It just occurred to me, that I have never shown the final product for the Rigden Farm townhomes. To the left are several pictures taken at the dedication last spring. The landscape was not finished yet, but the units were a hit with everyone in attendance. The carriage units also sold fairly quickly. Next spring or summer I will take pictures of the final product with the landscaping all green!
Some of you know that my business partner and myself have trying to find a piece of property to develop for the past year. We took a run at a great piece of property earlier this spring that would have been a very ambitious project. Ultimately we didn’t get the property, which was probably a good thing. Shortly afterwards, we found a great 5 acre piece of ground in North Fort Collins. It is located within the northwest subarea plan of both the county and the City of Fort Collins.
By zoning, we can only get 9-10 units on this property, including the existing home. I am excited about this project as it will allow us to do some experimentation with a development style this town has not yet seen. We also want to be as green as possible with this development, while still being fiscally responsible. Some of our ideas are a community wide geothermal system, or photoveltic system. We shall see. I will keep the readers abreast of the process as well as some of our ideas.
On November 15th, I was the proud recepient of the first every Urban Design award given out by the City of Fort Collins. We recieved the award for the Harvest Project that we designed a few years back, and which recently completed construction. The city gave out a total of 12 awards in 6 categories. The Harvest project was the only award given to a single family detached community, that was a greenfield development. It was an honor to recieve such an award.
Harvest was designed based on new urbanism principles. There are over 500 homes in the 105 acre community, with a mix of single family and townhomes. Within that is a broad mix of product types that where interwoven together. There were 4 single family product lines, with a variety of lot size needs. All these lot sizes where woven together within blocks to create a dynamic mix of homes and home prices. Also mixed in, where two townhome products. Again, these where interspersed throughout the community. Also included where 
4 small pocket parks, a community recreation center that occupies an entire city block. This site is also surrounded by a public park, and a city natural area. The community was designed to be walkable with detached walks, street trees, and 95% of the garages are accessed by alleys. My client, Writer Homes (subsequently purchased by Standard Pacific Homes) designed an entirely new product line for this community. In addition, they used a variety of color schemes, to really create a vibrant streetscape. This is indeed a neighborhood and community to be proud of.
Last month, ASLA’s blog, The Dirt, posted a ditty on Back Alley Walkability. I posted a comment that I would write about what Fort Collins has done recently to create walkable alleys, so here it is!
Like Architect David Winslow, Fort Collins downtown alleys are also widely used by pedestrians. In 2004 The City of Fort Collins, in conjunction with the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) embarked on a plan to improve two of the alleys that had been widely used by pedestrians for years as mid-block shortcuts. One of the alleys, Trimble Court, (pictured to the left) was a mid-block shortcut between the main drag of College Avenue and Old Town Square, a pedestrian mall. This alley already had a well established artists studio on it. The other alley, Tenney Court, became a widely used pedestrian shortcut after the construction of the Civic Center Parking Structure.
Both alleys had numerous trash dumpsters, utility boxes, poor lighting, and were generally unattractive. The goals of the city and the DDA was to consolidate trash dumpsters, screen and/or relocate utility boxes, vastly improve lighting and other pedestrian amenities such as providing benches, planters, new paving, and the improve the drainage and more.
As can be seen in the photos, all this has been achieved and more. The picture shown to the left, Tenney Alley, was in terrible shape prior to redevelopment. There were numerous trash dumpsters, graffitti, and a severely sloping pavement to accomodate the drainage. This carried through all the way to the public street. Prior to the year 2000, this alley was mostly a service alley. However, in 2000, the civic center parking structure was completed within this block, and therefor this alley became a pedestrian shortcut between the parking garage and the downtown shopping district. This parking garage also has liner stores and offices (of which our office is located), so a lot of employees also used this alley.
The major issue that was solved with this alley reconstruction, was the drainage. They installed a new drain line, leveled off the alley, and installed new modular pavers that really give the alley life. In addition, new light fixtures and planters were added. The light fixtures dramatically improved the nighttime safety of the alley, while the planters 
add a lot of summer color.However something else happened after this alley was completed that the DDA hoped would happen…a local businees owner reconstructed the alley facade of there building to create an inviting entrance off Tenney Court. Hopefully this will be the first of many revitalizations of Fort Collins Alleys. Another fun aspect of this particular alley, through the art in public places program, the utility boxes were turned into public art! A local artist has been painstakintly painting these boxes with a bubble motif…Note, that she is doing this by hand!
Both of these alleys recently won an urban design award from the City of Fort Collins, issued to the designers, EDAW and BHA designs.
Good News, the straw bale home that I blogged about last month has now broken ground! Course at the moment, it is literally a hole in the ground, I am anxious to see how they will build this home, the structural considerations, etc. Especially since this will be a 3 story home.
More to come!!!
