24 Distillation Guidebook Co-Lab • 9.18–9.19 2025 that codified fourteen building types in Allentown. This process became the foundation of the new code and informed many of its regulations. The building type study documented housing types and commercial uses, as well as civic and industrial structures. Buildings were then classified into their discrete types based on their scale, architectural features, building placement, and relationship to surrounding context. Each type is governed by its own design standards and permitted within specific zoning districts. This understanding created a flexible framework that responds to the built environment and allows existing types as a means of accommodating evolving housing and development needs. The study “helped us create zoning maps based on real neighborhoods, with a diversity of uses and building types, and not just a straight line on a zoning grid,” says Jennifer. With that understanding, patterns became so legible that planners could often identify the dominant building characteristics just by knowing a house’s zoning designation. “I think one of the things that was always fascinating to me,” Trevor recalls, “someone called Jenn, and she asked, ‘What zone are you?’ And the guy says his zone, and Jenn describes his house. It’s like a silly anecdote, but also like the dorkiest party trick. Give me your zone, and I’ll tell you what your house is, but it works.” From this inventory, the city recognized the development patterns that shape Allentown’s neighborhoods, and revealed the city’s layered growth or the “rings” Trevor described. Melissa, who worked with the city during the study, recalls: “It’s interesting to see the transition from the historic districts to the Urban Rowhouse [building type], and then transitioning into the Suburban Rowhouse [building type] going through time and seeing how things have changed in the city.” The study reads almost like an onion: tracing building types – where they cluster or don’t – peels back successive eras of development and the historical patterns that shaped neighborhoods, from its urban core to its suburban corridors. At the same time, the study also reveals areas where building types didn’t fit neatly into a pattern. Some neighborhoods contain a mix of types, Small General Building Type
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