Open Trails for Twin Buttes Ecovillage

by Maggie Flickinger

In late March, the Barrett Studio master-planned Twin Buttes Ecovillage received unanimous Final Plan approval from the Durango City Council. This marks the culmination of a four year approval process, the finalization of the property’s annexation into the City, and the official dedication of 290 acres of open space from the land owners to the City and People of Durango. This open space includes much of the upper reaches of the property, including the iconic Buttes themselves. From the beginning, we knew this wasn’t development as usual. We were thrilled to partner with a land owner active in the land preservation community, a developer with a wild-west meets zen attitude who had recently fallen hard for sustainable living, and a prescient Planning Director interested in smart growth. Our hallmark process of listening to the land resulted in multiple on-site charrettes and site walks, as well as sophisticated GIS layering maps. Ultimately, the developer himself has taken up residence at the future site of the Artisan Core, directing the nascent Twin Buttes Farms and Ranch from his home.

With approvals in hand, what are the next steps for this new Durango community?

The solar gas station recently opened at the Twin Buttes Eastern Entrance on Highway 160.  Industry leading sustainability features result in 45% less energy consumption than neighboring stations, daylighting creates an inviting interior environment, the organic exterior materials palette feature wood & stone from the site, and innovative water treatment recycles 70% of the water used in car washes.  The store’s features were recently profiled in the Durango Herald.

Open Invite: Reinvent the Motor City

by Maggie Flickinger

Imagine walking down a city block in your hometown and realizing that just one in ten homes are occupied.  The others, once charming historic bungalows, are now overgrown, crumbling visages with nary a hint of their past lives as part of a vibrant community.  Repeat this pattern block after block.   Think a visit to downtown will reassure? There, a 35-story skyscraper sits entirely vacant, as it has since it was built – many of its neighbors have won a few tenants, but sit mostly empty.  City-wide, average residential vacancy is almost 30%, with many areas much more hard hit.

Abandoned homes on one block in East Detroit, published by Mother Jones in November 2010.

TEDx Boulder: Conscious Growth

by Maggie Flickinger

It’s here!  My talk for August’s TEDx Boulder has been posted on YouTube. This is definitely the most concise version of our thoughts on land development with values – we generally give hour long presentations on this topic, similar to the Ecovillages talk Amy & I will be giving at this weekend’s Bioneers conference in Boulder. So, grab a few bites of popcorn, enjoy the show, and let me know what you think of the distilled challenge we present!

TEDx Boulder: Buy a Home with Values

by Maggie Flickinger

It was a whirlwind week for me, speaking in front of 1300+ people (gulp!) at the Chautauqua Fieldhouse in Boulder for the inaugural TEDx Boulder event last Saturday, August 7th.  I had six-minutes to cover the topic “Conscious Growth: Land Development with Values.”  Using Barrett Studio’s project Twin Buttes as a case study, I discussed a synergistic model for land development founded on listening to nature and to the nature of people.  TED talks are often known for the takeaway, or challenge.  Having worked on this talk for weeks, imagine my delight two days prior to see a New York Times blog post on just my challenge: essentially, view a home through the lens of your values, rather than perceived “market value.”

Essentially, I posit that since we live in a capitalistic society, and homes enjoy a 100% market segment (virtually unheard of), we should take the reigns as empowered consumers and affect change in product availability.  It seems simplistic, but I firmly believe in the power of an annual consumer base of over 5 million people (# of existing & new home sales in US from US Census & National Association of Realtors) supporting a multi-trillion dollar industry.  As I noted at TEDx, housing will be the largest expense of your life…so live your values, make it count!

Photos by Ryan Behner, Peggy Dyer; Video coming soon!

Gentrification = Demolition?

by Maggie Flickinger

Here in Denver, as in any built environment, we have a slow churning of development (despite the recent downturn) exemplified by historic neighborhoods passing through the throes of gentrification.  Lincoln Park loses historic worker’s housing to make way for ticky tacky, Colfax waves goodbye to a taqueria and hello to a gastropub.  The merits and detractions of gentrification (euphemism: revitalization) a varied and often the viewpoint depends on the socioeconomic “status” of those sharing their perspective.

By and large, however, gentrification is a process controlled by the willingness of a neighborhood’s current owners to sell, move, leave, and generally make way for new development.  If a block digs in its heels and no “for-sale” signs go up, the neighborhood remains the same.  Our municipalities rarely enact eminent domain statutes and when they do, they’re regularly controlled by public process requirements.

Not so in China.  A few years ago, stories of large-scale razing of traditional and historic neighborhoods in China surfaced, and pictures such as this depicting a holdout in a neighborhood following eminent domain “reform” laws (circa late 2007, later demolished) popularly illustrated the plight:

More currently, I stumbled on a blog today with a series of incredible rollover images using Google Earth to capture the large scale of this demolition.