Highway-adjacent architecture in an urban setting rarely contributes to an interesting city experience. Designers' disregard for the experience of those on the road has numbed the aura of the city and encourages no further exploration into the urban environment. The commuters that downtown enthusiasts complain about have little to persuade them off of the highway and into the city.
After years of slow decline, arguably a result of the increased dependency on the automobile, the mid-sized American city is on the cusp of an urban renaissance with a community of urban pioneers reversing the trends of the past half-century and moving back downtown. Although more people are walking the streets and relying on rapid transportation systems, the decisions of the past several generations have made the role of the car in the city permanent. Design must reflect that reality and attempt to affect those on highways just as those within the grid are affected. Passengers and drivers elevated and disconnected from the city and its atmosphere by highways and by speed must be stimulated with an opportunity to observe city life and a reason to desire and seek it.
Speed and proximity alter the visual perception of architecture for those on the road. Recognizing and manipulating this alteration through design could produce a more descriptive and meaningful encounter with the city. The typical urban experience from the road can be studied to discover what stimulates the human eye at accelerated speeds and how the results vary with the velocity of speed. The experience of the highway motorist must be understood relative to that of a stop and go motorist, and that of a pedestrian. The amount of visual understanding is different at every level of movement. The gradient of comprehension across the various degrees of motion must be reflected in architectural form and detail in order to maintain an appropriate level of interaction between the build environment and all those who encounter it.
Analyzing and understanding the visual experience of encountering the city via the highway will provide a basis of design for new movement-adjacent urban architecture. Enriching the urban experience for those observing from a highway perspective has the potential to promote further metropolitan exploration and allow the aura of the city to reach those who normally wouldn't feel it.