Learning From Venice, Florida

In a piece for Governing, William Fulton describes the growth of Venice, Florida, a planned community dating back to the 1920s designed by John Nolen. The community, as Fulton explains, “is one of the most famous and important town plans in American history” for urban planners and designers.

But for Fulton, the magic of Venice isn’t in its original plan; it’s in how the community has evolved and grown through the last century. “It helped me remember that the best places are those that evolve and reinvent themselves over time — a lesson that’s extremely important as we try to figure out the role of places, communities and downtowns in the wake of the pandemic.”

After the Great Depression, the town moved away from Nolen’s original Italianate architecture, adding more Modernist buildings. Since then, the community has embraced its diverse architectural history. Fulton concludes that “Sometimes it’s more valuable to lay down the pattern of public streets and public spaces upfront rather than trying to micromanage private development as today’s planners so often try to do.”

Fulton asks readers to keep Venice’s flexibility in mind as we navigate shifting urban patterns and make decisions about how to build and organize our cities.