The District's "public realm" includes its streets, sidewalks, parks, plazas, civic buildings, and other public spaces. Such spaces represent half of the District of Columbia's land area, with street rights-of-way alone accounting for over 10,000 acres. The design of public space provides some of the best opportunities for the District to improve aesthetics and image. More often than not, it is the quality of public space that defines the great cities and neighborhoods of the world. 912.1
This section of the Urban Design Element focuses on three objectives:
* Improving the appearance and vitality of street and sidewalk space
* Balancing security and aesthetic considerations in public realm design
* Encouraging superior public building and infrastructure design. 912.2
The provisions of Title 10, Part A of the DCMR accessible through this web interface are codification of the District Elements of the Comprehensive Plan for the National Capital. As such, they do not represent the organic provisions adopted by the Council of the District of Columbia. The official version of the District Elements only appears as a hard copy volume of Title 10, Part A published pursuant to section 9 a of the District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1994, effective April 10, 1984 (D.C. Law 5-76; D.C. Official Code § 1 -301.66)) . In the event of any inconsistency between the provisions accessible through this site and the provisions contained in the published version of Title 10, Part A, the provisions contained in the published version govern. A copy of the published District Elements is available www.planning.dc.gov.
D.C. Mun. Regs. tit. 10, r. 10-A912