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Residents Take a Peek at Draft Pattern Book

College Park Pattern Book Meeting, June 20, 2011

A handful of residents, City officials and architects gathered at the City Hall to take a look at the first draft of the pattern book.

Back in January, the City awarded a contract to a Pittsburgh based contracting farm, Urban Design Associates (UDA) to develop the book and make this available free to everyone interested in the city.

The principal architect at Urban Design Associates, Eric Osth unveiled the draft document at Monday’s meeting. In an hour long presentation, he highlighted the

The 72 page draft pattern book has 6 major sections (A to F).

Section A covers an overview of the book, including content like how to Use this pattern book and the City’s permitting process.

Section B goes in details in covering the 11 major neighborhoods of the city, namely, Cherry Hill/North and South Autoville, Berwyn, Calvert Hills, College Park Estates/Yarrow, College Park Woods, Crystal Springs/Patricia Court, Daniels Park/Branchville, Hollywood, Lakeland, Old Town and Sunnyside.

Section C covers various architectural patterns of City’s houses, such as victorian, colonial revival, craftsman and cape cod.

Section D talks about house placement and composition for new constructions, additions / ancillary structures, renovations and transformations / restoration and materials / manufacturers.

The section E covers sustainability part of housing designs and improvements, such as site design, energy efficiency, living environment, outdoor livability, environmental / ecological Considerations, energy efficiency, water conservation / quality, native plant use, maintenance, environmental protection during construction, and green design resources.

The final section F talks about how the ideas in the pattern book can be implemented through either homeowner or neighborhood led efforts.

The City will likely be printing a few copies of the final pattern book to keep at City Hall and possibly at Davis Hall, and then have a few copies that they will make available for purchase at cost.  There seems to be no plan to make print copies available for free.