Bike to Work week

My friend Amy and I have been having a friendly discussion going about commuters who ride there bike. Currently, she is carless, lives in Boulder, and works from home, so she has an advantage. Myself, my commute is not that long by most people, about 5 miles each way. However, with my job I do end up driving quite a bit to meetings and such. For the past few years, I have riden my bike to work probably a dozen times or so over the course of the summer. A week ago, I finally broke down and bought a new bike. I wanted something that was an around town bike, but I do traverse hills. I ended up getting a Giant Cypress bike that is a combination cruiser style bike and mountain bike. It is great because you ride upright, and it has 21 gears for hill climbing. My challenge from Amy is to keep track of how many times I commute on my bike. For the week of June 18th I rode to work 1 time. This is bike to work week, so I will shoot for more times! For the record though, so far this season I have bike commuted about a dozen times already.

Fuglies June 2007

I found this "lovely" home in a new community today...and I couldn't believe it! What builder, in there right mind, would build a home where the street front was all garage door and driveway! Could you imagine coming home to this...with this being the first thing you saw? What amazes me even more...this home is already sold! It must be spetacular inside! Nahhh...

Spring Break 2007 Part 7

Friday started out pretty warm, but again I didn’t get started until about 9. Mom, Lalie and the kids decided to go shopping for Hannah’s birthday, which left me to my own devices for awhile. Today was strictly assembly day. The next fence section had to have rails cut to length for it, but I decided to skip that one for now, as it provided convenient access. So I worked on a few other sections. Finally, it came to the point where I had to re-dig a post hole, moving it a couple of feet. I also worked on removing one of the existing posts. After that was done, I had no choice, but to start cutting rails I worked on that for a bit, then headed off to Lowe’s, partly for a break, and partly to get more bags of concrete. I got back around 2, and finished cutting the rails that I had to cut. After that, assembly went pretty quick. I wrapped up the garden area about 4. Since we still had supplies and posts, I worked on a few sections along the driveway, leaving out the sections right around the gates. We are going to have one of the fence companies build and install the gates for us. I wrapped this up about 6:30, and was very tired and sore. I also had to get ready for company coming over for an early birthday party for Hannah.

Saturday was scheduled for some mopping up, attaching the wire to the fence, and then heading home. All in all, it was a fun trip, with a lot of hard work. My muscles are sore!

Spring Break 2007 Part 6

Thursday started out a little chilly from the mini-storm that went through the night before, so I didn’t get started until around 9 a.m. I decided to just start drilling post holes and get as many done as we could before we had to return the machine. Of course this wasn’t all that easy, since I had to work around the grape vines and other obstacles. Lalie and Mom worked hard at tearing out as much of the existing fence as they could. The digging was surprisingly easy, hitting mostly sand. I was expecting a lot more in the way of rocks. The hardest part was actually getting the post digger into position which for being a one man post hole digger, it wasn’t all that maneuverable. All in all, it went faster than I was expecting. We stopped for lunch around 1:30. I only had to do a couple more holes around the garden, which was my goal to get finished. But since we still had time on the meter, I dug as many I could along the side of the back driveway. Finally at about 3, I was finished. We hitched it back up to the car, and returned it. Of course we were all pretty sore and tired by then. Mom and I picked up some KFC for dinner. After we got back, I worked on assembling the first few sections of fence, and cementing in the first posts.

Spring Break 2007 Part 5

The day started out a little cooler, with a bit of an overcast sky. This was our last morning at the condo. Mid morning, the kids and I went to a bakery downtown for some coffee and breakfast, and I could get some decent internet. Nice relaxing morning. Afterwards, we rode the bike trail again to the park, letting Ben play for a bit. Finally, we returned, and dropped off the bike trailer at the rental shop, before heading back to the condo. We packed up, and left around 1 pm. We came back the same way we went, stopping at the Castle Creek Winery to pick up some pretty good wine. We arrived back in Grand Junction around 3 pm. On the way back, we listened to another tape of our Desperation book. It is getting weirder and weirder.

After we got back to moms, we unloaded the Durango, then mom and I headed out to get supplies. First we went to Lowe’s to pick up some concrete and other misc. stuff. Then we headed to the opposite side of town to pick up the post hole digger. Finally we went back to Lowe’s to pick up the wire mesh for the fence that we forgot the first time around. We finally got back around 4:30, and we set to work. By 7:30, we had torn out the first section of fence, and had drilled the first 4 holes. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the digging was. I figured we would be hitting all kinds of rocks remembering the days I helped landscape this yard in the first place.

I was a little sore in the evening, having used my arm muscles that I haven’t really had to use for awhile. Lalie cooked a wonderful stir fry for us, and then we played Farkel. Finally, we passed out, and I actually slept through the night! The first time in several days.

Spring Break 2007 Part 4

Today started off as another gorgeous day. I didn’t sleep that well during the night, little Ben came in the middle of the night and pretty much snored away…or it could have been the Tequila keeping me up. Lalie, Robert, and his boys went for there hike at the Fiery Fireplace, leaving about 9, and not planning to be back till around 2. The kids and I hung around the condo for awhile, with me finding one of the internet spots and going through all my email. Finally we decided to go into town for some bike riding. Hannah fixed us a picnic lunch. Of course, I decided to tour around, and skipped taking the highway into town, electing for the back roads.

On this back road, we found a small park, and stopped there for a bit so the kids could play. It was pretty cool, and had a music park where there were some drum type things, and lots of bells the kids could bang on. They had a blast! After this we went downtown, and found a place to rent a bike trailer for Ben, then we hopped on the river trail, and followed it till we got back to the park. Ben played again, and then we all had our picnic lunch. Afterwards we found that the park was actually the end of the trail, and then we headed back. We found a little ice cream store that makes there own, and I even broke down and had an ice cream. We met up with Lalie and the gang there, before heading back to the condo. At the condo, I went for another bike ride up the road from the condo till I hit the end. It wasn’t all that long, maybe ½ mile, but the climb, OMG. Went up about 1,000 feet. There was a 4 wheel drive trail/ bike trail at the end, but it was too sandy to go far.

Later, Lalie and I went for a drive. We wound up getting on some road that took us up to the LaSalle Mountains in short order. Very pretty and still snow up there. When we got back, Robert and the kids were repelling down the rocks behind the condo. Hannah had a blast with that.

For dinner we all went to a little Mexican restaurant in town. Of course, I had another marg. The food was good; I ventured out some and had a steak fajita. Not much excitement for the evening, other than I got back into the hot tub after everyone went to bed so I could soothe my muscles.

Spring Break 2007 Part 3

The wireless internet we are supposed to have at this place is really sporadic. There are only 3 good places we can get wireless, in the upstairs front bedroom – by the window, in the upstairs bathroom, or on the front porch – but only if there are no cars in the driveway!

Today we started off kind of slow, not getting out of the house till about 11:30 am. But before that, Hannah and I went for a bike ride around the surrounding neighborhoods. That felt good, but I can tell I have lost some conditioning over the winter. Our first stop (and only one of the day) was the Arches National Park. I have only been there in my early days, and don’t remember it worth squat. First we stopped at the visitor center so we could register for one of the hikes to the Fiery Fireplace area. The only available hikes were for the next morning, and not recommended for kids under 5. I elect to stay with Ben and Hannah, so that we could go on a bike ride.

After this, we went into the park, which is an immediate 1,000, some odd foot vertical climb. This part itself was breathtaking, and then we motored through the park for a bit before our first stop. The scenery was amazing, and I was able to get several good photographs while cruising along, including some arches in the distance, and some in the formation stages. Our first stop was at the balanced rock. This in itself was gorgeous, with the rock formations, and the vegetation. Ben and Hannah were quite the troopers just hiking along and enjoying the scenery. After this, we went on a 4-wheel drive road back to a remote arch that we had to hike and climb to for a bit. This was about a 2 mile round trip hike and little Ben made it the entire way, climbing up rocks and everything. We stopped here for our picnic lunch. After this, we went to the Delicate Arch overlook, with another 1.5 mile hike, that also climbed quite a bit. Some more spectacular scenery, with Ben and Hannah making it the entire way!

Finally, we went to the end of the road, and hiked to the Landscape Arch, which is the world’s longest arch. This was the longest of the hikes at a little over 2 miles, with quite a bit of vertical change. The coolest part was at the beginning where the trail went between two huge vertical slabs of rock, each rising several hundred feet. Ben was getting tired by this point, so we started him out in the stroller, but he still walked over half the distance. Of course, wherever there was sand, he stopped to play in the dirt. The Landscape Arch itself was spectacular, gracefully arching through the sky. At its narrowest point, it is only about 6 feet thick. They used to let people under it, and to climb on it, but about 10 years ago, several tons of rock sheared off the bottom of the arch (which happened to be photographed by someone from Fort Collins). Since then they have had it closed off, in case more falls off, or the entire arch collapses. After this, we were pretty tired, so we came back to the condo and chilled out for a bit. We had Pizza for dinner.

In the later evening, Lalie, Robert, and I hung out in the hot tub, drinking margaritas and tequila shots, and just staring at the starts. Here in the dark night desert sky, the stars are absolutely amazing…billions of them. How I wish you could have been there to see those. The hot tub was so relaxing, at around 100 degrees. Finally, we all went to bed to get ready for the next day.

Spring Break 2007 Part 2

The day started off beautiful! Sun is out, and it is nice and warm. Robert and his boys planned to meet us around noon or so, for the trip to Moab. During the morning, we spent some time outside. Ben played with mom in the garden dirt with his tractor and dump truck. I worked on measuring out the fence, and trying to figure out how to build it. The hardest part will be in the garden area, working around the grapevines, garden steps, irrigation lines etc. That will be phase 1. The second phase will be around the rest of the yard, which will be pretty easy.

The view from mom’s yard is always gorgeous. She looks at the Colorado Monument, which is always gorgeous.

Robert was a little late, calling us at 12:30 to say he had entered the valley. We then left mom’s to meet up with Robert at the McDonalds in Fruita. We also stopped at the car wash so we could both wash our cars and bikes. Everything got a little dirty in all the snow the day before. We finally got on the road around 2 pm. Instead of taking the direct route, we decided to take route 128, which follows the Colorado River, and is the scenic route. Scenic hardly described it! It was absolutely gorgeous! All the red cliffs were amazing. Not unlike the Glenwood Canyon, but the reds in the rocks were out of this world.

We arrived in Moab around 4, and went straight to the condo. The condo itself is very nice, set into red rocks, to create a very private condo. There is a hot tub just off the master bedroom, which is sure to get some good use. From the condo, we can see red rock cliffs that line the valley, with the snow covered LaSalle Peaks in the background.

For dinner we went to the Moab Brewpub. Service was slow, but the beers and food were very good. I had a Chili Verde Pork Burrito. A little spicy, but very good. Puts the Green Chile Burrito to shame. The rest of the evening was uneventful, where we looked forward to touring the next day.

Spring Break 2007 Part 1

We left the house 1t 9:55 am, 5 min ahead of schedule, a minor miracle for us. We had to make a few stops on the way out of town, the bank – with donuts for the kids, and a coffee shop to get Lalie and me a skinny Latte. So it was about 10:30 before we actually got on the highway.

The trip itself was pretty uneventful. The kids either listened to Hannah’s I pod, or watched a movie on the DVD player. After we got into the mountains, and were out of radio range, Lalie and I listened to a book on tape. This particular one was title Desparation by Stephen King. We got through the first two tapes before we hit Grand Junction. So far, it is about several people who are traveling through the middle of Nowhere in Nevada, and get pulled over by a psycho cop. So far, he has killed two people, but jailed the rest. The cop also seems to have control of the Coyotes, and the Buzzards, calling them at will.

The weather was cloudy, but fairly warm when we left Fort Collins, in the upper 40’s. It stayed that way until we were going up Eisenhower pass, where it began to snow but not heavy enough to cause any major issues. Pretty much the same going up the eastern side of Vail pass, but coming down the western side was a different story. It became blizzard like in a few locations, and I was really thankful we decided to not bring the trailer…for the likelihood of hitting snow in the passes. The uphill side was in worse shape with several jackknifed semis. We found out later that they actually closed the highway shortly thereafter, so we made it through in the nick of time.

We stopped for lunch at the Wendy’s in Edwards, which is pretty much the halfway point. From there, we made it through to GJ with few problems, other than some rain. Once we got there, we sat on the back porch with mom drinking Ice Tea. The weather was partly cloudy, and eventually rained. Mom made a delicious Pork Roast for dinner. Afterwards, we took the kids to Cold Stone for Ice Cream.

All in all a pretty good trip. We did the whole thing in about 5 hours, with only 1 stop. Pretty amazing for us.

Spring has Sprung!

It seems like a short time between winter and spring this year. Not much more than a week ago we were still having frigid temperatures. The last of the snow finally melted in our yard this week, with most of it gone a week ago.

Now this week, we have tulip bulbs coming up, and crocuses too! Won't be long before I am at it, cutting everything down and getting the yard ready for another showcase summer. Hopefully we will be on more of a normal moisture cycle this year. The past seven years we have been in this house have certainly been eratic from a weather and moisture standpoint. Not much to build or landscape in the garden this year, which is good, cuase this spring we are painting the exterior of the house. That will be a project.

I am also looking for large 20 inch or so hanging baskets for our porch. If anyone knows were to get some, please let me know!

My Current Thoughts and Musings

It has been awhile since I blogged. I apologize to everyone, but to be honest I havn't really been inspired for awhile, or perhaps I just had a serious case of writers block.

This has been a strange winter around here. The last postings I did were of our pre-Christmas blizzard. Oddly enough, a week after that storm, we had another pretty big one, and it seems a weekly storm of some sort. And it has been VERY COLD this winter! Usually we get an arctic blast for a week or so in the winter, then it is over. And we always have some very warm days during the winter when we can get out and enjoy life, go for a walk, play a round of golf, ride bikes, or even clean up the yard a little bit.

Not this year...we are in week 7 of cold snowy weather. The snow from the blizzard is STILL on the ground! and we have hardly had any days above 40, with most of them in the 20's and 30's, or colder. I am getting cabin fever big time. I have a burning desire to build something, but it is way too cold in the garage to fire up the woodshop. Even though the garage is fully insulated, it would cost a fortune to crank up the space heaters to get the temperature into the mid 40's so I could work without gloves. Fortunately, I did figure out how to completely drain the trailer this year, so hopefully no broken pipes this time! I need a break from this weather...Calgon take me away!

On the bright side, business has picked up dramatically in the last couple of weeks! If this keeps up, it looks like this will be a good year, and my inspiration is starting to make a comeback!

Jan. Fugglies

OK, so I am a couple of days late posting, but I found this one in January! This wonderful project is a perfect example of what not to do for project planning and streetscape design! This particular apartment project is in Castle Rock, Colorado, next door to one of my projects. They both were designed and approved roughly at the same time, but what a difference in concepts and execution!

The apartment home site was originally a beautifully sloping site vegetated with scrub oak and other native plants. The developers of the apartment homes probably had a standard building plan they wanted to use (usually on flat sites), so in order to get that product to work on this site, they had to construct some incredible retaining walls to pull this off. The picture shows the result of what happened along the public street adjacent to the site. Not only are the walls incredibly tall (around 40 feet at one point), they were designed without any anesthetics in mind. There is no variation in color, no pattern, nothing. Just a huge homogeneous wall. Then, they didn't even bother to screen it plant material, trees, or shrubs. Just a few trees scattered here and there. Ugly.

Watch for my other post of our project coming up shortly.

Christmas Blizzard 2006

Ok, so it isn't quite Christmas, but close enough. Once again, we find ourselves under a blizzard, with about 2 feet of snow dumped on us. This doesn't quite get up to the March 2003 blizzard when we had over 3 feet of snow, but with this storm, the snow will be with us for quite a while, as the cooler temperatures won't melt it very fast.

It started snowing on us early Wednesday, and by noon at work, we called it a day. I went to fetch my daughter at school, and went home. by then we had about 4-6 inches. I drive a true 4 wheel drive SUV (and right now I am glad I do!), so I didn't have any problems getting around, except for the other drivers on the road. The next morning, the snow had stopped, but the wind hadn't! There were areas that were bone dry, and other places with 3-4 foot drifts! We had to keep our cars outside in the driveway, so we wound up with some major drifts around the cars. Thank goodness for my neighbor, who has a bobcat tractor. He used it to dig out the driveways of his neighbors! Course, I had to shovel out the drifts around the cars. I am also thankful now that we live on a collector that is a designated snow route...we get plowed! The first plow came through at 10 am following the end of the storm. While it was nice to get the street plowed, it did add an additional 2 feet of snow to the end of the driveway! Once again, thank goodness for my neighbor! He did make some major piles of snow in the street, that the kids have had a good time playing on!

Other than having closed the office for a couple of days, this storm has been nice in that it has rather put me in the Christmas spirit with a few days off, shoveling snow, and the like. It is very pretty out, and we are sure to have a white Christmas this year!

Merry Christmas everyone, and have a Happy New Year!

December Fuglies

The other day I was driving down C-470 in south Denver, when my eye was caught by this housing development. I simply had to get off the interstate and explore this one...and I could not believe my eyes! This has to be one of the worst developments I have seen, particularly for townhomes! The first picture is what you see when you first drive into the development...nothing but a solid row of garage doors! There is no focal point, there is no sense of community, no sense of arrival. Nothing but a series of garage doors. The other side of the buildings isn't much better. This is what visitors see when they come to your home...nothing but lined up porches, with little to break it up, or identify one unit from the next. In the front there isn't even any differentiation in the architecture...talk about boring!

I am blown away by three things...that a developer would build something like this, that a jurisdiction would approve it...and even more surprised that buyers would buy this! Granted, this parcel of land was landlocked between two apartment complexes, and was long and narrow, but I would think that something else could have been done. Something to give this development some sense of arrival, some focal point. Sacrifice a few units to create something special. How about being proud of something that you build?

November Fugly Award!

The November fugly award goes to a particular streetscape in the Greeley area. In this streetscape, somebody decided to plop down some large boulders as landscape elements. Now we use boulders all the time, but to be properly done, they need to be partially buried to look more or less natural. Not these, they were just plopped on top of the ground! And not just in turf areas, but in the concrete areas of the splitter islands for the round-a-bout. These look hideous. Not only are they out of scale, they aren't buried properly, nor are they grouped to look some kind of setting. Nope...plop one here, one there, totally random.

Too bad, this was a nice project overall.

Consumer Sustainability

While helping to prepare some of the meal for Thanksgiving, I got out an electric hand mixer that I use a lot for small jobs. Using this hand mixer got me to thinking about a different aspect of sustainability, and that is how we have become a throw away society. These days, most of the everyday products we use are made of plastics or other similar materials, particularly the gears in the motors. These arn't good plastics either, but cheap plastic designed to keep the end product costs low. But what usually happens? These products, particularly household kitchen appliances work well for a few months, maybe even a few years, then they break. Because they are so cheap, it is easier to buy a new one and throw the old one away...contributing to our landfill waste.

What is it that got me thinking about this? The hand mixer I mentioned above, is an old mixer. I got it from my mother when I settled in my own place 20 years ago. Now having a kitchen appliance for 20 years these days is really something, but this hand mixer is older than that. I remember using it as a kid, in fact I remember this particular mixer being around as long as I can remember....so that is pushing 40 years! And it is still going strong. Now it might not be the prettiest thing, it isn't stainless steel, it isn't shiny white, but a faded yellow...and it is made of metal. But in this case, it isn't a beauty contest. It stays in the drawer and only comes out when needed, usually once a week or so.

Imagine what it would be like if common everyday items, be it kitchen appliances, toys, or whatever, where built to last. We wouldn't have to throw everything away. Sure it might be more expensive initially, but it would sure be cheaper in the long run. Imagine having to shell out $100 or so for a good hand mixer that lasted 40+ years, instead of shelling out $30 every few years? Imagine how much less stuff would be trash, how much less resources we have consumed in making and transporting those products...now that is sustainability.

Award Winner!

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.

Back Alley Walkability - Fort Collins Style

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.

Straw Bale Home - an update

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!!!

Habitat Update

I know it has been awhile since I blogged about the Habitat project, but they are moving along. Framing is complete, mechanicals are being installed inside, and the siding, doors, and windows are being installed. Now you can really start to see how the units are going to look, and how they fit into the overall community.

Meanwhile, we are busy designing the next eight units to be built across the street.