What do we like?

EcoCity Clevelands project, What We Love&and What We Dont: Images of the Western Reserve, found remarkable agreement on the kinds of places people prefer. Almost instinctively, people know which buildings, streets, and neighborhoods feel right. The challenge is to translate this sense of good design into good development.

Follow the links in this section to discover how citizens ranked places in Northeast Ohio and how you can score the design of your own neighborhood. Together, we can find a common language of design.

Winner: If people love real town squares like the one in Medina, why don't we build them today?

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EcoCity Cleveland
3500 Lorain Avenue, Suite 301, Cleveland OH 44113
Cuyahoga Bioregion
(216) 961-5020
www.ecocitycleveland.org
Copyright 2002-2003

Finding our design language
Scoring images of the region
Community score sheet
Shared principles for development
The New Urbanism
Project sponsors
Project consultant
Resources for great design

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There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. It is not possible to make great buildings, or great towns, beautiful places, places where you feel yourself, places where you feel alive, except by following this way.
Christopher Alexander,
The Timeless Way of Building