Design review and public preferences: Effects of geographical location, public consensus, sensation seeking, and architectural styles

Abstract

To improve community appearance, most cities in the United States have implemented design review, but empirical studies of design review are rare. Key issues are the effects on preferences of: (1) design review per se; (2) common design review principles such as visual bulk; (3) common demographic factors such as geographical location, age, gender, ethnic or political affiliations; and (4) the personality factor of sensation seeking. The present article describes a preference experiment on 35 houses as judged by 82 respondents in two different cities. Results indicate that design review, bulk, demographic and personality factors account for much less preference than did the architectural components of style or individual buildings. © 1997 Academic Press Limited.