Colorado’s new-urbanist record detailed in book

An old joke says that a camel is a horse assembled by a committee. But a committee of eight Colorado architects and designers somehow managed to get a horse, not a camel, out of the gate just in time for the 17th annual convention of the Congress for the New Urbanism June 10 through 14 in Denver.

“Colorado Urbanizing: Experiencing New Urbanism” is a fascinating, 130-page tour through almost 100 real estate projects. Many of them embrace the tenets of the movement best-known for residential developments that get people together on front porches and hide their cars in back alleys.

But the projects that get the most ink in this book are more than just cute neighborhoods. They are centers of culture, commerce and entertainment that transcend housing developments branded as “new-urbanist.”

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In fact, some of the highlighted projects have no living space at all. The authors saw fit to include the Trimble and Tenney alley redevelopment projects in downtown Fort Collins, along with the mixed-use Mason Street North, Penny Flats and Old Town Lofts developments.

Real estate broker/developer Mickey Willis, who served on a Fort Collins advisory committee that helped update the comprehensive development framework called City Plan, writes a two-page summary of the city’s recent downtown planning history.

The book is also punctuated with thumbnail profiles of “Key Urbanists,” including Denver mayor John Hickenlooper and redevelopment pioneer Marilee Utter, whose consulting firm was instrumental in projects that transformed that city’s lower downtown.

Lavishly illustrated with architectural renderings and photos, the book defines new urbanism in a way that makes sense.

“Colorado Urbanizing,” published by the Colorado chapter of the Congress for New Urbanism and priced at $40, is available at most metro Denver bookstores or by contacting committee member Korkut Onaran, principal at Wolff Lyon Architects in Boulder, by mail at 777 Pearl St., Suite 210, Boulder, CO 80302, e-mail at korkut@wlarch.com or by phone at 303-447-2786.

– Tom Hacker