Designing our future: Exploring the boundaries of design review

This thesis explores the evolution and boundaries of aesthetic regulation and the origin of design review. Unlike traditional zoning controls which regulate the what and where, design review deals primarily with the how, reaching beyond traditional dimensional restrictions to include architecture and other visual impacts of a project. Design review and aesthetic regulations have emerged, as both a companion to the historic preservation movement to help address preservation, place and identity issues and from the increased acceptance by the courts of aesthetics as a valid police power. This thesis outlines the evolution of the aesthetic discourse as well as the boundaries of aesthetics as a police power by outlining the constitutional concerns surrounding the language and the process of design review. Concluding this thesis is a model process for municipalities to adopt Design Review, designed specifically to be used by suburban communities within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.