Design Philosophy
Why does suburbia appeal to us so much? Maybe it’s partly the conveniences — roads that are designed to operate like freeways; street lighting so bright that you don’t even notice the moon at night; garages so close to the street that you’re safe inside with one push of a button and one turn of the steering wheel.
Compare our conveniences to what might appear to be one of the most inconvenient cities on earth: Venice, Italy. There they have great parking, too — it just happens to be five miles from the city. Get on the hot, crowded coach, and in 15 minutes, voila — you’re at the far edge of town. If you are interested in seeing the city, you must enjoy it by foot, or by gondola if you’re not in a hurry. Inexplicably, though, people from all over the world — including hordes of vacationing American suburbanites — flock to this city.
What draws us to such a place so strongly that we are content to overlook its hassles? Among many obvious differences, not least is the inviting quality of Venice’s public places. Some call these public places “the commons” — that is, places that we don’t own ourselves, but in which we feel a sense of shared ownership. Be it a tree-shaded park, a bustling square, a flowering street corner or a neighborhood café, Venice’s public places feel owned and cherished, providing identity to the city.
Great public spaces don’t have to be a relic of the past — we shouldn’t have to travel to medieval European cities to find them. Here at home, we crave them — we need them — but maybe in our zeal for convenience, we’ve forgotten how to build them. One of the most distilled guides to making great public spaces is Fred Kent’s “How to Turn a Place Around”. Empowering to say the least, Kent offers pragmatic ways in which to reclaim our “commons.” Most valuable is his lesson that the process of improving our public spaces must be ongoing, because social interaction is complex and dynamic. Formulaic solutions can’t work, because each “commons” depends on its users.
What we build at Olsen Design and Development, Inc. revolves around the idea that public spaces matter—they enrich our lives. The experience of walking our dog on the sidewalk is as important as how we feel in our own home, feet up, and reading a magazine. And it is this general realignment of values that defines who we are as a company.