It’s Not a Tiny House Podcast Opportunity

by Lester Limón Uncategorized

I was recently given the opportunity to join two colleagues for a conversation on their podcast “It’s Not a Tiny House.” Barna Kasa and Wyatt Reed are two outstanding individuals that are working their way through the sometimes mire-some web that is planning and zoning while trying to achieve a solution to cost-conscious housing in Florence, Colorado. This was such fun that I have joined them for other conversations that I’ll post in the coming weeks! Thank you Wyatt and Barna.

Architect Lester Limon Schools Us on Planning and Zoning, Part 1 - Episode 9

https://www.notatinyhousepodcast.com/architect-lester-limon-schools-us-on-planning-and-zoning-part-1

Finding the Wind at Your Back

Finding the Wind at Your Back

by Lester Limón Cultural Capital Human Capital Natural Capital Social Capital Uncategorized

In bicycle racing, the rule is conservation of energy, You spend your time looking for wind shadows among the peloton while your strategy, whether team or individual, plays out along the miles of road ahead and underneath.

I have spent most of my time playing both the role of windbreaker and sufferer. Making large holes in the wind where teammates could plan their win is both frustrating and noble for me. I like the idea that I’m strong enough and fit enough to pull an armada of carbon technology behind me for miles. I also like the notion that suffering was my job, and I played the role selflessly for the betterment of the team. I don’t know what that says about me specifically, but I’m sure there’re others who feel similarly. We enjoy the work and we do it for little recognition. We like being appreciated, and certainly we like winning! But the work is the focus. However, race day is a single event.

Training for race day takes weeks of physical and mental preparation on roads lonely and alone, devoid of the camaraderie of the peloton. Pros train together in temperate climates in exotic locations, and are supported by mechanics, nutritionists, and managers. Privateers have only their tool bags and the myriad bars and gels they carry in jersey pockets.

Training using miles of endless tarmac and gravel give you the opportunity to hone what you love about the suffering and perseverance. It also gives you the opportunity to read the landscape surrounding you, building the encyclopedia of knowledge of the wind; how it gusts and where you can both hide from it and use it to your advantage.

The best time spent in the cockpit of a bicycle is that sweet spot where your speed matches the wind at your back. You suddenly hear the world around you. The click of the shifter and the subtle shift of the derailleur, the soothing rhythmic rotation of pedals, cranks, and shoes. All the mechanization that happens on every ride is suddenly part of your senses. You suddenly hear the sound of rubber tires on pavement or the crunching of gravel beneath mountain bike tires. Listening to the world around you is truly bliss. It is the closet thing to weightlessness I can imagine on Earth.

Finding that sweet spot in daily life is a quest we all pursue. When do you find those moments? Do you recognize them when they appear? And do you enjoy and take advantage of the moment?

Strategic planning will win races, both in business and life. Training and hard effort will prepare us for the work it takes to be successful, whether we win individually or as a team member. But enjoying those moments that are solely experiential are the cream of life. Skim it off every chance you get.

The Eisenhower Memorial and the planning process

by Lester Limón Built Capital Natural Capital Political Capital Uncategorized

Reading the article “Gehry’s Changes to the Eisenhower Memorial Meet  with Further Resistance” from Architect Magazine written by Witold Rybczynski concerning the seemingly constant redesign of the Eisenhower Memorial in the District of Columbia, I was struck to two things.  First, to defend the Kansas landscape, a critical  remark attributed to no one, stated that the landscape  depicted on the 440 foot long tapestry panels could be Kazakhstan as well as Kansas (calling to mind the state Eisenhower was born in). Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Cal), an ex-officio member of the National Capital Planning Commission, the organization currently reviewing the project, stated that he’s “been in Kazakhstan, and he’s right.” Let me please be the first to remind everyone Kansas, as well as Kazakhstan, are both home to tallgrass prairie landscapes, which are unique biomes and are rare in the world. In fact, the rarity is so unique that the National Park Service commissioned the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve (nps.gov, for more information) in Chase County, Kansas just 75 miles from Gen. Eisenhower’s birthplace in Abilene, Kansas. Kazakhstan lies in the Central region of the Eurasian Steppe, a vast grassland that extends from the Danube River to the Pacific Ocean. The Central portion (or Kazakh Steppe) is defined more accurately as the region between the Ural Mountains in Russia and Dzungaria in China. Instead of criticizing the fact that Kansas may not be distinguishable from Kazakhstan, why not bring awareness to the similarities of these two regions a world apart from each other. Our history in Kansas is tied to the western steppe region in southern Russia. Our ancestry, our traditions, and  our agriculture are all prairie-based and visitors to D.C. should be aware of that. Yes, we have trees and valleys, but Kansas is mostly prairie and that is what should be shown, as this is the landscape Gen. Eisenhower would be most familiar with from his childhood.

The second thing I became aware of the issues surrounding the planning process. While the author chose to focus on the perceived over-stepping of the planning committee’s boundary in the survey process, I take a broader exception to my perception that the boundaries may not be fully understood by the committee and that an ex-officio member of the committee needs to state the pragmatically obvious to those who are in charge. Concurrently, there seems to be a need for a moderator of the discussion to help keep the boundaries well defined and the conversations focused. Likewise, if there are concurrent questions of aesthetic, which apparently fall under the direction of the Commission of Fine Arts, and planning, why aren’t all voices in the room at the same time? Would this conversation be more beneficial to the designer if all comments were made in a comprehensive manner. Rep. Issa’s desire for pragmatism at this point would be more useful if all stakeholders and agencies were in the room, that way a clear, purposeful direction would be delivered to the designers and time, money, and patience in the process wouldn’t be wasted.

Not just planning, but implementation, too!

by Lester Limón Uncategorized

Every day my p3 twitter account flashes snippets (tweets) from the many organizations that I follow. As May is Bike Month, the twitter-sphere (should that be hyphenated or is it two words?) has been a constant stream of how bicycling is becoming more and more prevalent, at least in the world of planning and urban design. I sat in a meeting this morning in my hometown where we’re finishing the work on a new bicycle masterplan. When asked about our progress to date, I mentioned that even though we were nearing completion of the technical planning for bicycle facilities, our work was far from over. Implementation is the key to any plan!

That is so true in all aspects of planning. Without an implementation strategy that’s multi-faceted and comprehensive, no good planning effort remains unpunished. I mention being comprehensive because all plans should include many different avenues to success including project partners from different disciplines with different motivations for success, even though the group shares a common overall vision. Partner participant diversity offers every implementation effort a multitude of contacts from different silos to champion different parts of the comprehensive plan, thus bringing a resiliency to the life of the document and thus, the success of the community.

So, as I think about the future life of our bicycle masterplan, I must remind myself how important it is to have many project partners and champions during the implementation of the plan, just like it was important to gain community consensus in the creation of the plan.

Plains, Kansas and Kanstarter

by Lester Limón Built Capital Financial Capital Human Capital Social Capital Uncategorized

Plains, Kansas isn’t a town you read about in the New York Times very often. In fact, I’d be surprised to find it mentioned anywhere in the newspaper’s 163 year history. But yesterday was the exception. This rural community in southwest Kansas is striving to reconnect fresh, healthy food with their residents. The article mentions other critical bits of infrastructure needed to not only keep a community alive and vital, but give it a sense of longevity and identity. Those listed were a post office, library, and school. Others, I assert, are a medical clinic or hospital, church, police/fire services, and a gas station. Typically, in rural communities, a convenience store/gas station fills the void for food items, but at the risk of lower quality and less fresh options, and the overall health of the community suffers as a result. Plains is making the effort to preserve the community by making choices that are move than just economic development, but will provide sustainability in the future.

Another wonderful revelation in the article was the Kanstarter.com crowd funding program recently  started by Marci Penner and Phil Anderson of Newton, Kansas. Granted money by the Kansas Department of Commerce to facilitate the start of the program, these two people, who are themselves leaders in their own community, are using a popular form of entrepreneurial online funding but scaled to the city level. What a wonderful opportunity for rural communities and community development activities! Good job!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/us/a-kansas-town-rallies-for-a-lifeline-in-supermarket-form.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0

The future depends

On more than just good planning;

You must move forward.

– Lester Limón

p3  is happy to hear the recent announcement from PKHLS Architecture, P.A. Welcome to the fold, Gravity : : Works! Focusing on the future in a collaborative way, without the burden of past names, gives you the ability to be flexible, productive, and energizing staying eternally youthful. Well done.

“Planners address the most important, and often most visible, issues confronting their communities; these issues tend to be wicked problems for which definitions, causes, and solutions remain elusive; and planners are subject to numerous external influences that assist in shaping their roles and responsibilities.”

David P. Brooks, AICP