Archive for CNU

CNU 19 – Madison, Wisconsin is Coming Soon

Posted in Events, Landscape Architecture, Sustainability, Town Planning, Urban Planning and Design, Urbanism with tags , , , on May 20, 2011 by John Olson

Beautiful Madison, Wisconsin. Photo by Eric Tadsen; Courtesy of Greater Madison CVB.

We are coming up on only one more week until the Congress for the New Urbanism’s annual conference.  This year, it is held in Madison, Wisconsin and I could not be anymore excited for CNU this year.  Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to Atlanta for last year’s Congress, so I am excited to make it back again.  In the prior year’s, I had the privilege to attend the Congress (or conference) in Philadelphia, Austin and Denver.

This year’s Congress has many exciting presentations and the diversity of topic areas is continually growing.  The following are individual presentations that I am particularly excited to see:

What are Livable Communities? – Dan Burden

Low Impact Suburbia vs. Light Imprint Urbanism – Presenters include Light Imprint author Tom Low

The New Urbanism and the Bicycle – Presenters include Victor Dover and co-author of the Smart Growth Manual, Mike Lydon

Various Sprawl Retrofit Presentations including authors Ellen Dunham-Jones and Galina Tachieva

Megatrends: Technologies and Techniques that are Changing the Built World – Presenters include Steve Mouzon

Landscape Urbanism Debate with Andres Duany and Charles Waldheim

In addition, this year is going to feature Open Source more than the past.  This is a great opportunity to discuss urbanism with your peers and suggest your own topics of conversation.  Hope to see you in Madison!

Smart Growth in Small Towns and Rural Communities – Salida, Colorado

Posted in Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Events, Landscape Architecture, Streetscapes, Sustainability, Town Planning, Urban Planning and Design, Urbanism with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 19, 2011 by John Olson

My involvement with CNU Colorado (Congress for the New Urbanism, Colorado) over the past five years has allowed me the opportunity to assemble and coordinate many events.  This winter/spring, I am coordinating together the biggest and best of the events that I have been a part of to date.  With the persuasion of colleague Paul Crabtree, of The Crabtree Group, Inc., I am coordinating the Smart Growth  in Small Towns and Rural Communities Workshop in Salida, Colorado on April 8.  The following is a summary of the presentations that will be discussed during the April 8th workshop.  The descriptions were assembled by the presenters associated with each presentation.

What Really is Smart Growth? (Paul Crabtree & Joe De Luca)

The Ten Principles of Smart Growth, the differences between Smart Growth and New Urbanism, the past and future of Smart Growth.

Form-based Codes and the Rural-to-Urban Transect (Paul Crabtree & Joe De Luca)

A brief history of zoning codes and form-based codes.  Why the pedestrian shed and Rural-to-Urban Transect are key tools for form-based codes. What’s so special about the SmartCode?

Architecture of Place  (Hoyt Cousins)

The presentation shall identify design contributions to social and economic resilience, at the local scale, of small towns at the edge of metropolitan areas.  An array of techniques for diminished resources in planning and development can be organized in a hierarchy:  from region and sector to conditions of settlement types, neighborhood and transect zone, block and street, building and lot.  The primary focus will be on building types and architectural configuration – in response to current challenges of lower incomes, changing employment opportunity, unpredictable market demand, restricted financing, the loss of personal and public equity, and shrinking municipal budgets and services.

Transportation Planning for Rural and Small Towns (Jim Charlier)

This session will provide baseline information about transportation and energy trends as they affect rural Colorado and Chaffee County.  If rural places far from major cities are to thrive and be sustainable over the next two decades, significant innovation and strategic investments will be required.  Given limited financial resources and an ongoing recession, what can small cities and towns do to prepare for the post-petroleum era?  Jim will summarize findings and results from recent national studies of the mobility and access needs of rural America.

LEED-ND: Group Discussion (Stella Hodgkins and John Olson)

As a group, or potentially as multiple groups, we will analyze the applicability of LEED-ND (or LEED for Neighborhood Development) as it relates to a small town or neighborhoods within the small town. Case study towns of Salida, Buena Vista and/or Poncha Springs are potential towns to be analyzed.

Agricultural Urbanism (Korkut Onaran)

The Agricultural Urbanism session will review some of the recent form-based coding practices the presenter has participated and discuss the challenges and opportunities in integrating food production in urban areas without compromising walkability. The presentation will particularly focus on Transect 3, usually called “suburban,” or “garden district,” a name the author likes better.

Context-Sensitive Landscapes (John Olson)

Presentation will be based on the dynamics of landscape as they relate to the urban-to-rural transect. Topics regarding landscape will include productive or edible landscapes, streetscape design and specific landscape issues and opportunities in the Mountain West region.

Panel Discussion with Presenters

Our Presenters will Discuss and Respond to Questions and Comments from the audience regarding the presentations and that the state of urbanism today.

 

Colorado Springs Sustainability Bike Tour

Posted in Urbanism with tags , , , , , , on September 8, 2010 by John Olson

In late June, CNU Colorado, USGBC SoCo, Bike Colorado Springs, AIA Colorado and APA Colorado co-hosted a sustainability bike tour in Colorado Springs.  Recently, the staff at the city of Colorado Springs updated their website to include photos from the tour as well as a map for residents to try out the tour themselves.  Staff also added additional stops to the tour, which we may just have to do next year:  The following is the link:  http://www.springsgov.com/Page.aspx?NavID=3348

For previous bike tour information, see the following link: Bike Tour Photos; Additional Information

Colorado LEED-ND Pilot Projects and Potential LEED-ND Candidates

Posted in Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Town Planning, Urban Planning and Design, Urban Renewal, Urbanism with tags , , , , , , , , on September 7, 2010 by John Olson

In a partnership with the Colorado chapters of the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), I have volunteered to take on the task of identifying recently developed neighborhoods that may qualify for LEED-Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND).  LEED is an acronym for Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design with multiple rating systems including the most popular New Construction (or LEED-NC).

Stapleton (Denver)

The following are Colorado developments that are pilot projects for LEED-ND:

I have assembled several other new urban neighborhoods in the State of Colorado, which can also be found in CNU Colorado published book Colorado Urbanizing, that I feel have the potential to meet the requirements of LEED-ND.  Please send comments, etc. if you feel that I have missed a neighborhood that would qualify as this is meant to be a working list.

Full Story: Potential LEED-ND Candidates in Colorado 

Sprawl Repair: Conventional Suburban Neighborhoods

Posted in Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Town Planning, Urban Renewal, Urbanism with tags , , , , , , , , on June 16, 2010 by John Olson

There is a lot of talk today about retrofitting the abandoned properties in suburbia lately.  The majority of the conversation is shifted toward large abandoned shopping centers and other large abandoned tracts of land.  These are the easiest areas to fix due to the land typically under one or two ownerships.  However, the new subdivisions that have been constructed prior to the economic meltdown are suffering just as much.  There are some neighborhoods that have been completely devastated and abandoned by the foreclosure crisis created from the bad adjustable loans that were once available.  This has been a big concern of mine as I have read many of the articles written by Christopher Leinberger such as “The Next Slum.”

While I was considering this over this past weekend, I put the pencil to paper and doodled with some watercolor pencils.  The first image below is of a typical conventional subdivision, with what is typically known as a “Snout House” in the planning profession.  It is called a snout house due to its resemblance of a dog’s face, with the garage as the “snout” of the house.  Snout houses are notorious for having the garage as a predominant feature of the home.

This is a quick rendering snapshot of a conventional suburban developement (CSD).

The following image is what I consider to be a sprawl repair alternative to the conventional subdivision.  The image illustrates an addition to the home toward the street, located at the garage.  By doing this, the garage opening is shifted to the side of the home and utilizes a shared driveway with the neighboring home.  This configuration allows separation between the actual home  and the addition by way of garage so the addition has added flexibility.  The addition toward the street could lend itself to multiple purposes, from an office, to a studio and it could even work as a stand-alone retail store or coffee shop.  The addition could also simply be an addition to the home, perhaps as an accessory dwelling unit or a recreation/media room.  Located above the addition to the front of the home, could easily be utilized as a rooftop terrace, deck, etc. to be accessed from one of the bedrooms (typical use above garages of snout houses).

This suburban retrofit shows the typical snout house with its garage opening turned away from public view. The addition of building toward the street and accessory dwelling units could help the CSD's compete with newer subdivisions in suburban locations.

Aside from the addition to the actual home, stand-alone accessory dwelling units can be located in the rear yards of the lots or between the lots if the side setback is great enough (realistically need a 15-ft side-yard setback for each home).  This could allow the conventional subdivision to gain new life and vitality through growth and change.  Too often, subdivisions are isolated from other uses and are very homogenous in respect to architecture, value of home, etc.

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