By: Ben Michaels

Fort Collins, Colo.- Happiness. What is it? How do you get it? Why do we want it? For ages, people have tried their hardest to reach an emotion that makes us feel better. What if I told you that something as simple as a city’s architecture can make or break your happiness scale? Fort Collins has been using unique and pleasing architecture for almost 150 years, which has made Fort Collins a very attractive place to live. 

Fort Collins has been a city with unique architecture ever since the city was founded. For example, this article states, “As the city matured, recreational and social facilities requisite for a significant urban area were constructed.” Overall, the economy in Fort Collins was on the rise, and lots of cool architecture allowed for relationships within the community. Furthermore, one of the most recognizable places in Fort Collins opened, called the Old Town.

Fort Collins Food Trucks. Photo By: Austin Humphreys

Historic District. The area has large sidewalks and wide roads. This benefited the economy because it allowed people to walk around downtown and shop. Thus, people could interact with each other and create relationships in the community. 

In the present day, the architecture and layout of Fort Collins continues to attract its citizens every day. Parks such as city parks lure the citizens to their large fields every single day. A special attribute of the city park is on Tuesdays in the summer when food trucks line the roads and hundreds of citizens congregate in the park to eat good food and socialize. This small event is essential to the economy and equity of Fort Collins because it boosts local businesses and provides an area for everyone to come together. In the Book “Happy City,” Montgomery says that “the greatest of human satisfactions lies in working and playing cooperatively with other people” (41). Thus, the unique layout of Fort Collins allows citizens to feel the “greatest of human satisfaction.” To conclude, Fort Collins’s architecture proved to be beneficial and helped turn the unique city into a thriving city with a happy community.