by John W. Olson | Dec 9, 2017 | Streetscapes, Town Planning, Urban Interventions, Urban Planning and Design, Urbanism
A few years ago, my good friend Nick Kittle asked for what he called a “list of ten”. For some background, Nick was the Public Works Director at the time, and I often challenged him on what could be done in Colorado Springs. The “list of ten”,...
by John W. Olson | May 20, 2012 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Town Planning, Urbanism
A topic very close to my personal and professional interests is the idea of walkability. This phrase is used often, perhaps too often? But what does walkability really mean? Is it something that we can really define? Probably not. Present party included, geographers,...
by John W. Olson | Oct 31, 2011 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Town Planning, Urban Planning and Design, Urbanism
Today is Halloween, which means that the evening streets are going to be full of little princesses, vampires, witches, ghosts, action heroes and pirates with dreams of candy and gum. As I reflect back on my former days of trick-or-treating, there were characteristics...
by John W. Olson | Aug 22, 2011 | Comprehensive Planning and Codes, Streetscapes, Town Planning, Urban Planning and Design, Urbanism
Based upon the suggestion of a Colorado Springs friend, I visited a relatively new neighborhood commercial center south of the Castle Pines Golf Course, or northwest of Castle Rock. The neighborhood center, Village at Castle Pines, appeared to be a conventional retail...
by John W. Olson | Dec 1, 2010 | Town Planning, Urban Planning and Design, Urbanism
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I wrote a blog about Photoshop’s Content Aware tool. Today, I decided to write about another application of the tool. The top image on the right is an aerial view of the Shooks Run Neighborhood east of downtown Colorado Springs. ...
