Personality Of Place

We’ve all experienced it or read about it: a developer wants to build in a neighborhood. The developer either designs something then asks for permission or open-endedly asks what the neighborhood wants only to later discover that they can’t deliver on promises. For both parties, the process takes too long and ends in compromises that don’t work well for anyone. This typical approach yields an outcome that is slow (if the project happens at all), expensive and unresponsive to accelerating changes in the marketplace. You can blame the developer or the NIMBYs but the root cause is how the process is conceived in the first place. 

Growing out of our Design Discovery process, we’ve refined a new way of structuring the master planning, site design and community engagement process that directly remedies the shortcomings of the standard approach. We call it Personality of Place. 

Before we describe what it is, let’s start with a few assumptions. The first is that everyone from the developer to the architect to the community wants to see quality investments occur. How we define quality isn’t relevant since it is different to all involved. And let’s also assume that all involved want some ability to provide meaningful input into the design process. Especially if they have to look at it every day. And then let’s say that each stakeholder has fixed elements and needs that are difficult to move: the developer has a certain density that needs to be achieved, the community has a sense of the project’s character and relationship to its context, and the design team needs sufficient design flexibility. 

Here’s how the Personality of Place process works:

All the project needs are laid out on the table: [week 1]

• What does zoning and previous planning say?

• What type of density or other program needs does the developer have?

• Where, when and how should the neighborhood be engaged?

Develop the personality test [weeks 2-6]

• What are 3-5 plausibile personalities for a particular site or district that can work within the regulatory and market realities of the project that also are conceptually relevant to the project’s history, context and goals? 

• Develop tangible and accessible visualizations of each personality that describe that personality’s traits relative to design, form, experiences and management

• Create visual and written input opportunities that meet the needs of the neighborhood and yield clear feedback on which traits and personality(ies) are preferred through a personality test. 

Share the personality test [weeks 7-8]

• Ask people to reflect on and score their preferred traits for the development or district 

• Use the resulting scores on the personality test to start a conversation about personality and a corresponding site development concept. Document what is learned specific to that discussion and invite participants to weigh in on the other concepts that reflect other types of personality options. 

• Audit the process to ensure that the process is reaching relevant individuals/groups and make any necessary refinements.

• Collect and summarize findings to dial in the preferred personality and, more specifically, the types of traits it should exhibit relative to design, form, experience and management style. 

Create and advance the preferred development plan [weeks 9-12]

• Visually summarize the findings from the personality tests.

• Demonstrate how the concept changed from what those findings uncovered.

• Present drawings and exhibits for the concept that celebrate and articulate the desired personality.

Transition into a more sustained engagement with the immediate neighbors and stakeholders as the project gets approved and built.

A few key benefits from the Personality of Place process:

• Because the conversation started with needs and those needs were clearly demonstrated as part of each discussion, a real conversation is allowed to unfold.

• Development is described not only by how designers or developers think of it, but also by how people feel about a place, particularly one they haven’t yet experienced. And it is done in a way that provides actionable guidance to the team. 

• A balance is struck between certainty (i.e., we’re getting the type of place right) and flexibility (so long as we’re consistent with the place’s personality, we can maneuver around the changing needs of the marketplace).

• Community input allows the design team to design to a certain tone without being overly constrained by specific architectural taste. 

• The process can be completed in less than 4 months

Have a project you’re thinking about or one that is stuck? Put the Personality of Place approach to work!