Using Pre-construction Validation to Regulate Urban Skylines

This article describes best practices from contemporary scientific protocols that can be used to perform pre-construction validation of urban design guidelines. Because of the prominence of skylines in the urban landscape, their regulation represents a prime candidate for applying design guidelines. We tested guidelines for three prospective skyline factors: overall skyline shape (convex, concave, or flat), number of turns in the roofline of individual buildings (4, 8, or 12), and level of variance in four attributes of individual buildings: height, width, depth, and setback (low, medium, or high). Level of variance in building attributes had the strongest effect on judged pleasantness. The respondents preferred rugged skylines over simple ones, whatever their overall shape. These findings suggest that regulations for skyline appearance should focus on variances in the four building attributes.