Site Planning & Design

This article deals with preparation for the Site Planning graphic vignette which is one part of the Site Planning exam (ARE 3.1) and Site Planning & Design exam (ARE 4.0).

The old Site Planning exam (ARE 3.1) consists of three vignettes: site planning, site grading, and site zoning. The new exam, called Site Planning and Design (ARE 4.1) consists of two vignettes, site planning and site grading, and a multiple choice section. This article won’t discuss the multiple choice component found in the new exam –resource for that can be found in the Kaplan and Ballast study guides, available for loan at the AIBC.

The graphic vignettes on the old and new exams are the same, the software used to perform the vignettes is the same, and therefore all of the study resources for the old exam with regard to the graphic vignettes are still relevant. The critical resource from the old exams for the graphic vignettes is the Norman Dorf Solution manual. This book gives one example of a passing and failing solution for each vignette with analysis, tips, and a must-read section called 'Fatal Errors'. Professor Dorf’s frank and clear writing style makes for quick and indispensable study material -a must read and in my opinion the best place to start when studying for any graphic vignette.

Make sure to also look at the Kaplan and Ballast study guides for their sample passing and failing solutions. Also go the NCARB website and download the study aid which also contains a sample vignette with a passing and failing solution. Find it on the NCARB website under ARE 4.1 study aides (on the left sidebar) click, then look for Site Planning & Design (on the right sidebar).

The grading and zoning vignettes are ‘give aways’ to quote Norman Dorf in his solutions guide. They require some practise but are generally straightforward. The more difficult vignette, site planning, requires a layout of a specified programme onto a site. The programme typically consists of two buildings (which are placed as pre-drawn symbols), a plaza, walkways, parking, and an access road. The complexity of this vignette has to do with following the programme and its requirements to the letter, while also using the custom software created for this exam. The software is a little bit awkward but it becomes easier with practise.

You will find the free practice software on the NCARB web site. After familiarizing myself with the software and trying out the vignette, I watched videos posted by the late Norman Dorf as well as those posted by Interns on the ARE Forum. These showed how to efficiently layout parking, how to gauge ‘closeness’ on a site plan, and how to efficiently manipulate grades and solve the site grading vignette. I watched all the videos, practiced the vignettes in the following days, and watched all the videos again for review. These videos were extremely useful. Go find these videos on the ARE Forum use this address: http://www.areforum.org/forums/forum22/83868.html

NCARB’s practice software comes with only one background per vignette. This should not stop you from practising the site planning vignette over and over, testing different layouts each time in order to satisfy the same programme on the same background. I found trying to use different layouts clarified a lot of questions I had about getting the layout correct. For example, what are the implications of running parking north south versus east west? How does entering a parking loop from the middle differ from entering from the side? Can I nudge all the parking and the access drive over 10’ if I had to, and how long would that take me (this is good practice for the exam, where you might find yourself nudging items at the last second after realizing something was laid out incorrectly)? At what distance does a driveway kill a tree?

For those who’d like even more practise, there are alternative backgrounds and programmes that can be patched into the NCARB software. You can find these in the ARE Forum under: uploads/site planning/SP alts/sp alts inst.txt. I found these layouts more difficult than the original practice software vignettes and the exam but still useful for the practise.

The critical task in the site planning vignette is to make sure all the programmatic requirements are fulfilled. To save time you may want to transfer the requirements from the screen onto a piece of paper, which makes a quick and useful reference during the drafting stage of the vignette and can be a good checklist once you think you have completed the vignette. I found the alternate vignettes (with their alternate programmes) a good way to practise this –and it does take practise.

What I did to study for the Site Planning graphic vignette (ARE 3.1) -there are multiple choice questions on the new exam, but I am not addressing that in this article or list…for that, simply look at the ARE 4.0 study guides):

1. skimmed the ALS and Ballast study guides for the graphic vignette sample problems
2. downloaded the practise software from the NCARB web site
3. practised using the software (two or three evenings after work)
4. watched the videos on the ARE Forum (one evening)
5. practised the vignettes (3 evenings)
6. read the Norman Dorf Solutions manual after completing each vignette
7. practised some more
8. practised summarizing the programme quickly (especially for the site planning vignette) on scratch paper, and used the alternative vignettes posted on the ARE Forum FTP site in order to practice writing down different programmes.
9. wrote the exam (note: this sequence describes preparation for only one part of the exam)

After watching the videos and practicing yourself, be sure to read the following approach to working through the vignette by clicking on the FTP button in the ARE Forum (areforum.org), then clicking Site Planning, then download ‘Dan’s helpful hints’.

If there is anything you think should be added to this article please leave us a comment. Good luck!

-Anthony Milkovich, IA