Zoning Pyramid

[Chris DiSunno]

Our local zoning code has something called a "Pyramid Law" which is a 45d slope from natural grade, the volume of the structure cannot penetrate. To convey it to the building department I've been making a glass hip roof on the property lines with a 12/12 slope. That is great for a flat site. Also, the roof works well because I can chop the roof off at max roof height of 32' per

The question:
How can I display something similar on a site with varying topography? To use a "roof" I would need the eaves to rise and fall with the grade at the property line.

[Roger Evans]

As a matter of interest how is this pyramid supposed to work on an irregular shape site eg L / T Shape for instance?

[Chris DiSunno]

Well, they never really look like a pyramid, to spite the name. This one just happend to be a farmhouse on a farm field. Not much flatter than that.

[Roger Evans]

Your State must have an excess of land to play with ~ could never be workable over here(at least from ground level)

[Steve_Stafford]

We mocked up something awhile back when someone here asked about this issue. I'm trying to remember how we did it...pretty sure it was a family. I found the image, but haven't found the underlying project yet.

[Chris DiSunno]

Thanks for the try there, but the "roof" is just raised equally all the way around.

Here is a more typical site. The pyramid should undulate with the edge of the property.

I thought about trying to make an extrusion for each edge, but don't know how to go about it.

[Dimitri Harvalias]

Chris,
Have you considered using an in place family that has a material with transparency? Create the solid to rise from the site as required. You can use voids to truncate it at any height or angle you would like.

Edit: OK, not as simple as I thought! I'll give it some more thought to come up with something a little more helpful.

[Phil Read]

Anyone remember the renderings from the 1930's by Hugh Ferris based on the zoning laws of NYC?

Anyway - I'd suggest an In-Place Family (Generic Model). Might as well give it an Object Subcategory for visibility and exporting purposes.

All the best -

Phil

[cosmickingpin]

Yeah the massing tool would probably work well for you. Editibilti and visibility control would work best for you. Now here is my rant:

Every little hamlet, village, township, you name it has its own little insane and complicated set of rules which make no sense whatsoever! Upstate and Western NY are some oof the wackiest in the country I have seen, and where I live in michigan runs a close second. Illinois now, I actually had a city code official tell me to draw what ever set backs I liked and if it looked good it was fine. Nothing in the ordinace (and it was 20 pages long, I kid you not), had any real restricions. and they just kinda used common sense and looked at everything on a case by case basis and guess what? everything was fine, no wacko buildings or anything crazy, the place looked great. Local zoning ordinance are generally a complete waste of time.



Your State must have an excess of land to play with ~ could never be workable over here(at least from ground level)

[Joef]

What is wanted is a 45 degree sweep along a line that represents the elevation of the site at the perimeter of the property line. Am I right? I really don't think this is possible in Revit. You can create the elevation line by creating sections at the property line and tracing a model line around the perimeter. What you would do with after that I'm not sure.Could it be exported into another program and imported into a massing family?

Joe

[Chris DiSunno]

Ouch, I did it by copying the topo turning it to glass and copying the points along the edge inwward the distance of the max height then changing their elevation by that much.

Good thing this was an easy site!

p.s. not my design just adding a deck for a friend.

[anthony.67953]

Any one found an easier way to do this zoning problem yet?

[damon.sidel]

I've done something like this... but I used Rhino. I exported the topography to Rhino, created a 45-degree profile and swept it along the edge of the surface. There isn't a great way to extract the edge in Revit, but could you extract it in ACAD, import to a conceptual massing family and do the same sweep? Just a thought... I'll give it a try soon.

[MikeJarosz]

In NYC, that plane is called the sky exposure plane, but the angle varies depending on avenue or side street. Yes Phil, I remember the Hugh Ferris renderings.

When I was in college I did an independent study project on using math to determine the maximum attributes a building could have under NYC zoning. It used the Simplex Method (Google it) and it worked super well, but it needed a mainframe, which only a university could offer. At the time, Steve Jobs was still in diapers. Now that we have really powerful PCs, I have seen commercial software packages for the Simplex Method. It would be interesting to update my project, but no architectural firm is likely to take on such an R&D project in these times. Also, an integer linear programming model (Google that too!) is perfect for building core design. I had suggested it at SOM, but no one was interested.

Such investigations really belong in the academic world.