When John Nolen planned the city of Venice in 1925, he said it was his big opportunity to design a city from the beginning. The resort would balance tourism, trade, and agriculture. Nolen called it the Master City Plan of his career, and urged that "everything should be done to regain public ownership of the waterfront." The first draft of the racially segregated residential areas included a Harlem Village.
The boy who had been placed by the Children's Aid Society at Girard College for Orphaned Boys came late to city planning. Nolen worked as an executive secretary for ten years. On his wedding trip to Europe, he was impressed with land use and architecture. On his return, he enrolled in the Harvard School of Landscape Architecture. Nolen began his firm in 1905 when he was thirty-six.
He designed subdivisions and other projects for fifteen other cities in Florida alone, including West Palm Beach, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota. He had a garden approach to planning. So that all residents would have some green space, he planned large parkways and recreational space. West Venice Avenue is an example of his parkways, and Venezia Park is an example of the neighborhood green space.
After Dr. Fred Albee sold his Venice tract to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, the BLE retained Nolen and asked him to omit Albee Square, and move the golf course to an area "not quite so flat".
Many of Nolen's clients were unable to pay him after the 1926 hurricane, the end of the land boom, and the 1929 stock market crash. The "dean of city planners" was left almost bankrupt.