West Orange City Zoning Code

The Designer. Although architects and designers consciously shape a building, anyone making a decision affecting the usefulness or appearance of a building becomes the designer. It may be a quick idea given to a contractor or simply the selection of a color, but in all cases the building is affected by someone. Decisions made with an understanding of overall design impact and responsibility will be more conscientious and produce a better design.

It should be emphasized that a good design solution strives for maximum effect with minimum expenditure. It also creates and sustains the long-term value of a building.

Basic Elements. The Valley and Main Street areas have inherited more vintage buildings than any other area. This legacy contains untold wealth in the form of generous spaces and graceful details, much of which cannot be reproduced at any price. This treasure is there for people who are aware of it. It can be cultivated by understanding the basic elements of this architecture and applying them in any type of redevelopment. These elements are simple, straightforward ideas that are easy to use.

By understanding these basic elements, an owner or tenant is better prepared to produce a well-designated, integrated building renovation. New construction requires the same understanding and insight to assure a building that respects its older neighbors and enhances the small-scale, intimate ambiance of Main Street.

What follows is a discussion of these features.

Massing. The term massing refers to two things. One is the visual weight relationships of the various components of a building. The second refers to the relationship of the visual volume of one building to its neighbors.

Main Street buildings are for the most part perceived more in terms of their facade than they are as three-dimensional solids. So when massing is referred to, the term means the potential visual relationship of one building's front to another.

Main Street buildings are typically two story structures with an occasional three story building and some one story buildings. The width of the building is generally 25 feet with some multiples of 25 feet. Continuity and the need for visual balance requires the careful use of mass that does not inappropriately interrupt the Main Street facades with the mass of a building. A recommendation of this guideline is that the height limitation never exceeds 35 feet on Main Street frontage. If an amended height ordinance allows selected variance, a setback should be required from Main Street. This would allow taller buildings to stand 1/4 to 1/2 block away from the Main Street massing plane.

Proportion. Proportion is the ratio or relative size of dimensions within a building. It can refer to specific details such as height to width of a window or a door, or the relationship between the height and width of the entire facade.

Generally speaking, proportions should be varied and suitably contrasted for greater design interest. The use of the ratio 1:1 virtually never occurs in the historic type architecture of the Valley and Main Street areas. When proportions are carefully studied, new construction can easily be made to relate to the remaining original architecture.

Good proportions cost no more than bad and are therefore one of the designer's most effective tools.

Scale. Scale is another form of proportion — expressed as the relationship of the "apparent" size of a building or element upon the building as it relates to the size of a human being. Large scale buildings and building elements look impressive and imposing. A smaller scale is more suitable to the people atmosphere of Main Street and the Valley areas. Scale should suit a business and be conscious of its effect on people. Human scaled buildings are comfortable and create a friendly atmosphere.

Apparent Scale. It is important to note the use of the word apparent when speaking of scale, because buildings can be made to seem larger or smaller, depending upon the proportional relationships of the elements that make up the building front.

Bigger or Better. A building can be said to have good scale if the building does not look "too big for its size". Giant two story Grecian columns would be inappropriate for a small shop front, not only from a detailing point of view but also because of the discontinuity of apparent scale that would result. Often, when a person wishes to make a storefront more important or impressive, some "big building" details result. Making a small building look larger is a fundamentally inappropriate architectural approach and should be avoided. Doors, hardware, roof overhangs, sidings, moldings, light fixtures and details easily affect the scale of buildings and should be considered carefully.

Signage. Signage can also influence the scale of the building, or its apparent size. A large sign on a small building front has the effect of making the facade seem even smaller than it may be. So, a large sign designed to impress can result in an opposite effect - that of a very small business trying to look bigger than it is.

Texture and Patterns. The building surfaces along Main Street are largely composed of textures and patterns. The play of light and shadow on these textures and the color created by architectural patterns create great surface interest on building facades.

Texture is the visual and tactile degree of roughness and smoothness of surfaces. From glass to stonework all materials have a texture that can be used to blend or contrast and enhance a building design.

Pattern is a regular repetition of a design, shape, form or void. Pattern creates a visual texture at a certain scale. Bricks form a pattern of repeated rectangles separated by regular widths of mortar. At a distance this pattern creates a visual texture. Pattern should be used as carefully as texture to enhance a design and give interest to surfaces as needed.

A predominant pattern on Main Street is created by brick masonry. One appropriate approach for new construction to relate to older patterns would be to use brick.

Some buildings have portions of textures and patterns covered over or destroyed. Rather than introducing a totally new design element a better approach would be to uncover or replace the existing textures and patterns.

Applied Textures. The stamped steel Victorian Fronts of some Main Street buildings although applique in nature, do not look "stuck on." This is because each piece was considered part of a whole integrated building front sensitive to proportion, scale, texture and pattern. Sensitivity to these relationships will minimize superficial or cosmetic solutions.

During the 1940's and 1950's slick materials with jazzy textures such as uncoated aluminum and glass curtain walls were promoted and used as remodeling dream materials. Another inappropriate contrast is the use of rustic shingles on an urban street. All these only serve to cover-up good honest masonry and other perfectly good surfaces.

Line. The term "line" refers to the vertical and horizontal alignment of architectural features that occur on individual building fronts and on consecutive building fronts. Line may be the uppermost edge of a series of cornices on a row of buildings. The line may also be created by a series of window sills, building to building. The consistent termination of the first floor levels of a series of buildings forms a horizontal alignment.

These lines or alignments serve to unify and formalize the building fronts along Main Street. All efforts should be made to reinforce these lines and alignments in work carried out on Main Street building fronts.

The careful consideration of linear alignments is especially important with relation to new construction. A new building or new facade must conform to the major alignments suggested by flanking buildings to insure continuity of the storefronts along Main Street.