View Corridors

 
Skinner Butte viewed from the west along 1st Avenue in Eugene. This is not a regulated view corridor. (Google Street View)

View corridors are planning tools used in urban design and city planning to protect and enhance specific views within a city. They are meant to preserve visual connections between key landmarks, natural features, or other important elements of a cityscape. The goal is to maintain or create aesthetically pleasing vistas that contribute to the overall character and identity of a city. In the context of urban planning, municipalities implement view corridors through zoning regulations, building height restrictions, and other planning measures.
 
Many cities blessed with significant natural or built features establish view corridors to protect views of iconic landmarks, bodies of water, mountain ranges, or other significant natural or built features. This can contribute to the overall visual experience of a city and enhance its attractiveness. In many instances, this involves restricting the height of new developments within certain areas to maintain specific sightlines. These regulations can be applied to both public and private spaces, ensuring that designated views are not obstructed by new construction.
 
Vancouver, British Columbia—a city I’m especially familiar with—is well known for its strategic use of view corridors. The city implemented regulations years ago to preserve views of the surrounding mountains and waterfront. For example, view corridors from certain vantage points in the city lead directly to landmarks like the North Shore Mountains and Burrard Inlet. One famous view corridor in Vancouver is along the Cambie Street Bridge, which offers unobstructed views of the downtown skyline and the mountains. The city's commitment to preserving these vistas has contributed to Vancouver's reputation as a visually stunning and livable city.

 

Vancouver view corridor diagram.

Vancouver view corridor B.2.

Seattle’s municipal code likewise protects scenic view corridors toward both natural and human-made features, including mountains and skylines from designated public spaces. The code’s public view mitigation measures strategically control the height, bulk, profile, or location of new buildings to preserve key vistas.
 
What about Eugene? The City of Eugene Site Development Standards do include height limitation areas, whose purpose is to protect views to and from certain geographical landmarks considered to have scenic attributes and are of value to the community. To the best of my knowledge, the Skinner Butte Height Limitation Area is presently the sole example of such an area, though the Downtown Riverfront Special Area Zone incorporates a height regulating plan and view corridor requirements. Fundamentally, Eugene’s height limitation area regulations seek to achieve similar ends as controlled view corridors do in other cities.
 
Skinner Butte is a prominent landmark named in honor of city founder Eugene Skinner. The elevation at the top of the hill is 682 feet above sea level and approximately 200 feet above the surrounding streets. The Skinner Butte Height Limitation Area restricts the maximum height of any building within its limits to 500 feet above sea level. The Eugene City Council recently amended the Skinner Butte Height Limitation Area to increase allowed building heights of up to 530 feet in elevation on specific properties. As I reported previously, the intent is to attract investment within the city’s core, accommodate much-needed housing, enliven the pedestrian experience, and welcome increased density and eyes on the streets. The Eugene Code additionally exempts certain roof structures and architectural features above these height limits.

 

Commonly understood by architects is the human tendency to seek identity and orientation. Nature and history have conspired to endow Eugene with a recognizable and navigable structure. The pioneer citizens formalized the axis between Skinner Butte and Spencer Butte as Willamette Street, and like the ancient Roman cardo, it has served historically as the center of economic and cultural life for the city. The two landmarks bookend the axis. They presented planners with a natural structure about which to organize the street grid as Eugene grew.
 
Bolstering the legibility of Willamette Street as Eugene’s principal north-south axis is thus as important to the city’s identity as focusing upon the preservation of sightlines toward Skinner Butte. We should selectively protect those views, but the reality is it is challenging to fully appreciate how the diminutive butte punctuates the north end of the axis when seen from the south along Willamette Street. Indeed, its prominence is best grasped when approaching from the west, along the north bank of the Willamette River, or when in its immediate vicinity. The view from the top toward Spencer Butte rather than the ones toward Skinner Butte provides Eugene with its signature prospect.
 

Spencer Butte seen from the top of Skinner Butte (photo by Laura Alier, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

 
View corridors play a crucial role in urban design by preserving and enhancing important vistas that contribute to the overall character and identity of a city. Implemented judiciously, they balance the importance of those vistas with the need to accommodate growth and densification. In the case of Eugene, it may be the establishment of view corridors is of less importance or unnecessary so long as the city retains its structural legibility and essential sense of identity through other means.