Building Footprints of Cities

This diagram from the book Soft City demonstrates how a higher building footprint can be an indicator of a more desirable urban design.

Samples of American Cities by building:land ratio

← Manhattan Core — French Quarter →

← Lower Manhattan — San Francisco — Oakland+Berkeley →

← Washington D.C. — Portland, OR — Atlanta, GA →

What is your neighborhood’s building:land ratio?

Do you have a preferred building:land ratio for your neighborhood?

How interesting is building footprint (building:land ratio) as an indicator or metric?

Want to help answer these questions? Check out: https://github.com/orgs/building-density/projects/1