Dear CCCP,
Thanks for the photos on your page, makes it easy to remember who you are. I was wondering about your site plan shape and the desire to create more flow, also on my mind was the lack of animals and that working farm feeling in any of the visions so far. My own personal bias, but I was hoping the new community would carry on the distinctive farm flavor of abundance and growth. Also I was thinking of the city planners emphasis on wanting low income housing, the money available to help do it, and the possibility of more leniency from the planning dept. if they really wanted the low income part of the project. The first thought that occurred to me was... what if the development kept the barn on the southwest border and created a fenced pasture at the west end of the open meadow area, maybe with a "street" that faced to it? My other thought was regarding your designs compactness, somewhat unavoidable at that density to not have more linear than organic design... So, if the site is to be stuck with a more formal program, what about the element of the villa? or more the American frontier town with it's main street or the Mexican farm town with its formalized square in the center. Either of those two building vernaculars would be great too, or even a blend?? Here's my attempt at sketching the shape of the site or directions of "streets" and how they flow through the property.... 1---< the one would be a north-south corridor, maybe connecting Dominic and Rawhide for bikes and peds with pasture to the west? The three dashes represent the main street (fruit trees?) possibly a civic square at the east end. The < would then be a lead in to, at the north the entrance and parking on Pettigrew as well as the communities Farm (lease to organic farmer,space for community garden too). and to the south, Fields Farm. Please continue in what ever direction feels right to you, I was just trying to communicate some thoughts from this end. Thanks for hearing them....J.

Or, a shape like 0--< with houses ringing a pasture at the west end? if you need references, or info try looking up rotational grazing on the net, or the "Stockman Grass Farmer"
Cheers!

Hi CCCP. It was nice to see your newly developed site plan. I like your concept of progression in terms of the site, houses to open gathering space to pond to farm. I also like your conceptual ideas 'progression of man' or 'common house as anchor'. I can see the latter just beginning to happen with axes running perpendicular from the common house. How else can the common house act as an anchor for the community and keep the rest of its part afloat? Visually, I can see this with the building plan but maybe there are other features on site that use the common house as a heart to their appendages, say smaller outdoor spaces relating to around the common house or how your vast open spaces relate to this heart (to the West). I appreciate Colin's shadow studies. It would be nice to see where the specific units are located on your site or maybe, in the building renderings, how they relate to their immediate surroundings (so we might see why courtyards are made or how backyard spaces work). nice job!