setting of dense live oaks and the scattering of treasured historic homes that housed the officers of the Naval Base. Development in this area will be mostly of a residential nature and
must respect the scale of the existing structures. Development will transition to a more mixed use texture along the western edge, where the buildings along Noisette Boulevard will include retail and commercial uses with multi-family housing.
Steel Crib District
The smallest of the districts, the Steel Crib District, takes its name from the unique activities that once took place here. Located at the end of a rail line, the area was populated with large concrete cribs used to hold steel plates that were used for construction and repair of ships. Development in the Steel Crib District should reflect the industrial history of the area in its public spaces and buildings.
West Yard
The West Yard will be the most residential of the districts, with much of the area in a T4 context zone. The area historically served as a residential zone. Development here will be of a lower scale than other parts of the Navy Yard at Noisette, serving as a transition from the more dense development along Noisette Boulevard and the existing St. John’s neighborhood. Interspersed among the different types of housing will be small commercial and retail uses and neighborhood parks. The West Yard is also influenced by the Noisette Greenway, a district stormwater strategy that will be anchored by the historic Marine Barracks.
“A good city street neighborhood achieves a marvel of balance between its people’s determination to have essential privacy and their simultaneous wishes for differing degrees of contact, enjoyment, or help from the people around.” – Jane Jacobs
Principles for edges along a primary public way:
Buildings in the Navy Yard at Noisette must be sited in ways that create edge conditions which support a vibrant street life. Setbacks, as defined in the PDD, and appropriate deviations from those guidelines, are intended to create a strong street wall along the sidewalk.
Why?
It’s human nature, in passive social situations, for people to inhabit the edges of spaces. People feel safer and more comfortable in a partially enclosed and well defined environment. Large setbacks are not convenient or comfortable for pedestrians. They transfer the relationship of the space from the pedestrian to the automobile and parking. They increase walking distances and create a “no man’s land” between buildings and the street.
Setbacks in the T4 context zones are designed with flexibility to provide variety in the way that private homes meet the public realm. This is further impacted by the change in elevation and the designated flood zone. Homes in the Navy Yard should have architectural elements that establish a relationship between the house and the public realm. Some of these elements, such as porches, are allowed to encroach in the setback. In the T4 zone, the setback is a semi-private transition from the public realm to a private residence. These spaces are encouraged because they provide for a strong continuation of the sense of community to the front door of each home.
The faces of buildings in the T6 and T5 zones are the walls that define public outdoor rooms. Setbacks were originally a tool to separate incompatible uses and provide adequate light and air for buildings. Suburban sprawl has taught us to recognize the value of setback patterns of traditional downtowns and urban neighborhoods that reinforced the street edges by placing buildings close to the street. Slightly staggering the setback of buildings along the street, and even placing building fronts at a slight angle to the street provide opportunities to enhance outdoor spaces. Minor adjustments to building fronts can shape the street as a social space. These are allowed only when it can be demonstrated that the public realm is still delineated with a distinct edge.
Setbacks in the T5 and T6 context zones are designed to reinforce the edge of the public way to create a lively street environment, providing for a variety of activities along the street edge that support the functions within the buildings. Space created within the setbacks in T5 and T6 context zones along primary circulation routes should be considered secondary public spaces.
The building line in the T5 and T6 zones is close to the street edge with limited setbacks to support an urban feeling in the Navy Yard. As buildings move back from the street, the public realm loses scale and the relationship with the pedestrian is compromised.
Principles for Treatment of Edges along a secondary public way: The design of edges along secondary public ways should emphasize the continuation of quality public space along streets that tend to be underdesigned in conventional developments. The design of buildings along secondary public ways must maintain access for public safety. The quality of edges at secondary public ways must be comparable to that of other parts of the public realm, in materials, access to light, and landscape.
Why?
Low-country cities have been known for their history of back alleys and quaint lanes. These places were historically used as part of the circulation system throughout the city, and were not just places to hide trash and rear access. With this in mind, the site design and architecture should incorporate the same principles for treating edges along a primary public way to the extent possible for secondary public ways. When alleys are not treated this way, they tend to become undesirable.
Cady’s Alley in Georgetown is a successful blending of vehicular access and pedestrian way in a alley that provides service to retail uses. The variety of materials and the numerous openings onto the alley make one less aware that they are at the backs of these buildings.
Situated near the middle of the block at Cady’s Alley is a small plaza, illustrating the value that can be added to an alley by including seating, landscaping, and public art along a secondary public way.
“The street is the river of life of the city, the place where we come together, the pathway to the center.”
- William H. Whyte
Corner and Intersection Principles:
Intersections of two public ways or corners established by buildings surrounding various open spaces should be celebrated in ways that create layers of different types of spaces within the public realm.
Corners and intersections in the Navy Yard at Noisette should be treated as event places rather than simply a crossing of two paths.
Why?
An intersection is a meeting, a place where two or more elements come together. Intersections of streets can play an important role in forming the identity of a city. They are the places where people often pause in their travels from Point A to Point B. They provide opportunities for transitions. Therefore, corners should be celebrated places and may be marked as special places in many ways. Doing so will emphasize the public nature
while maintaining a hierarchy. Side streets that serve more private areas of the community need gateways that support the function of the street as a public way. The entrance to a building may be located at the corner. The corner may be chamfered or be granted deviations from the standard setback requirements within the building envelope of the lot. Corners can provide a place for public art or activity. Corners may be celebrated architecturally.
In the T4B zone, corners and intersections may have unique setbacks that encourage buildings to have facades that address both streets, regardless of their use. This helps to maintain the sense that there are “eyes on the street,” even on side streets that may have less foot traffic.
Elevation Change Principles:
Changes in elevation in the public way should accommodate equitable passage for both able and disabled persons, meet the requirements set for applicable flood zones, and maintain a strong connection for the use of the building to the public activities on the street.
Why?
Stairs and ramps, if adequately designed, can become assets in public space. Low rise treads with extra depth- a rise no higher than 6” and a depth of 14”- make steps serve a dual function by addressing changes in elevation and providing a more comfortable seating option. These dimensions are guidelines rather than absolutes, with the intent being that people’s tendencies to sit should be considered in the design of stairs and ramps. Inserting these elements into the public way makes them a strong transition from the public realm to the
private by transforming them into a place instead of just a circulation path.
Where changes in elevation are required due to Federal FEMA mapping between the public realm and the first floor of a structure, the change in grade at the entrance may encroach up to 5’ into the public way for the construction of stairs or ramps only. The projection is limited to 40% of the lot frontage. Canopies or roof coverage may encroach to cover these elements, but occupied building area may not.
Principles for creating public/private transitions:
On specified streets in the Navy Yard at Noisette, buildings are encouraged to front the street with an arcade to create an exterior zone of public space at the building.
Why?
The semi-private zone created by an arcade can be utilized as a way to pull uses from inside the buildings to the outside, and is encouraged primarily along the areas targeted for retail development. This strategy is intended to support vibrant activity at the street.
Arcades adjacent to public space must be of enough depth to create an occupiable transition between the public realm and private property. They should have a depth of at least 7’-0”. Arcades are allowed along the following streets: Cosgrove Eastbound, McMillan Westbound, Noisette Boulevard, and Truxton Avenue. At these locations, arcades should be continuous along the street and may even pass through buildings to connect contained exterior spaces. They serve to create a strong relationship between the building and the public realm. For arcades to be successful, the building façade must include many openings, which serve to make individuals at the interior and exterior feel as though they are part of the activity happening on each side of the wall.
“Buildings, too, are children of Earth and Sun.”
- Frank Lloyd Wright
Principles for solar orientation and access to daylight:
Buildings in the Navy Yard at Noisette in the T5 and T6 context zones should be sited in ways to maximize the benefits of daylighting. In the T4 context zone, buildings should be sited to maximize the benefits of passive solar design, natural ventilation, and access to daylight. Buildings should be oriented in ways that support a floor plate that is oriented to bring light into interior spaces to the maximum extent possible.
Why?
Access to daylight is one of the original objectives for which zoning was created. Introduced as part of the 1916 zoning laws for New York City, it resulted in many of the “wedding cake” buildings that still stand there
today. In New York City, the objective is protected still, requiring that projects plot their impact on daylight in the street through a number of calculations and diagrams. The result of the calculations and diagrams is a score, and minimum scores are required on a street by street basis. The diagrams also provide a way to predict the view access to the sky from the vantage point of a person on the street.
In the Navy Yard at Noisette these daylighting objectives expand beyond the almost century old objective of making sure that sunlight reaches the street. It also is intended to ensure that daylighting can enter the building floorplate to achieve a feasible
Lot Orientation in the T4 districts promotes passive solar design, providing North and South exposures for solar gain or control, while taking advantage of east/west shading from dense development.
daylighting strategy. This purpose of introducing daylighting into buildings is to reduce the necessity of artificial light and to save energy. A reduction in artificial lighting can also impact the size of mechanical systems by generating less heat, resulting in a reduced cooling load in the summer. Perhaps as important as the impact on energy
is the impact that daylighting has on occupant’s health and well being, as many studies have shown direct links between daylighted spaces and improved performance levels in schools and office environments.
GATEWAYS, ICONS AND LANDMARKS
Objective: Create a system with public gateways, icons and landmarks that serve as a wayfinding system for the public, assisting in one’s creation of a mental map of the Navy Yard.
Gateway Principles:
A Gateway is a physical element that identifies a transition from one place to another. It may be a passage through a building or between buildings, a bridge, a dramatic change in level, a free-standing gate, or a landscaped passage. In any case, it is a void between solid elements that signifies an occupiable sense of arrival. Gateways in the Navy Yard may be pedestrian or vehicular, but they must create a feeling of transition between one special place and another.
Landmark and Icon Principles:
Some of the world’s most special places can be readily identified by a icon or landmark, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Coliseum in Rome, the Opera House in Sidney, to name a few. The Navy Yard has several landmarks, such as the Powerhouse and Marine Barracks, and icons, such as the Riverfront Park bandshell, which contribute to its identity. If and when such an element becomes realized, development surrounding that location should respect the context and establish a perceived relationship to the icon or landmark.
Why?
The experience of arriving and circulating through a space is defined by the gateways, icons, and landmarks that convey a sense of place. A gateway is important for establishing the arrival to a place and marking the transition from one place to another. Changes that affect the senses, such as a change in light, views, or textures help to make gateways more successful.
Wayfinding is often confused as simply a system of signage, but it is much more. Icons and landmarks are important for wayfinding. These elements become parts of a cognitive map of a place. Icons and landmarks may be a whole building or structure, a part of a building, or a natural or manmade sculptural element. They become keys to one’s decision about which path to follow. The success of a place is bolstered by the ease with which one can travel in and around that place. Gateways, icons, and landmarks are visual signals that pick up where signage may fail. They signify arrival. They convey information about entry points. As architectural signs, they convey the character of place- what types of uses occur, how public or private a
place may be, even whether a place is spiritual or sacred. These elements become much more important than signage to persons who may speak a different language, people with vision impairment that limits their ability to read signage, and to children, who may not yet be able to read signage. One of the best possible ways to help people to not get lost in a place is to make sure they have visual clues that distinguish one path from another.
Landscapes have a language of their own, expressing the soul of the things, lofty or humble, which constitute them, from the mighty peaks to the smallest of the tiny flowers hidden in the meadow’s grass. - Alexandria Da-
LANDSCAPING
Landscaping in the Navy Yard should support both the urban nature of the community while also serving as an important part of the stormwater management system and “lungs” of the city.
Plant Principles:
Use only native and other appropriate plants. Permanent installation of invasive species is prohibited. Plants must be selected from the species listed as native species in the South Carolina Plant Atlas. Refer to the plant decision process in the appendix of this document.
Irrigation Principles:
Permanent irrigation systems should be high-efficiency systems, such as below-ground drip systems, and are encouraged to utilize only non-potable sources, such as treated graywater or captured rainwater.
Maintenance Principles:
Specified maintenance periods must be established for new landscapes in all projects. Low-maintenance designs should be a priority.
Quality Principles:
New plant installations must meet minimum size requirements and must come from certified growers. All plant material shall conform to the American Standard for Nurserymen Stock (ANSI-1986) with regard to sizing, growing and specifications.
Why?
Landscaping in the Navy Yard at Noisette, though it may be designed for individual sites or properties, will be a part of a larger green infrastructure system. Each lawn and playground, planter and tree box, greenway and park will contribute to the ecology of the urban environment. Plants in the urban environment serve many functions, each of which should be consid-
tolerant.
ered when the landscape is designed. Vegetation helps to mitigate air pollution and sequester carbon. Vegetation can modify the microclimate, playing an important role in reducing the Heat Island Effect. They can also play an important role in energy conservation in the T4B district, by using trees to shade homes and protect them from prevailing winter winds. Vegetation plays another important role in stormwater management by naturalizing the hydrological cycle in the dense urban environment. Instead of allowing
stormwater to be quickly redirected, sometimes exceeding the capacity of engineered flows, plants help to absorb water, recharge groundwater, filter out pollutants and slow down the flows of water. Landscaping is a way of promoting biodiversity, both in the types of plants and in the species that they support. Urban environments can still provide habitat for wildlife. Lastly, landscaping can provide passive and active recreation opportunities.
Using native plants is a requirement in the Navy Yard at Noisette. Native plants are those that grow substantially in a region because they have evolved with local species, insects, soils conditions, animals and other plant species. Limited use of native invasive plants may be approved for purpose of bioremeditation. In an urban environment, where plants may be more taxed by climatic conditions, native plants are going to be more sustainable. Native plants should be considered for all types of plantings in the Navy Yard at Noisette, including the replacement of exotic lawn grasses. Lawns are maintenance intensive and because they tend to be exotic, they require high levels of pesticides, fertilizers, and water. Lawns have many environmental costs- running an average lawn mower for an hour is the equivalent of driving a car 350 miles; 580,000,000 gallons of gasoline are used annually to power lawn mowers; and, nearly $5 billion is spent annually
on fossil-fuel based fertilizers for U.S. lawns.
Irrigation systems for landscaping should be high-efficiency irrigation systems and should be supplied by non-potable water sources when possible. Utilizing native plants will reduce the need for irrigation, but some permanent irrigation systems may not be avoidable. High efficiency systems include micro-irrigation systems, clock timers, moisture sensors, and weather data-base controls. Non-potable sources can include gray water systems or collected rain water.
Irrigation is sometimes required to establish new plantings. Each commercial landscape project should specify appropriate maintenance periods for establishing new plantings. Enforcing minium size requirements and utilizing plants only from certified sources will help shorten maintenance periods and may help to minimize plant loss.
PlantClassificationMinimumSize DeciduousShade/StreetTrees3”Caliper DeciduousUnderstoryTrees25Gal./6’height Conifers8’Height Shrubs3Gal. OrnamentalGrasses1Gal. Groundcovers4”Pot
Wetlands have a poor public image.... Yet they are among the earth’s greatest natural assets... mankind’s waterlogged wealth. - Edward Maltby
STORMWATER MANAGEMENT
Objective: Treat water as a resource, rather than a problem. Manage stormwater runoff at the site to the extent possible by maximizing appropriate alternative and Best Management Practices.
Principles for Stormwater Management in the T4B Zone: Manage maximum percentage of runoff on the site. Utilize percolation and on site detention.
Principles for Stormwater Management in the T5 and T6 Zones: Stormwater should be collected for use on site or directed to stormwater swales for conveyance off site to the community wide stormwater management system.
Why?
The fundamental problem with conventional stormwater management may be the mind-set that water is a problem to solve rather than a valuable resource. The best approach to stormwater management is to emulate natural systems. Alternative stormwater management does not rely on engineered conventional systems, which have traditionally focused only on efficient conveyance. These systems work instead to disperse and slow water, working to replicate the hydrological cycle.
Best Management Practices (BMPs) are sized, engineered, and ecologically designed to provide a low maintenance system of strategies that disperse, infiltrate, evaporate, filter, and clean stormwater.
Homeowners can play an important role in managing stormwater. Although a single, residential parcel BMP obviously has a smaller impact than a larger, downstream BMP, these smaller, relatively inexpensive BMPs can have a substantial impact when taken in aggregate. Commercial and institutional parcels offer important opportunities for BMP implementation, given their typically greater sizes and contributions to stormwater runoff. A wide variety of BMPs can be utilized in parking lots, landscape and turfgrass areas, and on roofs. BMPs at the block scale can utilize open areas that span multiple parcels to create larger, more effective BMPs. Neighborhood-level BMPs offer another alternative for contribution to stormwater management by homeowners who may not be able to contribute at the parcel- or block-level.
Neighborhood-level BMPs typically offer larger spaces to work with, as well as the potential to share costs between a larger number of individuals. District-level BMPs may span multiple parcels and zoning categories, and may provide the most sizable BMP locations. Taken together, all of these strategies are important to the successful management of stormwater in the Navy Yard at Noisette. Each parcel developed in the Navy Yard at Noisette must demonstrate how these strategies are being utilized to manage stormwater and how they impact the system as a whole. Some best management practices are discussed on the following page.
Green Roofs
A green roof is a system that utilizes plants and a planting medium over the top of a conventional roofing system. There are two types: extensive and intensive. Extensive systems are low profile systems with shallow rooted plants and lightweight, mostly inorganic planting media. Intensive systems are deep rooting plants in a heavier, organic planting media. Intensive green roofs require special considerations for structure, irrigation, and maintenance.
Stormwater Collection and Storage
Rain Barrels and Rain Cisterns
Rain barrels collect stormwater from roofs and other impervious surfaces, and allow it to be reused for non-potable purposes, such as irrigation. Rain cisterns are larger, permanent structures that collect stormwater runoff for non-potable purposes, similar to rain barrels.
Landscaping Strategies
Filter Strips and Rain Gardens
Filter Strips are grassed areas that accept sheet flow from adjacent surfaces. They slow runoff, filter out sediments and other pollutants, and enhance infiltration of surface water runoff. Filter strips are well suited for use in areas adjacent to parking lots and other impervious areas, so runoff may be conveyed and filtered before it is discharged into other system components. These can also be used as temporary strategies for managing stormwater during construction activities.
A rain garden is a small depression planted with native vegetation (rather than a turfgrass lawn) where sheet flow runoff collects and infiltrates. Rain gardens function similar to larger-scale bioretention areas, and typically are designed to retain water for less than 72 hours.
Vegetated Swales
Grassed Swales are similar to Filter strips, but they provide conveyance and are more limited in their capacity for filtering and infiltration. Vegetated swales are basically a filter strip located along a gentle ditch, known as a “swale”. Swales have gently sloping sides and are used to convey the overland flow of stormwater down a subtle gradient. Swales accomplish many of the same functions provided by filter strips (slowing and cleaning water, encouraging infiltration, etc.), while also providing directed conveyance. This conveyance function is particularly important when managing concentrated flows and during severe storm events when stormwater needs to be directed to a destination, such as a wetland. Swales should be designed with native species, and can be augmented with check dams and other techniques to maximize their effectiveness at managing stormwater.
Parking Lot Treatments
Pervious Pavement, Infiltration Trenches and Planters, Sunken Lot Islands
Infiltration planters are vegetated structures useful in filtering and infiltrating stormwater. Pervious pavement is pavement that allows stormwater to infiltrate directly through paved surfaces, and can substantially reduce the amount of runoff created by parking lots and driveways. Water is directed into an infiltration planter, where potential pollutants settle as water flows through vegetation and soil. Infiltration trenches are depressions that are used to collect, filter, and infiltrate stormwater.
FENCES AND FREE-STANDING WALLS
The objective for fences and freestanding walls in the Navy Yard is to define edges between the public realm and private property without compromising the visual connections from one space to another.
Place Definition Principles:
Fences and walls should be utilized to define space and sequences of spaces rather than being utilized only as barriers.
Material Principles:
Fences and site walls should be designed with a variety of materials to introduce color, texture and artistic value to the site. They should be constructed of materials that one would expect to be used in constructing the surrounding architecture and should convey a sense of durability and permanence.
Utility Principles:
Site walls should be utilized for seating when possible. Elements that intentionally discourage sitting on site walls are discouraged.
Why?
Quite often, when large open spaces are constructed, they fail because of an ambiguous definition of space. When there is nothing for people to relate to in a space and the scale is undefined, they won’t occupy the space for long. Introducing fencing and site walls is one way to establish boundaries that define space. Fencing and walls still can play their traditional role of providing security; however, it should be done in a way that does not alienate or intimidate the user in adjacent public spaces. Keeping this in mind, the opacity of a fence or wall must be carefully considered to determine what level is appropriate for establishing a boundary between a public and private space. Solid and
blank walls send a strong message that one is not welcome. The more visual connection that is maintained through a fence or wall, the stronger the connection will be to the fabric of the public realm.
The materials used to construct fences and walls should be of a quality and character that fits with the palette of materials used in the architecture of surrounding buildings and spaces. Chain link fencing, vinyl fencing, and similar materials are not appropriate for the construction of fences in the Navy Yard at Noisette. Site walls should not be constructed of non-finished products, such as non-architectural concrete masonry units or pressuretreated lumber. Blank walls are uninvit-
ing, so materials should be utilized to introduce color and texture. Fences and walls can also be canvases for public art.
Walls that provide seating opportunities can greatly contribute to the success of outdoor spaces. Heights between 16” and 17” are ideal for uniform height walls. Sloped conditions better accommodate a wider range of people. Walls and ledges should be wide enough to comfortably accommodate people on each side of the wall when possible. 30” is the smallest width for successfully seating people on two sides of a wall.
EASEMENTS AND SIGHTLINES
Objective: Passages and spaces created through or between buildings, physical and visual, should be designed to highlight potential views when possible.
Principles for Creating Sightlines:
Vistas are more exiting when they frame a beautiful view at transition points rather than regularly highlighting vistas only in occupied places. In transition spaces, the circulation must be planned to allow someone to stop and enjoy captured views.
Why?
Easements may be identified to protect views of historic buildings, prominent public features in the built environment, or natural features, such as the Noisette Preserve. They also may be designated to break up long blocks in the T4 and T5 context zones or provide additional access to public spaces. One important purpose of easements for views and access is to protect the cultural and historic fabric that precedes the Navy Yard at Noisette. Doing so will strengthen the identity of the place by highlighting those elements that make the Navy Yard at Noisette different from other urban places. Easements also serve to make the area more navigable for the pedestrian, providing more choices for getting from one place to another.
TRELLISES, PERGOLAS, AND ARBORS
The objective of trellises, pergolas, and arbors is to create a sense of enclosure in outdoors spaces while maintaining exposure to the elements.
Space Definition Principles:
Landscape structures in open space are allowed to define space, provide structure for plant materials, and to provide shade along circulation routes for pedestrians.
Protection Principles:
Trellises for the purpose of shading openings on building facades are allowed in the required setback.
BUILDING SERVICES
Loading Objective: In the T5 and T6 context zones, provide adequate space for off-street parking to accommodate the loading and unloading of materials, consistent with the size and use of the building.
Why?
The South Carolina climate can include repressive heat and humidity in the summer. To encourage people to use outdoor spaces year-round, trellises, pergolas, and arbors are recommended to provide sources of shade on a site. These elements can be designed in ways that incorporate vegetation or removable shading elements to provide flexibility throughout the changes in the seasons. They can be delightful ways of treating a path or can be used to create a destination space. They can even be incorporated into the architecture of buildings.
Loading Principles:
Loading space shall not be accessed from a primary street, and shall be designed so as not to impede normal vehicular and pedestrian circulation.
Trash and Recycling Objective: The Navy Yard at Noisette is planned to achieve the highest practical diversion of waste from landfills by recycling, reuse, or other means of material reclamation.
Trash and Recycling Principles:
Provide adequate space on site for
the separation and storage of trash and recyclable materials. Trash and recyclable material storage shall be screened from view by the occupants of the building it serves, and from adjacent buildings or pedestrians. Provide for the collection of these materials at a service alley or other location that is not accessed from or visible from a public street.
Why?
Services like loading and trash collection are often tucked away and hidden in a part of a building or site that can easily be designated as the “back”. In the Navy Yard at Noisette, creating a “back” to any building or site is discouraged. For this reason, efforts should be made to design the location of these services in a way that makes them an attractive part of public space.
The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone posesses such a vehicle, is actually the right to destroy the city.
- Lewis Mumford
In the T5 and T6 context zones, the objective is to provide off street parking that is adequate for the uses of the building, considering that alternative means of transportation, such as bicycles, walking, and mass transit, will also be used. Parking areas must be designed to make an aesthetic contribution to the urban context.
Principles for Off Street Parking
Off-street parking spaces with adequate provisions for ingress and egress by motor vehicles shall be provided for any main building or structure at the time of construction and when any main building or structure is enlarged or increased in capacity.
Parking Credit Schedule for Mixed Use
Retail60%90%100%70%5%
Restaurant50%100%100%100%10%
Hotel75%100%75%100%75%
Residential50%100%100%100%100%
All other uses100%100%100%100%100%
Off Street Parking Requirements
The quantity of parking provided shall be in accordance with the following minimum requirements:
Residential: one car parking per unit
Office / Retail: two cars per 1000 gross square feet
Restaurants: fifteen parking spaces for each 1000 square feet of floor area devoted to patron use within the establishment
Hotel: one for each two sleeping rooms or suites, plus one per 200 square feet of gross floor area used for assembly functions
When any land or building is used for two or more purposes, the number of parking spaces is computed by multiplying the minimum amount of parking normally required for each land use by the appropriate percentage as shown in the following parking credit schedule for each of the five time periods shown. The number of parking spaces required is determined by totaling the resulting numbers in each column; the column total that generates the highest number of parking spaces then becomes the parking requirement.
Parking requirements for a parcel in Context Zones T5 and T6 may be met by a combination of on-site parking and shared parking in a public or private parking facility located within a radius of ¼ mile of the parcel. Use of a shared parking facility shall not reduce the required number of parking spaces for the buildings that it serves.
Entrances to off-street parking in Context Zones T5 and T6 shall not be from primary streets as defined herein, but may be from secondary streets or alleys. The purpose is to reduce the congestion that is caused by vehicles entering or leaving parking facilities.
For all surface or structured parking of more than ten 10 spaces directly serving a building or in a dedicated parking facility serving multiple buildings, a Parking Facilities Plan shall be approved by the Navy Yard Review Board. A Parking Facilities Plan shall accomplish the following objectives:
i) The protection of the health, safety, and welfare of those who use any adjoining land or public road that abuts a parking facility. This protection shall include, but shall not be limited to, the reasonable control of noise, glare or reflection from automobiles, automobile lights, parking lot lighting and automobile fumes by use of perimeter landscaping, planting, walls, fences or other natural features or improvements.
ii) The safety of pedestrians and motorists within a parking facility.
iii) The optimum safe circulation of traffic within the parking facility and the proper location of entrances and exits to public roads so as to reduce or prevent traffic congestion.
iv) The provision of appropriate lighting, if the parking is to be used after dark.
v) The provision of storm water management techniques that reduce the post-development quantity and rate of discharge to be less than or equal to the comparable pre-development rate.
Principles for On-site Surface Parking
Where surface parking is provided, the intent is to reduce the visual impact on adjacent public or private spaces, decrease the heat island effect to minimize impact on the microclimate, and to use ecological storm water management techniques to minimize the rate and quantity of water that flows off site.
Paving Materials – a minimum of 30% of paving shall be constructed of highalbedo (high reflectance) materials, or shall use an open grid pavement system (less than 50% impervious), or shall provide other approved means, including landscape design, of meeting the stated intent.
Planting – Landscaping shall be used as a buffer adjacent to a street right of way or adjoining property. Internal landscaping shall be planted so as to
provide a minimum of 30% shading of the surface area within five years of normal tree growth. All landscaping shall be composed of native or adaptive plant species as listed in the South Carolina Plant Atlas.
Stormwater Management – Landscaping and paving materials, or other approved means shall be designed to prevent the post-development 1.5-year, 24-hour peak discharge rate from exceeding the comparable pre-development discharge rate. Use of the Ecological Stormwater Management Principles included in “The New American City – City of North Charleston Noisette Community Master Plan” (Noisette Company, 2003) is recommended to accomplish this requirement.
Driveways – driveways within surface or structured parking facilities shall be designed to allow safe and expeditious movement of vehicles. Entrance and exit driveways shall be separately provided wherever possible.
Walkways - The objective for walkways in the Navy Yard at Noisette is to provide for pedestrian safety. In addition to all required parking spaces and driveways, pedestrian walkways or sidewalks shall be provided in all off-street parking facilities where necessary for pedestrian safety. Such walkways or sidewalks shall be protected from vehicular encroachment by wheel stops, curbs or other methods approved by the Navy Yard Review Board.
“Modern city-dwellers cannot even see the stars at night. This humbling reminder of man’s place in the greater scheme of things, which human beings formerly saw once every twenty-four hours, is denied them. It’s no wonder that people lose their bearings, that they lose track of who they really are, and what their lives are really about.”
- Author Michael Crichton
BICYCLE STORAGE
Support alternative transportation: Bicycle Storage must be provided in all commercial, institutional, multifamily and mixed use buildings. A minimum of one secure bicycle storage space or locker must be provided for each 20 automobile parking spaces in the facility.
Storage Principles:
Locate Bicycle parking facilities so as to be safe from motor vehicle traffic and secure from theft. Interior storage and lockers are encouraged.
Why?
There are nearly 200 million cars in the United States. Streets and roadways contribute to the destruction of natural areas and to erosion and pollution of waterways. Automobiles contribute to air pollution, acid rain, and the impacts of oil refining and gasoline production. It is widely accepted that cars have a significant impact on the health of the environment. Reducing automo-
bile dependency is a very important environmental goal. By providing for a strong bicycle friendly infrastructure, that dependency on automobiles may be reduced.
The streets at the Navy Yard at Noisette have been designed to equally accommodate bicycles along with cars and pedestrians, and providing storage for bicycles is equally necessary to make the option of using a bike much more viable. Many types of storage can be provided, from lockers and bike-safes, to simple bike racks for temporary storage and high turnover locations, to shelters that provide storage for the community. Not only does a good bicycle transportation infrastructure provide environmental benefits by getting people out of cars, but it also provides health and community benefits. Some U.S. cities go so far to support bicycle usage that they provide the bikes, too, in the same manner as loaning a book at a library!
EXTERIOR LIGHTING
Enhance the Character of Place- Improve nighttime legibility of places, landmarks and circulation routes. Utilize lighting as a way to highlight design, providing ambient lighting for site orientation and identification and accent lighting for special features.
Design principles:
Overlighting, or increasing illumination levels, does not directly translate into good lighting design or into security. Proper lighting should avoid the introduction of glare, and should include peripheral lighting, appropriate vertical and horizontal illuminance levels, and good color rendition. These can be provided with lighting design that utilizes low levels of illumination and saves energy.
Light Pollution Principles
Provide environmentally responsible lighting that does not contribute to light pollution.
Safety and Security Principles
Facilitate safety in the environment by providing clear patterns of adequate lighting for pedestrian and vehicular circulation, promoting security and minimizing potential for damage to property and personal harm.
Why?
Where lighting is provided, the intent is to minimize light trespass from the buildings and the site, to improve night sky access, and to reduce developmental impact on nocturnal environments. Use IESNA Recommended Practice Manual: Lighting for Exterior Environments (IESNA RP-33-99).
Lighting should be designed to highlight plazas, walkways, paths, and entrances, and to make circulation and wayfinding at night unambiguous. Carefully consider where illumination is to be provided in order to minimize the number of required fixtures. The height and spacing of fixtures will
impact the uniformity of light distribution. The fixture aim and shielding can impact glare, which should be considered from both the standing and seated positions for pedestrians. Refer to IESNA Recommended Practice Manual: Lighting for Exterior Environments (IESNA RP-33-99), and the current IESNA Lighting Handbook Reference and Application for recommended levels of illumination.
Nighttime lighting quality is greatly impacted by the color rendition of lamps. One’s eyes are more sensitive to shorter wavelength light (blue and green in color), so people tend to have clearer, crisper vision in nighttime environments that are lit with sources such as metal halide, fluorescent, and inductive lamps. Lighting that promotes better vision at night also acts as a crime deterrent by increasing visibility. Because darkness can reduce the sense of security, make efforts to eliminate dark hiding places and densely shadowed areas. Low illumination levels that provide unifor-
mity can be a stronger deterrent to crime than increased intensity.
Lighting creates drama, and it can play an important role in conveying the design and detail of buildings and landscapes. Lighting can be utilized to highlight special details on a façade, can draw attention to amenities, and can create a sense of magic and celebration in the streetscape. Just as important as deciding what to light on a site or building, is deciding what not to light. Creating a layering effect with different illumination levels and highlighting different features in a space or on a building will help to maintain a high level of visual interest.
Light Pollution is light which is emitted into the atmosphere, or Sky Glow. Ground reflected light can account for up to 20 percent of sky glow; the remainder can be effectively controlled. The methods that best control light pollution include:
a. Eliminating upward emissions by utilizing area lighting designed to minimize or eliminate direct upward emission, known as full cut-off luminaire (Full cutoff is a luminaire light distribution where zero light intensity occurs at, or above an angle of 90 degrees above nadir, and at all greater angles above nadir. Additionally, the output of the lamps brightness does not exceed 10% at, or above 80 degrees above nadir).
b. Locate lighting fixtures to eliminate spill light- illumination that spills out over the property boundaries in which the fixture is installed. There are several shielding techniques that can be implemented to avoid spill light.
c. Minimize non-target light by carefully selecting a pattern of illumination to only light the signage, where it is impossible to light a sign from above.
d. Turn off outdoor advertising sign illumination and interior office building lighting after closing time, or at a specific hour of the night.
e. Switch to a lower level of illumination from the pedestrian area lighting at a specific hour of the night with a high/low ballast, while maintaining a minimal level for safety and security.
The City of North Charleston has established a tree preservation ordinance that requires protection of trees on large tracts of woodlands and offsite mitigation if trees are destroyed during construction.
Protection Principles:
Because any healthy existing tree greater than ten (10) inches in DBH (diameter breast high) is a valuable natural resource, by virtue of its age, size and contribution to the environment, any trees meeting this measurement shall be referred to as “significant trees” and protected to the extent practical and feasible. When it is impossible to save trees, permission must be granted for their removal.
Replacement Value Principles:
Removal of significant trees shall be prohibited prior to securing a grading and/or building permit. When consent for removal is granted, trees must be planted elsewhere to a replacement value determined by the Noisette Company.
WATER FEATURES
Why?
The trees in the Navy Yard at Noisette are symbols of South Carolina Low Country culture, adding social, economic, and environmental value. They represent the strength and endurance of the people. Trees soften the hardness of urban environments and make a contribution to the community even if they stand on private property. Trees are natural climate control, providing shade from the summer sun and protection from harsh winds. In addition to the direct impact on energy savings, their sheer beauty can add to property values. Trees are air filters and water filters, improving the quality of the environment and providing a home for many species. The leaves absorb carbon dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide, and produce oxygen. They can block out unwanted sound, glare, and undesirable views.
Water features in the form of fountains, pools, and ponds are encouraged in open space adjacent to the public way. Features with water spray must not impede the flow of pedestrian or automobile traffic in the public way.
Water features must be designed and maintained to prevent opportunity for water to stagnate and support mosquito propagation.
Water features must be designed to use treated recycled or capture rain water. Potable water use for water features is discouraged.
Why?
Water features are encouraged because of the aesthetic and functional value they can add to a place. Because man is naturally drawn to water, they can serve to impact the visual character of a space, the psychological
connections to a space, the auditory sensations of a space, and the thermal comfort of a space. They can provide active recreation with opportunities for wading and water play. While safety is important, water features designed for people to touch or play in are encouraged.
The Navy Yard at Noisette
4.22
Space and light and order. Those are the things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep.
- Le Corbusier
ARCHITECTUREGUIDELINES
INTRODUCTION
These architectural guidelines are intended to provide greater legibility of the urban design plan by clearly stating objectives and supporting principles for the architecture at the Navy Yard. The guide provides meaningful tools to inform decisions over time, and a basis for interpretation of the plan during the creative development and design process. The end goal of this framework is to minimize disparities and promote cohesion, while at the same time enabling the emergence of a new architecture for the 21st century, specific to place and purpose. The development and design team believes these guidelines to be less a matter of architectural style than patterns, forms, effects and treatments that together will create a more successful and sustainable community. As an agent for change, these architectural design guidelines intend to build capacity for innovation.
Throughout history, development was intricately linked with the climate and the local natural resource base required to support construction. During the last century, technological advances allowed for a more uniform construction style that ignored the lessons of the past. Architecture at the Navy Yard should reconnect to the historic embedded architecture and bring it forward though advanced materials that improve performance.
The architecture of the Lowcountry provides a rich heritage of building forms and materials that has origins in English colonial types, but has evolved to suit regional environmental needs and social habits. This vernacular should not be considered a static condition, but a dynamic evolving process. Using the vernacular as a departure point, it is intended that buildings and the landscape of the Navy Yard at Noisette will look to the future while respecting the past. Applying lessons learned from buildings that have endured in this climate prior
to the advent of air conditioning, paired with new technologies, will produce buildings that maximize available passive energy flows, and minimize solutions that attempt to seal themselves from the environment. At the same time, patterns that reinforce the cultural aspect of Lowcountry communities, such as the sideyard in the Charleston single family home, or the social spaces created by the public squares of Savannah should be celebrated.
The sense of place that is unique to the Navy Yard at Noisette is a combination of diverse qualities. These include a series of buildings along Storehouse Row that are part of the old Navy Yard. These form a recognizable urban pattern of east/west building orientations and open-air work yards that are currently being adapted to new uses. The strong architectural language, inherent durability and elegance, and passive energy characteristics of these buildings provide inspiration for new development types within the larger district.
Therefore, the following design guidelines are meant to convey the character and intent of future public and private development at the Navy Yard. The guidelines provide a framework for decisions, but do not dictate certain styles in order to create a facsimile of the past. They promote bringing the past forward, creating a new vision architecture and urbanism that explores a 21st Century response to unique climate and place.
BUILDING MASSING
Objective: Building massing in the Navy Yard at Noisette should create a harmonic grouping of buildings with strong relationships to adjacent parcels and streetscapes, resulting in a strong block and district character.
Principles for Building Massing:
The massing of buildings in the Navy Yard should respond to the need for a human scaled environment. Light, ventilation and views to and from buildings are enhanced through the manipulation of mass and form.
Primary frontages should respect build-to lines by following frontage guidelines and building heights according to the transect zone.
Building mass should generally extend vertically to the prescribed recess line (described in the following section).
Light and View Principles:
Maintaining light and view sheds along streets, alleys, and private ways in the
public realm, along with solar access rights to adjacent parcels, is of primary concern relative to massing decisions.
Building mass should respond to view sheds, terminus and special corner requirements.
Principles for Extending Building Mass:
The bulk of a building is usually defined physically, but occasionally a mass may be described virtually. An example of the virtual extension of mass is when a screen wall and trellis work together to describe a volume in conjunction with other parts of the building, effectively extending the mass of the building visually. By contrast, exterior spaces such as terraces can be carved into a building mass, affecting mass by subtraction. When enough openings are introduced, a building mass may become dematerialized in certain areas. The streetfront arcade is a prime example of this strategy.
These sketches demonstrate some of the ways a building’s mass can be changed to improve performance and the quality of the space. The first diagram is a deep building with no natural daylight reaching the middle. The second demonstrates an atrium that allows for more natural light. The third shows how a narrow building accomplished many of the same optimal conditions. The last image demonstrates how an open office plan (in green) on the southern side of the structure allows natural daylight to reach every occupant.
and
Building mass on non-street elevations can be used to create a diverse range of interconnected spaces.
Building mass should respond to adjacent parcels by attempting to lessen abrupt or disquieting transitions between buildings.
Environmental Principles: Building mass should be used to improve environmental conditions at the site and building level. This can be done by using the building mass to incorporate a variety of proper daylighting techniques.
Why?
A building’s mass is the volume that generally describes its outward form. The mass can be shaped to accomplish a variety of environmental and space defining goals, and this can be done in a way that enhances the appearance of the development. Mass is directly related to how a building functions internally and how it relates to its context externally. While many techniques may be utilized to communicate a buildings function and use, mass is the most basic signifier of scale and use.
Setback Principles:
Building massing setbacks are used to create open space in the public realm through architecture. These setbacks in the Navy Yard will create space for urban pedestrians and will facilitate all types of pedestrian scaled activities.
Setbacks are portions of the building that recede from frontage lines in order to create exterior public, semipublic or private space. Level changes may be used in the setback area to further denote the desired degree of public access.
In the T4 zones, a 15 foot setback will permit a rich variety of urban gardening and encroachments in the form of porch and stoops to occur. In all other zones, no setback is required, but may be proposed by new development to enhance the building proposal or to create space for outdoor dining or other uses.
Use Principles:
Setbacks are encouraged to create rhythmic massing breaks in building form. They introduce public/private zones such as forecourts, entryways, or porch conditions to the urban fabric and can be used to mediate the impact of building mass. Setbacks are also useful to create view sheds or address special conditions such as street intersections or public open space conditions.
Why?
Appropriate building setbacks are critical to the success of any development. Setbacks influence the appearance, density, proportionality, and viability of all types of developments.
Frequently, setbacks modulate public and private space, setting up a sequence of arrival and richer relationship to the street. Setbacks also are used in cities worldwide to create interest and opportunities for open space.
Setbacks are useful in defining the character of an area. Smaller setbacks usually indicate an urban fabric, larger setbacks remove the structure from the public realm.
PROJECTION
Objective:
Projection elements should be used to provide visual diversity while improving interior light and environmental performance.
Principle:
Projections that occur beyond frontage lines are encouraged provided they meet code and utilities easement requirements and are consistent with the intent of other Design Guide principles, such as improving daylighting, adding environmental control, or improving aesthetic conditions. Examples of these building mass projections are bay and oriel windows, balconies, sun control devices, corniced parapets and roof overhangs. Projections can not project more than three feet from the buildable area.
Projections may occur at grade provided that they are used to accomplish a specific design objective. Examples would include an entrance into a court or some other feature to create a sense of arrival.
Climate Control Principle:
Sunshades are another type of projection that can be used to block solar gain during the hottest hours of the day. The shades should be of a high quality that complements or enhances the existing structure.
Care should be taken to ensure that projection techniques protect glazing or, at the least, do not pose any danger in hurricane conditions.
Daylight Principle:
Projections, such as bay windows and light shelves, increase daylight in buildings. Other projections like balconies increase living space for urban dwellers while providing access to sunlight. These same elements also provide visual relief to building exteriors.
Why?
Projections are important to buildings for many reasons. Historically, cornices provided basic weather protection to a façade, in addition to being an ornamental device. Projections can now include sunscreen devices that regulate unwanted solar gain from glazing areas, and/or are designed to maximize day lighting potential.
The massing of buildings should respond to the need for a human scaled environment by orchestrating the elements of building mass: proportion, recess line, setback, and projection. The incorporation of projections off the street wall and over the right-of-way adds variety and character to a district or streetscape.
Always
design a thing by considering it in its next larger context -- a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.
- Eliel Saarinen
PROPORTION
Objective: Proportional relationships at the Navy Yard are place specific and begin with urban form. The proportional systems of the building should create a language of expression and guide fenestration patterns, massing and other elements of the design.
Proportion Regulation Principles:
Proportional relationships create desirable qualities between individual parts, and the relationship between the parts and the whole. A poorly proportioned building fails to maximize its full potential.
Proportional relationships have origins in both historical and practical terms. Practically, proportions enabled the ancient Greeks to rationalize forms and project them during construction using board and string. More complex systems of proportions using the Golden Mean, musical ratios, or variations of a square have been employed in various forms for thousands of years.
In the Noisette community, the proportions of building mass to street width should follow the height and coverage limits established in the PDD. Moreover, proportional relationships should be aligned with the larger goals of encouraging the pedestrian experience and improving the quality of life at The Navy Yard. Proportions for window openings, doorways, and building elements should be subject to the larger composition, and strive to be in harmony with it.
Historic Structures Principles: Charleston and the Navy Yard are steeped in architectural history. Historic structures are to be protected and accentuated. However, it is not the intent that historic structures be duplicated. The architectural history of the site should be respected and interpreted in a manner that compliments existing historic structures and contributes to the new character of the area. By using proportional systems, we can maintain harmony with
the past, while supporting new means of expression appropriate to current needs.
Why?
A beautifully detailed building with high-quaility materials may fail because of a lack of proportion, and how that proportion imports a sense of scale. Proportionality is important for both an individual building’s components and for the relationship between adjacent structures.
RECESS LINE
Objective: Recess lines should be utilized to create an appropriately scaled urban environment that mediates between various building types and densities, and improves light penetration to the street.
Definition and Implementation
Principles:
A recess line is a space that is stepped back from the height of a building face. At this horizontal datum, the mass of the building should step back a minimum of five (5) feet.
In the Navy Yard, recess line step backs should generally occur around a height of 50’. This is applicable to development in the T-5 and T-6 zones. A recess line at 50’ creates a potentially usable outdoor space that is high enough to maintain a defined street edge, but low enough to contribute to a second level of outdoor street activity.
Although recess lines are encouraged on all buildings over 50’ in height,
there are possible exceptions to this rule. The review board may decide to waive this requirement if the proposed development can show a compelling reason to deviate from the recess line requirement. A Possible exceptions includes a break in the recess line at a special condition, such as a tower or other vertical elements that creates compositional effect or marks elements in a symbolic manner. These should be used carefully and are subject to individual design review.
Context Principles:
Pre-existing or planned recess lines on adjacent parcels should be considered during the design phase of all new development, and measures to transition between conditions are required.
All new development should respect setbacks above recess lines on adjacent parcels, and attempt to transition between existing and proposed conditions.
Design Principles:
Areas created by recess lines are encouraged to be used as exterior terraces or gardens.
Horizontal sunscreens and shading devices are encouraged above occupied exterior terraces.
Why?
Buildings without recess lines impose their entire mass on the lot frontage. This can lead to a cavernous street corridor that is monotonous, dark, and unfriendly to street life.
Recess lines introduce diversity and interest into the building form, and create potential for exterior semi-private space.
Recess Lines also help create uniformity along a street while still permitting variety in terms of height and density
relative to individual building needs. Many of the world’s great cities use this technique, most notably Paris and Washington D.C., where maximum heights are established, but then additional stories are enclosed within a recess or roof-form.
FENESTRATION (DOORS, WINDOWS, SKYLIGHTS)
Objective: Fenestration will achieve a pattern of openings that integrates form and function, while enhancing the overall composition of the building.
Exposure Principles: Openings on buildings should respond to climatic needs. Different exposures should respond to solar and ventilation opportunities and constraints. Daylight harvesting should be maximized at all times to reduce overall energy consumption. Views in and out of buildings should be considered.
Glazing should reduce solar gain and have high visible light transmittance. The Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory in California developed a helpful “coolness factor” metric for evaluating glazing efficiency that should be used at the Navy Yard (Windows as Luminaires http://eetd.lbl.gov/newsletter/cbs_n1/N110/ windows.html). This metric, defined as the visible light transmittance divided by the shading coefficient, allows different types of glazing to be compared
based on their performance. In this climate, spectrally selective glazings that admit visible light and reflect unwanted infrared light are the most desirable. Windows in The Navy Yard should incorporate glazing at the high end of the coolness metric.
In new construction, the higher costs of efficient windows can usually be offset by the savings made possible by HVAC downsizing.
On upper levels, windows should provide privacy while contributing to the aesthetic appearance and functional efficiency of the building.
Purpose Principles:
Fenestration will be designed to maximize energy efficiency and to further the goals of a sustainable Noisette. Openings should also convey clues about the uses internal to the buildings and be carefully designed to provide for natural lighting needs.
Public Domain Principles:
Openings should be enhanced at the ground floor, to create a dialog between building and urban space.
Fenestration of ground level façades and sides of buildings adjacent to pub-
lic right-of-ways should have a high degree of transparency to promote public safety and to communicate the internal use of the building. Similarly, it is also important that a building’s secondary façade facing a public right of way, such as an alley, parking area
or open space also have a degree of transparency.
Upper level live/work and commercial spaces should have independent or shared entries via a vestibule from the sidewalk.
Balance Principles:
Openings should strive for balance within the composition of the façade.
Why?
Without appropriate fenestration, buildings become monotonous and opaque. Effective fenestration patterns encourage large, open views into ground floor commercial and work spaces, enhancing the pedestrian experience by providing a visual connection to the use and activity inside the building.
By incorporating good fenestration design, it is possible to improve the building’s appearance while increasing public safety and overall energy efficiency.
Fenestration includes openings that connect urban spaces.
Fenestration maximizes glass areas while responding to the industrial heritage of the site.
A strongly defined transition line demarks the ground floor and mezzanine from the levels above.
Adaptive re-use of industrial and commercial spaces should retain the original structure and glazing patterns.
This image shows new construction tied to a warehouse rehabilitation. Notice that the fenestration patterns accommodate new uses while contributing to the design aesthetic.
Storefronts in t4b zones on corner locations may have more informal storefront treatments.
STYLE AND ORDER
Objective:
The objective for architectural style and order at the Navy Yard is to create an architectural language unique to place and purpose. This character should combine new technologies with the history of the site and lessons from the past. The history and current culture of the community is a dynamic component that should imprint the development of Noisette.
Principle:
Architectural style and order becomes an outward expression of values and expectations, from the public to the private and back again. These values and expectations will mix with technological innovations and the established built form on the site to create the new urban fabric of the Navy Yard.
Technology Principles:
The intent of these guidelines is to allow innovations that are impossible to predict, but inevitable
and necessary in a forward thinking city. Architectural order that firmly incorporates new technologies in durable manners is promoted.
Buildings in the Navy Yard should be thought of not solely as resource consumers, but also as potential resource providers. The incorporation of renewable energy technologies and rainwater harvesting techniques allows and requires an infrastructure that fosters the concept of a building as an important component of a larger sustainable strategy. New development should be measured by its ability to offset infrastructure requirements.
Social Inclusion Principles:
Public spaces are an integral component of community identity. Development in the Navy Yard will incorporate architectural solutions that embrace the principle of public inclusion. The architecture of the Navy Yard should provide or enhance public spaces that create a place for interaction and citizen participation.
Function Principles:
Function should be the driver for decisions that effect building organization. These functions are broader than individual building needs, extending into the realm of the larger context. Therefore function is to be considered both as an internal need and external duty.
Why?
Style, via prescription, has been consciously avoided in the Navy Yard Design Guide. Consistently, franchise architecture is also not permitted. Order, however, is desired as a result of the interplay of architectural elements through rhythm and massing. Historical elements will be the basis for a new ar-
chitecture at the Navy Yard. However, these elements should be considered in terms of building performance first, along with the cultural and material considerations that guide their potential reinterpretation. The new architecture of the Navy Yard needs to be as good, or better than the past.
ENTRANCE IDENTITY
Objective:
Entrances should provide an identity that is appropriate functionally and symbolically.
Symbolism Principles: The symbolic importance of an entrance is difficult to overstate. More than any other feature, the entrance must communicate the intent of the space protected by it. Entrances are design opportunities to celebrate moving from the public to private domain, and as such, should be celebrated with architectural detail and art.
Hierarchy Principles: Entrances should be scaled appropriately to reflect use. In simple terms, entrances serving four dwelling units should be discrete, while entrances serving scores of units should be more pronounced.
Entrances to outdoor public spaces are as important as entrances to
structures. Public parks, squares, and gardens shall be demarcated with appropriate entrance ways.
Protection Principles: Entrances should provide protection from the elements at the interface to public space and private open areas.
Why?
The appearance of an entrance communicates many things about the use of the space inside. An inappropriate entrance could easily deactivate any commercial or public space and change the appearance of an entire district.
ROOFS AND PARAPETS
Objective: The uppermost portions of buildings are important when viewed from both above and below. They frame the street wall to the sky, harmonize with adjacent buildings, become part of taller buildings view sheds and are environments which create usable outdoor space. In the Navy Yard at Noisette, the objective is to treat them as the fifth building façade.
Principles of the 5th Façade: Views from other buildings must be protected by extending the design efforts to the roof plane.
Pitch Principles:
Flat roofs (slightly sloped to drain) are preferred in the T5 and T6 zones, with parapets that articulate the rhythm of the building massing. Pitched roofs are discouraged unless the roof form is concealed by a parapet or false front. Exceptions may be when a pitched roof is used on top of a multi-story building to help reduce the
overall height of the façade and define the residential character of the upper floors.
Parapet Principles:
Parapets should be embellished with masonry or metal detailing and may be stepped or sloped to achieve a visually interesting yet harmonious sequence along the building façade. Corniced parapets serve the functional purpose of keeping water off the façade, while creating interest in shadow lines.
Penthouse units stepped back from the parapet level are recommended. In this case, parapet breaks with guardrails may be used to increase site lines from roof terraces.
Why?
Traditionally, roofs and parapets are simply built as a leftover space. However, the visual impact of roof lines and parapets is important from all angles of observation, and they represent a significant opportunity to maximize density, increase open space, and treat stormwater. These opportunities should be incorporated into the design of the Navy Yard.
SCREENING
Objective: Screening should be used to improve the overall appearance of the Navy Yards by disguising or improving service areas, parking facilities, and other unattractive necessities.
Compatibility Principles:
The screening of exterior trash and storage areas, service yards, loading areas, transformers and air conditioning units must use a complimentary material, color and/or style as the primary building in order to be architecturally compatible with the building it is adjacent to.
Utility areas and mechanical equipment should be designed so that they do not detract from the aesthetic appeal of the district. If the utility area is separate from the building it serves, it should be consistent with the streetscape theme.
Civic or public works buildings are also subject to the Navy Yard Design Guidelines. These facilities must contribute to the architectural style of
the area and adhere to the screening requirements.
Screening Requirements:
All roof equipment must be screened from public view if visible from the street or from adjacent taller buildings. All exterior trash and storage areas, service yards, loading areas and air conditioning units must be screened from view.
Screening of elements should not provide a refuge for undesirable activities. Therefore, accessible screening areas should provide some degree of transparency to discourage criminal activity.
Why?
By using simple screening techniques it is possible to create pleasant and appealing spaces out of often overlooked service areas. By incorporating screening techniques into development it will improve the overall appearance and increase property values at the Navy Yard.
INTEGRATED STORMWATER MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
Objective:
To provide site specific stormwater strategies that treat water as a precious resource and tie into the Navy Yard’s larger stormwater systems. In the Navy Yard at Noisette, stormwater will be a visible part of integrated design and an amenity as well as a resource.
Implementation Principles: Green roofs act at the earliest stage of water collection, and in urban areas, also represent the largest single potential to slow discharge and improve quality, while offering many benefits to the building and surrounding microclimate.
On buildings where green roofs are unpractical, rainwater collection is recommended in cisterns or other sustainable BMP’s (Best Management Practices).
Rainwater that does flow from buildings and sites into the public domain should be done in an artful and environmentally sound manner.
Why?
Stormwater management is an increasingly important issue particularly in areas prone to flooding or heavy rainfall. The outdated model of getting stormwater in pipes and off site as soon as possible contributes to degraded water quality and increases the chances for severe flooding. By slowing and filtering rain water, the strain on infrastructure is reduced and the discharge into streams and rivers is cleaner.
MATERIALS
Objective:
The Materials employed at the Navy Yard should reflect the overall goals identified in the Master Plan. The materials that make up buildings, streetscapes and infrastructure should be sustainable, high-quality, attractive, and durable.
Principles:
Material choice is one of the most critical components of successful urban environments. Materials constitute both the skin and structure of buildings, and increasingly, sustainable architecture is heading toward structure as a final finish wherever practical or appropriate.
Durability Principles:
Materials should be long lasting and appropriate to the use of the building. Areas of the building subjected to the greatest wear and tear should use materials that weather gracefully over time. Durable materials such as brick, stone (including concrete and cast stone) and metal panels are encouraged to be used as the primary building materials.
Authenticity Principles:
Materials that attempt to mimic traditional materials (an example would be fiberglass or PVC panels that are molded to look like brick or stone) are not permitted. Exceptions to this rule are allowed if the proposed material poses a substantial sustainable, aesthetic, or durability advantage. The review board will make this determination on a case by case basis.
Weathering Principles:
In the T5 and T6 transect zones, materials that weather gracefully are preferred over painted surfaces. Examples of this include integrally colored stucco over painted stucco.
Material Hierarchy:
Tile, stone, glass block, copper flashing, metal and wood are encouraged to be considered for accent materials. A high level of design and architectural detail is encouraged. At secondary entrances, the primary materials should be used in a way that highlights the entrance.
Context Principles:
Infill construction is encouraged to reflect some of the detailing of surrounding buildings in window shape, profile, proportions, cornice lines, important horizontal datum and brick work.
Sustainable Principles:
To the extent possible, materials should be recycled or harvested near the construction site. The use of renewable materials is also encouraged.
Why?
Low-cost materials degrade quickly and have a negative impact on the appearance of a development. The up-front cost of quality materials immediately contributes to the appearance of the
development and pays dividends with increased longevity. The incorporation of sustainable materials further reduces the impact of development on the environment.
Why?
Signage is a crucial wayfinding tool. It can be used to identify commercial uses, but more importantly it provides the visual clues that we all use to navigate our environment every day. Signage at the Navy Yard should be designed with that in mind. It should be clear, attractive, apparent but not overwhelming.
SIGNAGE AND AWNINGS
Signage Objective:
Signage at the Navy Yard will convey information in an artful manner in ways that have been designed to enhance the urban environment.
Compatibility Principles:
Commercial signage should be designed for the purpose of identifying a business location in an attractive and functional manner, rather than to serve primarily as general advertising for business or product advertising.
Sign materials should be complementary and consistent with architectural materials.
Individual storefront/shop signage at entries should be encouraged at a pedestrian scale, such as hanging signs under eaves, awning signs and building mounted signs.
Lighting Principles:
Signage should not be ground-lit, and should be washed with light from a concealed light source. All lighting must also be in compliance with IESNA requirements.
Awning Objective:
Awnings should be incorporated into entrance design to function as a wayfinding tool and to provide protection and shade when needed.
Design Principles:
Retractable or operable awnings are encouraged. Long expanses of awning should be broken into segments that reflect the door or window openings beneath them. Awnings should not extend across multiple storefronts and/or multiple buildings. Awnings should be constructed of durable, protective, and water repellent material, however, plastic or fiberglass awnings are not allowed. Awnings should project a minimum of 30” from the building. Signage on awnings should be discrete and secondary in nature.
Lighting Principles:
Backlighting or illuminating awnings is prohibited.
Why?
Awnings serve a variety of purposes. They provide shelter during inclement weather and can provide shade over
fenestration during the hottest hours of the day.
Awnings also call attention to the entryways of commercial enterprises and help to create a sense of proportion on a street front or building façade.
Development Standards
Mixed use blocks, retail on lower levels, with primarily of fi ce above and some multifamily residential or hotels. LEED certi fi cation is the basis of design required in all new commercial construction. (1)
Mixed use blocks have primarily retail/of fi ce & parking on lower levels, with of fi ce or multifamily residential above. Mixed manufacturing/ R&D ( fl exspace) uses are permitted. (3) LEED certi fi cation is the basis of design required in all new commercial construction. (1)
Predominantly single family detached or attached (townhouse) residential with some fi rst fl oor of fi ces or professional services and corner retail or restaurant. Higher density permitted for buildings with sustainable features.
T4B –residential –10 units/acre net
General Characteristics
Housing By Right –
Housing with Noisette Quality Home Performance Standard (1) T4B Green –New residential with sustainable features –25 units/acre net excluding accessory units (1/lot allowed)
Commercial street or avenue; rear alley required
Standard street or avenue/commercial street or avenue; rear alley typical
Squares, playgrounds, community links
FrontageNew developmentresidential street or pedestrian way, and rear alley typical
SpacePublic greens, active recreation parks & playgrounds, community links
Plazas & playgrounds Lot Area2,000 –4,000 SF typical1,500 SF minimumNo limit
Coverage limit60% main building, plus 25% accessory building; combination not to
SetbackFront 0 ft minimum, 20 ft maximum. Open porches, steps and balconies can extend into setback (5) 0 ft minimum, 10 ft maximum. Steps and balconies can extend into setback (5) 0 ft minimum, 5 ft maximum. Steps and balconies can extend into setback (5)
None required. Steps and balconies can extend into setback (5)
Bldg SetbackRear10 ft minimum; open porches and balconies can project into setback (5) 5 ft minimum. Steps and balconies can extend into setback (5)
Height (4)4 stories maximum, 2 stories minimum for mixed use 5 stories max, 2 minimum T6A –8 stories max., T6B –18 stories max. 3 stories minimum
Alley access, internal lots, parking garage, Of fi ce/retail parking 2 spaces per 1000 GSF
Alley access, internal lots, parking garage, limited street parking. Of fi ce/retail parking 2 spaces per 1000 GSF
(6)Alley access typical. Minimum one car parking on site required
for
Native plants of grouped species in structured planters, turf not permitted, permanent irrigation allowed with graywater or rain water collection systems.
Native plants of grouped species in formal arrangement, non-native turf limited to 10% of lot, permanent irrigation allowed with graywater or rain water collection systems.
Water is directed to swales or other storm water management elements for conveyance to off site detention & fi ltration. Buildings may have vegetated green roofs.
Water is directed to swales or other storm water management elements for conveyance to off site detention & fi ltration. Buildings may have vegetated green roofs.
Note 1: Noisette Quality Home Standards and LEED Green Building Standards are described in Chapter 9 of the Noisette Community Master Plan.
Note 2: Other Functions include non-residential uses such as commercial, educational, recreational, and civic uses.
Note 3: Mixed light manufacturing/R&D (flexspace) generally consists of a combination of research & development, light manufacturing/assembly, and warehouse uses.
Note 4: For purposes of this standard, building height is based on a floor to floor distance of 16 feet and the first floor is assumed to be at the minimum height above grade that is permitted by flood regulations.
Excluded Uses - All land uses may be included in the River Center PDD except for the following: sexually oriented businesses, heavy industrial uses, agricultural uses, automobile service/repair, and mobile homes
Light Pollution Reduction – the intent of this development is to minimize light trespass from the buildings and the site, to improve night sky access and to reduce development impact on nocturnal environments, by using IESNA Recommended Practice Manual: Lighting for Exterior Environments (IESNA RP-33-99).
for
& cooling
Landscaping (7)Native plants of varying species in natural or formal arrangement, non-native turf limited to 20% of lot, permanent irrigation allowed with graywater or rain water collection systems, impervious paving limited to 10% of lot
Water is managed through surface percolation and detention on site. Individual rain gardens recommended. Storm water retention and conveyance elements in street and alley public rights of way.
Water Management (8)
Note 5: As designated in this development standards table, some elements are permitted to extend into front and rear setbacks. Ground level porches may extend into setbacks by up to ten feet. Upper floor balconies may extend into setbacks by up to four feet. Bays may project into setbacks by up to four feet and may not exceed 40% of the lot width at the building line.
Note 6: Parking requirements for a parcel in zones T5 and T6 may be met by a combination of on-site parking and shared parking in a public parking facility located within a radius of ¼ mile of the parcel. It is not the intention of this PDD to allow shared facilities to reduce the obligation to provide the required amount of parking.
Note 7: Refer to the South Carolina Plant Atlas for a list of native plant species
Note 8: The Noisette Company acknowledges that all drainage systems will be constructed to perform in full compliance with the requirements of the City of North Charleston and the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control/Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management (SCDHEC/OCRM), and agrees to develop an acceptable Stormwater Management Plan as a component of the first phase of site design.
Existing Uses May Continue –Lot H, 2301 Avenue D is designated as an industrial urban core transition area. The current industrial use will be permitted by right until the earlier of a) the termination of the property lease with the current tenant, or b) the time at which the current tenant ceases to occupy this parcel. After this time, the parcel will be designated as T5 and T6 transects and will have the development standard provision associated with those designations.
As for all other existing non-conforming uses on other parcels, those uses may continue as long as the current tenant is in place. When the current tenant ceases occupancy of that parcel, Noisette agrees to bring the land use of the parcel into compliance with this PDD.
Individual Plant Decision Structure
1) Is the plant native to the United States?
YES Precedence should be given to plants in the following order:
1. Low country
2. South Carolina
3. Southeast US
4. East Coast US
NO
Proceed to number 2.
2) Is the plant considered aggressive or invasive by ecologists?
(Refer to Invasive Plant Pest Species of South Carolina, from the Clemson Extension Service)
YES The plant should not be considered for use
NO
Proceed to number 3
3) Does the plant reduce negative environmental impacts due to maintenance?
YES Which environmental benefits are realized?
Low water needs
Low fertilization needs
Low pesticide needs
Low physical maintenance requirements
NO
See number 4 or see alternative methods for meeting environmental goals
4) Does the plant have historical value as it relates to the low country’s economy or culture?
YES The plant should be used only in limited situations
NO The plant should not be considered for use
Planting Composition Decision Factors
1) Does the planting plan only consider plants that have been approved through the individual plant matrix?
2) Does the planting plan include a diversity of plants that achieve the following?
a. Seasonal aesthetic value with varied textures, colors and habits
b. Food and habitat for wildlife
c. Overall, a significant reduction in the need for potable water, fertilizer pesticide and physical maintenance
3) Does the planting plan include 75% South East native plants by quantity?
If the answers to Questions 1-3 are YES, proceed as planned.
