After his success with Mariemont, Ohio, Nolen moved on to Florida to plan what he called, "the last frontier."
In February 1922, he contracted with St. Petersburg to design Florida's first comprehensive plan.
The city, he found, occupied a "site blessed by a benevolent Nature" and possessing "the same characteristics as southern France."
After signing the contract, Nolen wrote an associate, "This seems to be an opportunity to do rather more than we have ever been given the chance to do before."

In March 1923, Nolen completed an ambitious plan to imbue this resort city of 15,000 with a "form and flavor unlike that of other places."
A greenbelt of preserves and parks encircled the lower third (45 square miles) of the Pinellas Peninsula, setting the city's "natural boundaries" and creating a lure for tourists.
He also presented plans to improve traffic connections and establish a Civic Center.
Mixed-use neighborhood centers were clustered to prevent the unsightly spread of commercial uses and traffic problems along city thoroughfares.
A system of parkways united the city, providing pedestrian access to parks and local neighborhood centers with store groups, churches, and public buildings.

Nolen's plan rested on the "adequate control of private development."
He proposed a series of land use controls to ensure that development followed the efficient outlay of public facilities, rather than outline speculative desires.
Without these regulations, Nolen was hardly sanguine about the city's future. "
It has been said and with reason," he wrote, "that man is the only animal who desecrates the surroundings of his own habitation."

In the midst of the great Florida land boom, the desire to make quick profits outweighed any lofty notion of city building.
Moreover, the idea of investing public funds to improve the squalid conditions in "the colored section" found little sentiment in a place, where one anti-planning editor advocated replacing black laborers (17 percent of the population) with immigrants from the "agricultural sections of England."
In a referendum, Nolen's planning initiative received only 13 percent of the vote.

The St. Petersburg experience disheartened Nolen, but he remained optimistic.
His firm worked on 54 projects in Florida, including city plans for Clearwater, Sarasota, and West Palm Beach, new town plans for Clewiston and Bellaire, and neighborhood plans for University Park (Gainesville) and San Jose Estates (Jacksonville).
In 1925, Nolen finally found in "Venice an opportunity better ... than any other in Florida to apply the most advanced and most practical ideas of regional planning."
Nolen planned Venice for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), a labor union looking to capitalize on the land boom.
The BLE, however, was also investing for the long term.
BLE officials envisioned a regional center for agriculture and light industry, "a place where the ordinary man could have a chance to get all that the rich have ever been able to get out of Florida."

"Nature led the way" and the plan, Nolen wrote, "followed her way."
Greenbelts protected important natural features, and parkways extended from the hinterlands into Venice's downtown (Figure 1).
A greenbelt bounded the town to the east and south, while Venice Bay marked the northern edge and the Gulf of Mexico lay to the west.
Nolen paid special attention to the town's Gulf front location.
A linear park ran along the waterfront, with an amphitheater and beachfront park lying at the terminus of Venice Parkway, which connected the beach to the Civic Center.

The Civic Center's grouping of parks and public buildings offered a view of the Gulf and marked the western edge of the commercial core.
From this point east, Venice Parkway narrowed to Venice Avenue, which ran the center of a three-block commercial core between the Civic Center and Rialto Avenue.
The Civic Center not only defined the town center, but it stood midway between the commercial core and Venice's most sublime natural feature — the Gulf of Mexico.

In Venice, Nolen effectively balanced his desig
After his success with Mariemont, Ohio, Nolen moved on to Florida to plan what he called, "the last frontier." In February 1922, he contracted with St. Petersburg to design Florida's first comprehensive plan. The city, he found, occupied a "site blessed by a benevolent Nature" and possessing "the same characteristics as southern France." After signing the contract, Nolen wrote an associate, "This seems to be an opportunity to do rather more than we have ever been given the chance to do before."
In March 1923, Nolen completed an ambitious plan to imbue this resort city of 15,000 with a "form and flavor unlike that of other places." A greenbelt of preserves and parks encircled the lower third (45 square miles) of the Pinellas Peninsula, setting the city's "natural boundaries" and creating a lure for tourists. He also presented plans to improve traffic connections and establish a Civic Center. Mixed-use neighborhood centers were clustered to prevent the unsightly spread of commercial uses and traffic problems along city thoroughfares. A system of parkways united the city, providing pedestrian access to parks and local neighborhood centers with store groups, churches, and public buildings.
Nolen's plan rested on the "adequate control of private development." He proposed a series of land use controls to ensure that development followed the efficient outlay of public facilities, rather than outline speculative desires. Without these regulations, Nolen was hardly sanguine about the city's future. "It has been said and with reason," he wrote, "that man is the only animal who desecrates the surroundings of his own habitation."
In the midst of the great Florida land boom, the desire to make quick profits outweighed any lofty notion of city building. Moreover, the idea of investing public funds to improve the squalid conditions in "the colored section" found little sentiment in a place, where one anti-planning editor advocated replacing black laborers (17 percent of the population) with immigrants from the "agricultural sections of England." In a referendum, Nolen's planning initiative received only 13 percent of the vote.
The St. Petersburg experience disheartened Nolen, but he remained optimistic. His firm worked on 54 projects in Florida, including city plans for Clearwater, Sarasota, and West Palm Beach, new town plans for Clewiston and Bellaire, and neighborhood plans for University Park (Gainesville) and San Jose Estates (Jacksonville). In 1925, Nolen finally found in "Venice an opportunity better ... than any other in Florida to apply the most advanced and most practical ideas of regional planning." Nolen planned Venice for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLE), a labor union looking to capitalize on the land boom. The BLE, however, was also investing for the long term. BLE officials envisioned a regional center for agriculture and light industry, "a place where the ordinary man could have a chance to get all that the rich have ever been able to get out of Florida."
"Nature led the way" and the plan, Nolen wrote, "followed her way." Greenbelts protected important natural features, and parkways extended from the hinterlands into Venice's downtown (Figure 1). A greenbelt bounded the town to the east and south, while Venice Bay marked the northern edge and the Gulf of Mexico lay to the west. Nolen paid special attention to the town's Gulf front location. A linear park ran along the waterfront, with an amphitheater and beachfront park lying at the terminus of Venice Parkway, which connected the beach to the Civic Center.
The Civic Center's grouping of parks and public buildings offered a view of the Gulf and marked the western edge of the commercial core. From this point east, Venice Parkway narrowed to Venice Avenue, which ran the center of a three-block commercial core between the Civic Center and Rialto Avenue. The Civic Center not only defined the town center, but it stood midway between the commercial core and Venice's most sublime natural feature — the Gulf of Mexico.
In Venice, Nolen effectively balanced his desig
John Nolen