by John W. Olson | Jan 31, 2011 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Town Planning, Urban Planning and Design, Urban Renewal
The evolution of the big box has become a fairly predictable life cycle for most cities across the country. Larger cities and their respective suburban communities were the first to realize that the expected life of the big box was short-lived. Wal-Mart appears to be...
by John W. Olson | Jan 24, 2011 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Town Planning, Urban Planning and Design, Urban Renewal, Urbanism
Block patterns on aerial photographs can be quite telling in the evolution of cities. The image below can even appear as a timeline for Colorado Springs in the way that it has developed. The image below is of Platte Avenue in Colorado Springs, downtown Colorado...
by John W. Olson | Jan 16, 2011 | Landscape Architecture, Streetscapes, Sustainability
Parking lots are a primary contributor to stormwater runoff in our cities due to their scale and impervious character. Parking lots, unless they are low-frequency use parking lots, must have a certain level of imperviousness to them for the functional aspect of...
by John W. Olson | Jan 13, 2011 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Landscape Architecture, Urban Planning and Design
This past recession has shown us, as a country, that perhaps we were too optimistic in terms of our liberal practices of commercial zoning. Commercial property has been zoned at nearly every major intersection in our cities which generally extends outward into our...
by John W. Olson | Jan 10, 2011 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Town Planning, Urbanism
In my experience, I have noticed a direct relationship between how complicated a problem is and the results that come from working with the more complicated issues. This is particularly true when the complication is not man-made. In my previous years as an employee...