Bike sharing is finally coming to Denver! Thanks to the successful bike-sharing program during the DNC, Denver is launching B-cycle this spring, with 50 stations around the city and most of those in the Downtown area. For all the details, please check out this site and this one too which has a great map with all the B-cycle locations.
Archive of entries posted on March 2010
Denver Justice Center Public Art
Construction is nearly finished at the new Denver Justice Center. The Detention Facility is supposed to open in April, and the Courthouse in July. Thanks to Vicki H. for the tip, here’s a link to a video slideshow tour from inside those new buildings. From within the video, I captured this rendering of Dennis Oppenheim’s Light Chamber, the major piece of public art that will be located in the Center’s broad public plaza (click for full size):
According to the DJC project website, Light Chamber will be installed this summer at the north end of the plaza at Colfax and Tremont. That looks pretty cool to me, and with appropriate lighting, should be quite dramatic at night. Light Chamber, with the impressive glass wall of the Courthouse behind it, will be directly in the line of view down Tremont Place where it terminates at Colfax. Nice.
18th Street Pedestrian Bridge
The new 18th Street pedestrian bridge opened this weekend! The bridge, officially known now as the Union Gateway Bridge (although I suspect everyone will still call it the 18th Street Pedestrian Bridge), connects the Riverfront Park and Union Station districts in the Central Platte Valley. The bridge crosses over the Consolidated Main Line (CML) freight tracks and, in a few months, it will also span the tail tracks for the relocated light rail station that will be built a block away at 17th Street and the CML. Let’s take a trip across the bridge, starting from the Union Station side.
A view of the bridge with the Glass House and the Manhattan in the background, and the copper cladding on the elevator cores:
The new streetscape along the northeast side of 18th Street, and an overview of site prep work for the big Union Station project:
Looking back at Downtown, and a look down at where the plaza at the base of the bridge will connect to the northern end of the new light rail platform:
More Union Station site prep work, and the bridge from the Riverfront Park side:
Click here for a few more details about the bridge from a recent Denver Business Journal article.
Buyer Found for Historic Hangar 61 in Stapleton
Hangar 61
It seems that a buyer may have been found for what is certainly the coolest remaining historic structure on the Stapleton redevelopment.
The Stapleton Fellowship Church has posted a blog announcing that its members have voted to move ahead with the purchase of the Hangar 61 building. According to the website, the Christian congregation has been eyeballing the the 9,000-square-foot structure, hyperbolic spaceship-looking shell of concrete and glass at 8800 East 21st Avenue more since December. Currently the church holds services a few hundred yards away at the Denver School of Science and Technology.
There is little that Hangar 61 is better suited for than an event space, with its streamlined roof arching like a clamshell toward an expansive wall of windows. It’s hard to imagine that the building was ever intended as an airplane hanger. It’s even more impressive considering how deteriorated the structure was before state and local preservationists stepped in to save it.
Hangar 61 in 1959
In 2004, I remember sitting in on a meeting of the Denver Planning Board for a reason I can no longer remember. The subject of Hangar 61 came up on the agenda and this guy named David Walter stepped up to the microphone and started talking about why the building needed to be saved from demolition during the crusade to convert the old Stapleton Airport into an upscale, mixed-use dreamscape. Walter is a local artist who co-founded Ironton Studios and Gallery. Walter described how Hangar 61 was built in 1959 by the Boettcher family-owned Ideal Cement Company to house its Fairchild F-27 turbo-prop airliner. The unique structure was designed by Fisher, Fisher, and Davis, and engineered by renowned concrete-shell engineer Milo Ketchum. Plus it just looked cool.
But it had also been vacant for more than a decade prior. It would cost hundreds-of-thousands of dollars to secure the 160-foot, diamond shape concrete arch (impressively engineered without center supports) and necessary environmental clean-up. Plus there was a complex tangle of ownership between the city and private development entities.
In 2004, Hangar 61 faced demolition
Board members voted to kick the issue to the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission. Eventually the statewide group Colorado Preservation, Inc. stepped up with a $200,000 grant to purchase the building and get the rehab process started. Then, last spring, developer Larry Nelson bought the building with the goal of taking it to market.
Nelson’s “620 Corp Inc. has spent about $1.3 million on the project, including constructing a parking lot and adding the frame for a new entryway,” arts critic Mary Voelz Chandler reported for the Rocky Mountain News in last January. “He estimates another $300,000 to $400,000 will be necessary to bring the hangar up to the point at which someone can lease or buy it to use as office space.”
I wasn’t able to get a hold of Nelson or the church, so no word yet on the sale price or if the deal has been finalized.
Upcoming Denver Union Station Events
With construction getting underway at Denver’s big Union Station transit project, it’s important to stay engaged with the project. To that end, here are three events coming up that you are invited to:
Union Station Advocates – DUS Loan Approval Celebration!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
5:30 – 7:00 PM
Gumbos Louisiana Style Cafe – 16th & Wazee
Help Union Station Advocates celebrate the approval of the $304 million loan to the DUS project! Stop by Gumbos and enjoy free gumbo with the purchase of an adult beverage. You don’t have to be a member of USA to join in the celebration (although we’d love it if you do become a member). Click here to download a PDF flyer about the event.
Denver Union Station: Portal to Progress – LoDo Film Premiere
Thursday, March 18, 2010
5:30 – 7:30 PM
Oxford Hotel Ballroom – 1637 Wazee
Did you miss the big premiere at the Hyatt in February of the new film about Union Station? Did you see the film already and loved it so much you want to see it again? Either way, you’re covered! Union Station Advocates, in cooperation with Havey Productions, is proud to present the LoDo premiere of the film Denver Union Station: Portal to Progress.
The program begins with a reception and cash bar, followed by the film and comments by Dana Crawford and Jim Havey. General admission is $15, or for $30 you can see the film and get the DVD, or for $60 you can see the film, get the DVD, and get a discounted membership to Union Station Advocates. What a deal! Click here to download a PDF flyer about the event.
Urban Land Institute Colorado – State of the Union
April 1, 2010
1:30 – 6:30 PM
Denver Athletic Club – 1325 Glenarm
ULI-Colorado’s next Explorer Series event, “State of the Union”, will provide an in-depth look at the entire DUS project. The program begins with a panel discussion about the project at the Denver Athletic Club then, after a Mall shuttle ride down to Union Station, tour the site with project experts and finish with a hosted reception inside the historic station.
To register, please visit the ULI-Colorado website. Click here to download a PDF flyer about the event.
Downtown Albuquerque
This past week I was in Albuquerque for a conference, so I took the opportunity to explore their downtown area and take a few photos.
Downtown Albuquerque basically has two areas that provide a sense of place: Civic Plaza, a two-block public square, and Central Avenue, a four-block stretch of shops and restaurants. Here is a bird’s eye view of Downtown Albuquerque with 3D buildings from GoogleEarth (click to embiggen):
The Civic Plaza is just left of center with the Albuquerque Convention Center behind it. The two red-roof towers in the center are the Hyatt (where I stayed) and a companion office building. Central Avenue is a block to the right of the hotel/office complex.
Civic Plaza is a hardscaped public square that was noticeably lifeless (except for a few homeless people) during the five days I was there. Granted, it’s the middle of the winter and there were no programmed activities held during my visit, but I suspect Civic Plaza is usually like that even in the summer unless there’s a festival or a convention going on. The Plaza is ringed by the Albuquerque Convention Center, the Hyatt, some government buildings, and a surface parking lot. Looking over the Plaza from the hotel:
The Plaza does have some interesting elements. There’s a parking garage underneath the Plaza (note the ramps in the foreground of the photos above), as well as a large fountain (not operating when I was there), a performance stage, and various other urban design features. Here are a few shots from within the Plaza:
I found that with all the hardscaped surfaces, the lack of vegetation, and the harsh modernist architecture of most of the buildings nearby, that Civic Plaza didn’t feel like it was a very comfortable place to hang out in. Perhaps when the fountain is on and there are street vendors and other activities going on, it becomes a lively public space. Does anyone have any experience with Albuquerque’s Civic Plaza in the warmer months?
Next is Central Avenue, which is part of the legendary Route 66 highway. The four-blocks of Central Avenue between 3rd and 7th streets offer a nice “main street” environment with a variety of retail and restaurant establishments. Unfortunately, all the photos below were taken on a Sunday morning when virtually nothing was open and no pedestrians were around… forgive me, but that’s the way it worked out.
First, the good: the historic KiMo Theatre and its Pueblo Deco architectural style (top left), a striking new retail/restaurant corner building (top right), a funky ultra-modern condo building under construction (bottom left) and a pretty cool streetscape and signage theme built upon the Route 66 mystique (bottom right):
Now, the not-so-good:
There were a lot of empty retail spaces, and all those barred-up storefronts just leave you feeling all warm and fuzzy, don’t they?! Apparently crime is an issue in Downtown Albuquerque. In fact, the hotel where I stayed gave me a map of the downtown area, and on it was this big note that said in so many words “DO NOT WALK AROUND DOWNTOWN ALBUQUERQUE AFTER SUNSET!”
While I was there I also went to Old Town and to Nob Hill—two areas outside of downtown with some interesting urban character—but I didn’t take any photos.
Overall, downtown Albuquerque has several examples of nice urbanism, but a few issues it needs to overcome as well. But then, what city doesn’t?
