Walkability in urban design often gets reduced to a few basic moves: repeated sections, tripartite divisions (splitting the building into three distinct parts: a bottom, middle, and top), and large windows using storefront glazing. There’s a reason this logic persists. The traditional storefront works… in the right conditions. It reinforces active uses and a clear relationship between inside and out. But the reality is that it depends on a specific set of conditions, and those conditions aren’t always present.

We’ve turned a measure of walkability into a target for its own sake: percentage of glazing. Urban planners have gotten a bit obsessed with big glass storefronts and started treating them as the definition of a “walkable” street, when really they’re just one way to achieve it.

Many zoning codes lean on storefront glazing requirements as a stand-in for urban life. Sometimes that works. Sometimes it produces buildings that satisfy the metric without really contributing to the street.

On a few recent projects, that gap became impossible to ignore. The buildings had other conditions to satisfy in addition to walkability. Sun exposure, privacy, infrastructure, scale, and even the way people move across the site all came to bear on the design of the street façade.

The question shifted from how much glass belongs on the façade to the bigger question of how the building engages people from the outside.

MORRISVILLE COMMUNITY LIBRARY

In Morrisville, the library sits along Town Center Drive, which is dotted with public buildings. In the evenings, many residents stroll past the library for their shatapawali, a walk after dinner. The library’s presence and engagement with the public along the street matter, even if it isn’t the main entry.

At the same time, the southwest-facing wall gets harsh afternoon sun, making it a poor candidate for windows since the glare would be uncomfortable for readers and damaging to collections. On top of this, a high-pressure gas line pushed the building well back from the sidewalk. This side of the building was not a good candidate for a storefront approach.

This is also where the conversation about safety typically arises. Visibility matters, but the issue is one of how and not just how much. The transparency of glass alone does not create meaningful surveillance or engagement. People respond to presence: who is there, how the space is lit, and whether the edge feels active and legible as they move past it.

Neuroscience studies show that people engage with buildings based on the textures, patterns, and depth of the building surfaces, even from a distance. This was the key to keeping citizens engaged with the library from this distance while minimizing the negative consequences of the building orientation.

However, the town had recently adopted zoning rules with storefront glazing expectations, so there was a tension between the intent of the requirements and the building’s functional requirements.

We stepped back and focused on the experience of the walk itself. A core of service and support spaces lines that southwest elevation toward Town Hall Drive to protect the interior. We placed windows at the building entry and the ends of the building, which help with orientation and wayfinding.

The southwest façade creates a moving pattern. Brick is offset at different depths and varies rhythmically.  Windows are placed where they are shaded or have minimal solar impact on the interior. Shadow lines drift across the wall through the day and year. The composition creates engagement with the building’s contents by metaphorically referencing book covers, spines, comic panels, and digital screens at the scale of the street without literally revealing them.

The result isn’t a storefront, and it’s not a blank wall. It is an edge that holds attention over distance and participates in the activity already happening on the street.

WAKEMED OBERLIN ROAD MEDICAL OFFICE BUILDING

The WakeMed project started as a discussion where the client described the future of outpatient care as a storefront for healthcare services.

The realities of healthcare make this more metaphorical than actual.

Healthcare architecture borrows language from retail, but healthcare is not retail. Privacy and comfort matter. Exam rooms are not meant to face directly onto a busy street. On this site, the east-facing side of the building also demanded careful control of glare and heat.

This project needed to feel open and refined, not just functional. It replaced a neighborhood post office, so there was an expectation that it would remain a recognizable neighborhood destination. The client wanted to improve their reputation with  locals who tended to favor another health system nearby, which was perceived as being more upscale.

Those constraints do not point to a single solution.

Glass is used where it helps. Sub-waiting areas and entries face the street. Those moments give the building a welcoming public presence and an active street edge.

Beyond those areas, the façade tightens. The spacing of exam rooms and their internal layout creates a rhythm that carries outward. Masonry, controlled openings, and a measured use of glass balance openness with privacy.

The building needed to engage the activity of the street without turning patient care into spectacle.

MORGAN-MANGUM STREETS PARKING GARAGE

In downtown Durham, the starting point was clearly outlined in our community engagement sessions. The ground floor needed to work as a real street edge. That meant storefronts. At the same time, there was no interest in wrapping a parking structure in a false front. The building needed to be honest about what it is.

The project splits cleanly into two readings: a brick base at the street and a lighter parking structure above. The base aligns with the scale and materials of downtown Durham. Above it, the façade shifts into pattern, screening, shadow, and depth.

The friction showed up at the storefront level. The client pushed consistently for more texture, more shadow, and more material presence. The zoning code pushed toward higher storefront glazing percentages. The mandated minimum glazing requirements were competing with the storefront itself. Once structure, accessibility requirements, tenant signage, and sloping streets were accounted for, the remaining wall area was almost entirely glazing, creating the very thing that zoning codes are trying to fight: streets that feel generic and disconnected from their surroundings.

The discussion between the design team and the Planning department shifted to intent. Storefronts work because of the density of information: entries, lighting, signage, texture, display, and movement. Visibility is only one part of that equation.

Through the historic district review process, the project made that case. The storefronts could support retail and pedestrian activity without relying on glass alone.

Above the storefronts, the pattern of screenings addresses the two thoroughfares that define its frontage, creating a building that addresses both the scale of people and cars.

GLASS IS A TOOL, NOT THE ANSWER

These projects do not replace storefronts or attempt to undermine their role in civic and street life. They show their limitations.

Pattern, depth, and material are not a substitute for active use, but they can carry the experience when continuous transparency is not practical or appropriate. Walkable streets depend on presence, activity, rhythm, and clarity. In many cases, those qualities stem from how buildings engage people as they move past, not simply from what can be seen through the glass.

Glass is a tool for walkability. It was never supposed to be the definition of it.