Architectural Terms - Site Planning & Construction

Vocabulary flashcards covering key architectural, site planning, building code, construction, and zoning terminology based on Mehta, Scarborough & Armpriest.

Benchmark

A fixed, known reference point used by surveyors to establish elevations on a site, providing a consistent elevation from which other points on the property can be measured for site grading and drainage.

Boundary Survey

A professional survey used to establish and document the legal boundaries of a property, identifying property lines, dimensions, corners, angles, curve radii, topography, drainage patterns, encroachments, easements, ownership, and legal history.

Building

A constructed structure assembled from materials and systems to provide shelter and accommodate a particular function or use while responding to its specific site, function, and conditions.

Building Code

A set of legally enforceable regulations enforced through government police powers that establishes minimum requirements for the design and construction of buildings to protect health, safety, and welfare, including structural safety, fire safety, life safety, sanitation, and ventilation.

Contract Limit

The boundary that identifies the portion of a site or project included within the construction contract, establishing where the contractor's contractual responsibility begins and ends (which may cover only part of the property).

Easement

A legal right allowing another person, organization, or utility to use a specific portion of a property for a particular purpose, such as utilities, drainage, or access, even though the property belongs to someone else.

Property

A parcel or portion of land and the rights associated with its ownership, including the physical land on which a building or other improvements may be located.

Property Line

The legally established boundary separating one parcel of property from another property, street, or other area, determining the limits of the owner's property and where improvements can be placed.

Right-of-Way

A legal right or area allowing passage or access through land for transportation, occupied by public features such as streets, roads, alleys, and sidewalks.

Setback

The required minimum distance between a building and a property or lot line, establishing open space around a building to control construction proximity, provide privacy, reduce traffic noise and fumes, and improve neighborhood appearance.

Swale

A shallow, usually gently sloped depression in the ground that collects and directs surface water or stormwater runoff as part of a site's drainage system, commonly graded from lawns or fields with recommended slopes of approximately $1.5\%$ to $10\%$.

Use District

An area established by zoning regulations where specific types of land uses and buildings are permitted (such as residential, commercial, industrial, and special-purpose) in order to separate incompatible land uses.

Watershed

An area of land in which precipitation and surface runoff drain toward a common body of water or drainage point, determining the general direction in which water moves across a site and surrounding land.

Zoning

The regulation of land use and development within a city or county that determines permitted building types and activities, establishing requirements such as setbacks, building height, ground coverage, floor area ratio, and number of stories.

Zoning Ordinance

A document containing urban planning laws that regulates the use of land within a jurisdiction, consisting of a zoning map (identifying the district) and zoning text (establishing permitted uses and development standards).