The Civic Center in Denver, at the intersection of Colfax and Broadway, is the beating heart of Colorado, stretching from the Colorado Capitol to Denver City Hall. The statue on the west steps of the Capitol Building is a Civil War cavalryman, dismounted with rifle in hand, in Memorial of the Colorado soldiers who fought […]
Modernism Overlooking Tradition
Pagosa Springs, Colorado, is a tourist town, and we want to encourage our visitors to stop downtown and admire the scenery…and our shops. Pagosa Springs also has a rich heritage and tradition as a Western, Mountain town, far from fancy modern steel and glass stylish architecture. The Town this last year dropped a pretty penny […]
2015 In Review
2015 was 150 years from the end of the Civil War, and 1 more year that I changed jobs and moved, this time back to the Centennial State of Colorado. I started out continuing the daily journal of my ancestor Pvt. Orrin Brown, then relaxing my publishing schedule and finishing with some pretty good Americana music. […]
Diary of Orrin Brown—April 9, 1865
Diary of Orrin Brown, New Bern, North Carolina Sunday–Apr. 9th We reced. orders last night to be ready to march at an early hour monday morning. There was a quite a display of fireworks last night in the line of skyrockets, fire balls, and firing of musketry with an occasional shot from the Artilery, as […]
Diary of Orrin Brown—Feb 19, 1865
Diary of Orrin Brown, at High Point Plantation (Thompson’s House), Fairfield County, South Carolina Sunday–Feb. 19th We were on the road at 6 Am crossed the river and marched 5 or 6 miles and haulted an hour for dinner and when the hour was about up we received orders to prepair our camp for the […]
Diary of Orrin Brown—Feb 15, 1865
Diary of Orrin Brown, outside Lexington, South Carolina Wednesday–Feb. 15th We were on the road about 8 AM marched back about 2 miles for we were on the wrong road we then turned to the right, our camp last night was within 18 miles of Columbia but we are leaving that place on our right […]
Diary of Orrin Brown—Nov 12, 1864
Diary of Orrin Brown, Atlanta, Georgia Saturday–Nov. 12th Got up this morning and found it verry cool but by the time the sun has been up a half a hour it is comfortable. There was another building burned in the City this morning. Went down to the City and went all through two large hortells, […]
Diary of Orrin Brown—Oct 15, 1864
Diary of Orrin Brown, Indianapolis, Indiana Saturday–Oct. 15th Got up this morning and found it cloudy and a little cooler, we were arroused about 3AM on account of the desertion of 3 or 4 Bounty jumpers or Subs. from Canada cut a board off and crawled out under the fence we layed around and stood […]
The Best of the New? Or the Worst of Both Worlds? A Walk in a Hybrid Power Center
New Urbanism and neotraditional planning offers to bring the best of traditional town planning to new development. I generally like the idea, in large part because the “new” that I’ve lived out in the suburban sprawl hasn’t stood up well. Yet living in smaller communities that haven’t tried the idea, I can’t say how well […]
Bring Your Small Town Some First Class Design with CIRD RFP
The Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD) is a fascinating partnership of the USDA, Project for Public Spaces, and Orton Family Foundation, working to provide small towns and rural communities (population <50,000) with support on design, planning and creative placemaking. Their competitive technical assistance program is a great opportunity to bring first class design ideas […]