Zoning and the Wedding Cake
Program: Construction Management / Estimating
Zoning and the Wedding Cake
Why do old New York towers step back like wedding cakes? Because a law told them to.
1915. The Equitable Building rises about 40 stories straight up from its lot line and throws a shadow of several acres across lower Manhattan.
1916. New York passes the first comprehensive zoning resolution in the United States. Above a set height, a building must step back from the street within an angled "sky exposure plane". A tower of any height is allowed on a quarter of the lot.
The result. Setbacks, ziggurats and spires: the Chrysler and Empire State buildings.
1961. A new resolution trades setbacks for floor-area ratio (FAR) and plazas: the slab tower on a plaza.
The lesson. The market decides how tall a building wants to be; the rules decide how tall it may be, and what shape it takes.
Try it. Stack the blocks under the lamp: same floor area, three zoning codes, three skylines.
DTMP4Breading