Driehaus Form-Based Codes Award
Today's Best Form-Based Codes
The Driehaus Form-Based Codes Award is presented annually by FBCI with the generous support of the Richard H. Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust. The award recognizes excellence in the writing and implementation of form-based codes. Award winners include codes for corridors, neighborhoods, entire cities and even regions. The winning codes provide good examples for communities to study and learn from in their own efforts to write codes.
Call for Submission! Driehaus Award 2013
Driehaus Award Winners from 2007 to 2011
The 2012 Driehaus Award Winners
The award jury selected two winners in 2012: The winners were recognized on May 11, 2012 during a session called Today's Best Form-Based Codes at the CNU 20 conference in West Palm Beach, Florida. Award jury members highlighted what they liked about each of the winning codes during presentations that included comments by award recipients. The session closed with a panel discussion of SmartCode and other form-based code comparisons led by Stefanos Polyzoides and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk.
City of Santa Ana Transit Zoning Code
The City of Santa Ana's new code should provide a national model for the way it focuses on the subtleties of building placement, massing, and building and frontage types for an existing 457-acre community. The code illustrates many best practice examples for the “missing middle” of the transect, providing a set of tools for the community to use as it evolves. The visual presentation of the code, especially the architectural standards and building types, is an impressive model worthy of emulation. The code document is well-organized, clear and easy to use.
Click to download: Santa Ana Transit Zoning Code (14 MB)
City of Bradenton Form-Based Code
The City of Bradenton Form-Based Code Land Use and Development Regulations offers an important model for the way it deals with infill development of an existing 1,830-acre community. It is a comprehensive SmartCode that has incorporated and calibrated new modules, including modules for sustainability (urban farming, wind power, solar power, and composting), public art, stormwater management, and lighting. Affordable housing is addressed within the code as well. Even with the addition of these multiple components the code succeeds in being easily comprehended and implementable.
Click to download: City of Bradenton FBC (23 MB)
Honorable Mention
El Vedado: Municipio Plaza de la Revolucion
Urban regulations for the City of Havana, Cuba.
Click to download: El Vedado: Municipio Plaza de la Revolucion (in Spanish, 18 MB)
The 2012 Driehaus Form-Based Codes Award Jury
Ana Gelabert-Sanchez, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University (Jury Chair)
Eduardo Castillo, Castillo Arquitectos, Guatemala City
Robert Sitkowski, Esq., University of Connecticut
Emily Talen, Ph.D., School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, Arizona State University