Garden Apartment Introduction

These pages show images of various Garden Apartment models I have made over the years. These models are generally rudimentary, usually lacking trees and bushes that would populate the gardens if these buildings were actually built. Also, most of them do not have windows. For instance, the large block-size buildings form 2001 do not have any windows carved out, so the edges of the buildings are plain brick. The SOFA prototype has some windows and trees, but not all of them.

These 3D virtual computer models were made using Parallel Graphic’s Internet Space Builder (ISB), downloadable as a free trial version, which doesn't expire but is limitted to only save scenes of a certain, limited, but still generous, complexity. If you get ISB, you can download some of my models and virtually walk around them. I tried ISB out for a year or so and was so happy with it that I purchased a license, enabling me to make more complex scenes, such as the SOFA prototype with includes trees. (Trees are "complex" because they have so many sides to them: a cube has six sides, a sphere may have hundreds or, theoretically, an infinite number of sides.) The models currently available from this site are:
SOFA.wrl 536k
525SanAntonio1.wrl 21k
12GardAptsWith2LawnTextures.wrl 58k

Back in September of 2002, I submitted a one page prototype for the South of Forest Area (SOFA II planning phase) in Palo Alto, following the pattern the planning department had used to describe the attributes of buildings of various densities on a typically-sized lot of 110'x150' (typical for the SOFA II area). Not shown in the document are the side view and floor plan views (The submitted document had these views photocopied from pencil drawings.) I didn't have much time to prepare this model, so when I went back to it later to add the parking garage in conformance with the city's parking ordinances, I found that the ramp alone took out a whole row of units! This is the sort of problem which all projects face, but which can be alleviated in larger parcels, or if various parcel owners shared a multi-parcel underground parking.

If I were to build an actual Garden Apartment, it would include other green features, such as energy generation, water and waste recycling, etc.

If I were to have the opportunity to design and build these on a large scale such as that shown in the hypothetical 12 block view (whose purpose was to show what it would look like if a large area were so converted), I would likely follow a different approach than just blocks and blocks of the same big pattern. I liked the idea a friend of mine, Matt Elgin, shared with me after I mentioned that, with the BioIntensive agricultural method, 100 square feet is enough to supply a single person with their year round vegetables, but 4000 sq.ft. is required to provide all a person's nutritional needs, which includes orchards and such. (This is a huge area, but much smaller than is needed in conventional agriculture, so just think about that next time you feed yourself!) Matt's idea was to have a ring of houses around a central orchard and garden. Such a configuration offers a car (and even bike) free zone where children can safely play. Additionally, a focal point such as an orchard or playground offers the opportunity to build community. Yet, a danger of this configuration, may be increased sprawl (I'm not certain of that, since a rural village is a tight center of houses ringed by fields). He was also concerned about how to offer the residents ringing this central green space with personal garden space. However, if the ring were comprised of Garden Apartments, sprawl could be staved off and individual homes could retain private garden space. This is a concept I would need to look into before rendering a more difinitive judgement.

I will point out, however, that the 525 San Antonio Rd model does have a central hollow ring built in, which could easily accomodate several trees, perhaps a dwarf tree orchard. I had intended this to be a mixed use project with a day care and residences, because this was a site where an aging couple had run a day care for many years, but they were now planning on subdividing the property and building a set of single family homes. More sprawl-style houses, more families, less day care facilities... My idea would have kept the day care, and added housing, providing a double community benefit. I can't recall right now, but the central hollow ring of this model might have been there to provide a bit of space away from the edges beneath which the noisy children would play. Or I might have just been experimenting with alternate configurations. You can read a complete description of the 525 San Antonio Rd theoretical project which serves well to explain the many benefits of the Garden Apartment. I extracted this text from an email I wrote in March of 2002, to the lawyer or developer of this site. He was, unfortunately, not receptive to the idea...

If you're interested in helping me to get one of these built, let's talk. Send me an email at cedric.gis@pitot.org.

Click on the thumbnails to the left to load full size images into this frame.

Created and Last Modified: 12/20/2003.