News

Urban Land Institute Revisits 1908 Nolen Plan

January 11, 2008

San Diego, CA — On Tuesday, January 8, the Urban Land Institute San Diego/Tijuana District Council held its monthly breakfast meeting entitled “New Urbanism 100 Years Ago: Examining the Works of San Diego Planning Pioneer John Nolen.”

Speakers included Philip J. Bona, assistant vice president – architecture & planning, City Centre Development Corp.; Students Matt Brady and Lauren Garza from the NewSchool of Architecture & Design; and Vicki Estrada, principal, Estrada Land Planning. The event, which was moderated by Rich Brasher, urban planner with Stantec Consulting, was held in celebration of the centennial of landscape architect and urban planner John Nolen's 1908 plan for San Diego .

Nolen, whose work in San Diego and other cities across the country during the early 1900s is often referred to as "Original Urbanism," believed in the creation of a pedestrian environment that takes full advantage of a community's natural attributes.

During the meeting panelists looked at the continued vibrancy and relevance of his work as well as how his plan for San Diego was implemented and how it can be interpreted for today's San Diego .

Brasher, who has more than 21 years of experience in San Diego, began the meeting by discussing Nolen’s importance in helping to guide the future of San Diego.

“While San Diego hasn’t as thoughtfully implemented his plan as other cities (that he worked with), San Diego continues to keep the spirit and implement elements of his plan in another fashion,” Brasher said. “The relevance of Nolen continues to guide planning in San Diego .”

Bona, who oversees a team of 10 staff members who are responsible for managing the entitlement and permitting process for all new projects in downtown San Diego , said that Nolen’s plan for downtown was really a “classic downtown plan.”

“One hundred years later downtown has evolved and matured but carries many of Nolen’s ideas,” he said, adding that many of his ideas can be seen in San Diego ’s major streets and thoroughfares, the harbor and waterfront development and in the park system. “Upgrades in downtown have been touched with Nolen’s vision, and we will further look at ways we can introduce Nolen’s work into downtown.”

Estrada, who has worked on redevelopment, urban infill and park and recreation projects in San Diego, including the Balboa Park Master Plan, the Balboa Park Promenade and the San Diego Convention Center, said that San Diego needs to look at the link to nature, specifically San Diego’s plentiful canyons throughout the county and how to incorporate the canyons and nature in general into the design process.

“Canyons are important,” she said. “Canyons bring life to us and they can create great access points.”

As part of the breakfast meeting, Matt Brady and Lauren Garza from the NewSchool of Architecture & Design presented a PowerPoint presentation about the life of John Nolen, as well as a creative mini movie starring local actor Byron Ladue, who portrayed John Nolen surveying Presidio Park and talking about how the vista should be protected for all to enjoy.