My Built Environment: Good, Bad, and Really Ugly

Recently, my employees and I took a break and went to the Botanic Gardens for a field trip. I can’t speak for the rest of them, but I was certainly inspired! It has been awhile since I have been to the botanic gardens, and I was very impressed with the work they have done to create sustainable landscapes, demonstrate water thrifty plants, and make it attractive to boot! Right at the front, by the parking lot is an excellent garden full of water thrifty plants, many of which were blooming away in September!

Within the gardens they have created several gardens that showcase how to recreate natural grass prairies, in several different zones, such as the lower plains, and the foothills, riparian zones, and such. Most of these gardens havn’t recieved any supplemental irrigation in several years. The one shown here is representative of an enhanced plains grassland. Just look at the variety of plant material! Blue Grama and Buffalo Grass are used extensively, both native grasses, as well as several others. Shrubs and perennials include Leadplant, Mexican Hat Coneflower, Rabbitbrush, Sages, Sunflowers, and numerous others. These plantings are very much alive, and far more interesting than just turf grass.

The nice things about more natural landscapes, is that they are allowed to evolve, plants reseed readily, and if a plant isn’t tough enough to make it, no specials efforts are taken to keep it alive. Of course, these gardens do have the advantage of having full time staff to take of the weeding, something that is important in getting these gardens established.

Another garden that I found particular thrilling was the water smart garden. Here many of the perennials and shrubs are displayed that show homeowners beautiful plants that survive with a minimum of water and care…and they thrive! Just look at the rich textures! The mix of greens, silvers and blues is spectacular, puncuated by the prolific blooming of hyssop plants! Seen in this image are Sages, Creeping Verbeena, Hyssop, California Poppies, Penstemon, and the wonderfal varieties of Yuccas and Century Plants! I now have a new fondness for Yuccas and Century Plants!

So now that I know it can be done, now we have to challenge ourselves to figure out how to do it on a bigger scale, and do it cost effectively! A big challenge indeed, but I feel up to it! We have too, water supplies are finite, and with the ever increasing population, the green turf grass we see everywhere, will soon be a dinosaur.

Wow, Habitat got a lot done last weekend! The majority of the first floor walls are now up, and getting ready for the second floor deck. Things are moving along fast now!

Last weekend, my family and I went camping up around Aspen. So on one of the days, I took a trip to Aspen to see what was going on, and of course, I had to drive by my Grandma’s (on my fathers side) first house she owned with her husband. A few years ago, the current owners did a major remodel and addition to the home. This isn’t unusual for Aspen, as the town is famous for tear downs and McMansions.

Anyway, I was very impressed how the owners preserved the original house, and only added onto the rear of the house. From the street, you can hardly tell they added on. I felt that this showed a lot of restraint and respect for the history of architecture. Now my grandparents only owned this house for a few short years, but my family has a long history in Aspen and Snowmass. Can you believe, that my grandparents originally bought this house in 1935 (or so) including 5 city lots, overlooking a lake, for about $2,000? Of course, in those days, lakes were viewed as dumps.

Back in 1985, I took my grandma to Aspen as part of her 50th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, my grandfather died a couple of years before. Anyway, we had the good fortune of running into the owner of the property at that time who was a retired lawyer from Chicago, who had owned the home for about 30 years. He was very happy to see us and knew who my grandma was! He showed us all around the property, and I was very fortunate to see the house. This is the same house my father was born in. On that trip, I was able to see the house where my grandma was raised, and the one she was born in! That home was vacant at the time and probably does not exist now.

The resort of Snowmass (the base village), was originally our family ranch. My grandfather was born on that ranch. Of course, the family sold it before it ever became the resort. But on that one, they preserved our original homestead and turned it into the Snowmass arts center! I was able to see the house where my grandpa was born, and the old barn. That facility is now known as the Anderson ranch. It obtained that name when my grandpa and his brother walked off the ranch one day, never to return. The ranch then went to there sister Hildur, who married a gent by the name of Bill Anderson, and the rest, they say, is history.

I have been involved with Habitat for Humanity of Fort Collins for over 10 years now. I have worked with them as a volunteer, on comittees, and several years as a board member. I have also worked with Habitat on designing several of the homes they have built. Recently I worked with them on their most ambitious project to date, a multi-family six plex being built in the Rigden Farm Neighborhood. While working with Habitat, we created a concept of four units facing a major street with two additional units above the detached garages facing the alley. This project was a challenge. We not only had to design these units to be functional with 2-4 bedrooms, but we also had to design them to meet ADA and Fair Housing guidelines. All on a sloping site!

Anyway, I have decided I am going to document the construction of these units on this blog.

Here is a picture of framing, the week of August 28th! The exterior walls are up of the first three units.

Another picture of the framing taken from the alley. You can see the foundation of the detached garages and the carraige units.

This is a picture I took a few weeks ago showing the floor framing in process. We had to drop the floor into the foundation to meet accessibility requirements.

And finally, here is a picture of the foundation walls being framed and poured.

Today, my family and myself traveled to Denver to DIA to pick up my mother-in-law. Generally, I like DIA. I think it is a gorgeous and functional airport, at least as far as airports go. Today though, I started thinking about ways that DIA can become more sustainable…especially in light of the recent Greenprint Denver that Mayor Hickenlooper recently outlined. I do have some ideas, and here they are!

First, for the life of me, I can’t figure out why they didn’t build light rail out to DIA when they built the place. It just seems to me, that would have been a smart thing to do, and would have saved many miles of travel by car. I do know, that the idea was floated originally, but light rail met a political roadblock, which is why it ends in five points today. Don’t get me wrong, I think five points is a great neighborhood, but ending the light rail line there, rather than continuing it on to Stapleton and DIA was a fifty year mistake. Now they are looking at building a train line to DIA. While that is better than nothing, I think light rail makes more sense. It is more flexible, and you can take it into neighborhoods where people live and build stations there.

Second, I would think that DIA uses a tremendous amount of electricity. With all those wide open spaces, why not put up some wind turbines? I think those would look very cool on the drive up to the terminal, right before the DIA sign? I also know, there are plenty of other places they can be put that are out of the flight patterns. Make it a part of the landscape, and put them up front where people can see them! The second option would be to install Photoveltic systems!

Third, where the old toll collectors where, there is still an awful lot of pavement where all the lanes used to be. Rip all this up, save some solar heat gain, and also provide less stormwater runoff!

Fourth and final, at least for now, Are the parking lots and general landscaping. I think it is a shame, that when DIA went over budget, landscaping was the first thing to go. Since then, they have installed some, but overall, the landscaping leaves much to be desired. This is supposed to be a world class facility, so it should look like one on the outside, as well as the inside! I do appreciate how they have designed the landscaping to work with the ecosystem, and it is very sustainable and xeric, but there could be more of it. There also needs to be more shade, particulalry in the outlying lots! And more shade where people walk to and from those lots. I have had to make plenty of flights where I was running late, had to park in the hinterlands, and then make a beeline to the terminal. And was it hot! There needs to be some shade, whether it be from trees, or some other kind of structure.

Anyway, those are my ideas for now, any others?