Northeast Residential Design Standards

In 2014, Lord Aeck Sargent was retained by the Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority (OCURA) to develop design standards that would guide future infill housing in a primarily residential neighborhood located northeast of Oklahoma’s downtown.

OCURA currently owns several vacant parcels in the area where local developers have begun to build single-family houses in response to market demand. Anticipating future development and recognizing the historic value of the neighborhood, OCURA sought to use the guidelines to ensure that new houses were compatible with the unique and varied historical development patterns of the area.

In the first phase of the project, LAS conducted a parcel-based analysis of the various architectural categories present in the neighborhoods. Five existing architectural categories with corresponding subcategories were identified and later on mapped. These categories, corresponded to the eras when the houses were built, were used to inform future housing. In deference to the varied and valuable historical features found in some of them, six new distinct architectural categories were established and further defined as templates for new construction.

The second phase of the project consisted of delineating standards for the new architectural categories as well as for site design. The site design, which was intended to be applied to all new housing regardless of its style, outlined standards for the house’s placement on a lot, the location of garages, the use of fences, the location of sidewalks, etc.

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