The argument as old as time

I was trying hard to stay out of the discussion about new developments in historic neighborhoods but the recent comment on my blog forced me to step in. So, here is my take on this, old as time, dispute.

Whenever a group of progressive, innovative entrepreneurs introduces something new they meet with the conservative opposition. When in early 1900 developers started building first Denver Squares they were criticized by the owners of older Victorian homes. They introduced a form that was new and unfamiliar and got some heat for that.

Many entrepreneurial architects, builders and developers live in the area they work in. It allows them to see opportunity that others may miss. They often invest their lifetime savings to introduce creative, sustainable housing options to their beloved neighborhoods. Those not-afraid-of-risk individuals got hit particularly hard by the current recession. I do hope however that they will hold on to their properties and when the time is right new progressive developments will sprout everywhere. After all, down-zoning or not, it’s their spirit that moves us forward. And if in the process they make a buck or two more power to them!

P.S. I would like to dedicate this post to the first guy who looked at the pile of sticks and mud and thought of building a shack. He must have been widely criticized by his fellow citizens living in the trees. After all they’d been living in the trees for thousands of years, the trees protected them from wild animals, surely that must have been perceived as the best way of living. Sometimes they fell down and broke a limb or two but they didn’t want to see those odd cone shaped structures between the trees that were so familiar to them. Thank you, my fellow architect/builder for seeing an opportunity and keeping at it!