|
|
 |
| |
 Great Streets/Great Skyline: Creating a
Shared Vision for a More Livable Colorado Springs
With
a growing population of half a million, Colorado Springs is an
attractive place for national businesses to locate and developers to
invest. The downtown area is continually approached with
proposals for development, and the community is alive with discussions
about how the city can change to meet its business, cultural and civic
needs.
To encourage such discussion, and to inform the public about the value
of good design, AIA
Colorado South is working with the City Planning
Department and the Colorado Springs Downtown Partnership to envision
the future of Downtown’s streetscapes, civic places and built
urban environment.
Three major high-rise building proposals suggest that, in the future,
Pike’s Peak may no longer be the only towering symbol of
Colorado
Springs. As proposals enter the approval process, citizens
and
city officials are faced with new types of decisions while relying on
an outdated set of guidelines – a downtown zoning code that
does
not adequately address the effects of these new proposed developments.
AIA
Colorado South is helping explore the issues presented by
tall
buildings, including:
- street classifications within
Downtown
- pedestrian and vehicle interactions
- the character of each street
- building massing
- setbacks and relationships of
buildings to public spaces
- view corridors
- shadow zones
- the merging of new designs within
the context of existing historic buildings
 Understanding
the implications of high-rise and other development
within Downtown is a challenge for both City staff and Colorado
Springs’ citizens. To help visualize what a new and
changing cityscape would look like and its effect on urban
surroundings, AIA
Colorado South has developed a 3-D model of Colorado
Springs. The tool is available at
www.GreatStreetsGreatSkyline.org, for use by developers, design
entities, and City agencies as a basis for planning, zoning, and design
studies for future development.
The 3-D model has already been put to use in a community workshop
convened by AIA
South Colorado to examine the effects of private
development on the public realm. The workshop included large
cross-sections of local citizens, the City Planning Department and the
Downtown Partnership, and used the 3-D model as a base map for
reference. Their findings are serving as the basis for
revisions
to the downtown zoning code.
The results of the workshop have been presented to the public through
news media, at the Mayor’s Annual Business Breakfast, through
City Council, and at other public events.
In addition to revising the zoning code to include issues of form as
well as use, the City created a Downtown Redevelopment
Authority.
An architect serves on that Board to help ensure the consideration of
good architectural design in Downtown development.
View
all Blueprint Initiatives |
|
| |
|
| |
|
)
)
