Chris' Regional Geography

Cities can develop in many ways, and this webpage shows the different patterns that can be seen from the air in suburban areas around the country. Boulder, CO is featured as the author explains several suburban settlements. Many of these patterns can be found around the Denver Metro area.

Did you know that the streets in Denver were originally set up to run parallel and perpendicular to Cherry Creek? Because of the angle of the creek, the streets in downtown Denver do not run exactly north/south/east/west. As more and more people settled in Colorado, they set up large homesteads surrounding the town. One homesteader named Henry Brown decided that the roads on his homestead would be laid out directly north and south/east and west. Henry Brown is the reason why the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Denver (which sits on his old homestead) has a different street grid than the downtown area.

Questions to Ponder: What housing patterns are you drawn to?  How come?  What are the advantages for the residents to live in that type of community?  What are the impacts that the housing pattern has on the physical environment and the urban system?  What systems are most profitable for developers?  How does the layout of the neighborhood alter the sense of place?

Planned Developments and their effects on geography