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#1: Downtown Denver Infill Boom

Posted by Ken on February 9, 2010

We have finally reached #1 on the Denver’s Top 10 Urbanism Achievements of the Aughts countdown!  It came down to a toss up between Downtown Denver’s infill boom and the whole FasTracks/Union Station thing, but, in the end, I had to go with what had inspired my website and blog in the first place: urban infill development.

Over the span of a century, we built a city that was urban and dense and thriving.  Then, around our 100th birthday, we lost our way and started abandoning what we had built. We moved on to “greener” prairies beyond the city limits and left behind deteriorated buildings that were eagerly converted into weedy vacant parcels or barren surface parking lots. We were not the only big city in the country to do this, but we were particularly good at it.

Around our 130th birthday, we rediscovered the value of our original urban places. We started restoring and rehabilitating old buildings and renewing and revitalizing old neighborhoods. Old became the new new and places like Lower Downtown and the Highlands were getting hip again. By Birthday #140, we were running out of historic buildings to convert and yet the demand for being in or near Downtown Denver was stronger than ever, so “infill” became the the “in” thing. One by one, weedy vacant parcels and barren surface parking lots were transformed into condos and hotels and offices and apartments and shops and everything in between, and by the time our big Sesquicentennial rolled around, infill was everywhere. Recently the Great Recession has slowed Denver’s infill boom, but most political, demographic, and socio-economic indicators suggest that once the economy picks up again, Denver’s urban infill boom will continue.

So just how big was Downtown Denver’s urban infill boom from 2000 to 2009? As Thomas Jefferson would say, let facts be submitted to a candid world:

1127 Sherman, 1135 Broadway Residences, 1200 Delaware, 1200 Elati, 1400 Wewatta, 1515 Wynkoop, 16 Market Square, 1740 Franklin, 1755 Blake, 1800 Larimer, 1870 Vine Street Townhomes, 1890 Wynkoop, 1900 16th Street, 2100 Uptown Lofts, 2101 Market, 2245 Blake, 24 Walnut, 2428 Champa, 25th & Tremont Townhomes, 2999 Lawrence, 3040 Zuni, 450 E. 17th Avenue, 816 Acoma, 920 E. 17th Avenue, Adair Group Offices, Ajax Lofts, Alexan Prospect, Alfred A. Arraj US Courthouse, Antares Urban Townhomes, Argonaut Liquors, Art House Townhomes, Auraria Science Building, Ayr on 29th, Ballpark Lofts, Bank of Denver Headquarters, Blair-Caldwall Library, Blake 27 Brownstones, Blake Street Apartments, Boulder Street Townhomes, Broadway Plaza Lofts, Brownstones at Riverfront Park, Brunetti Lofts, Campus Village Apartments, Capital Grille, Capitol Heights Apartments, Central Court, Champa Square, Chroma Town Homes, City Park Residences, City View Townhomes, Cityscape Townhomes, Clay Street Residences, Colorado Convention Center, Confluence Heights, Corona Park, Creekside Lofts, Denver Art Museum Hamilton Building, Denver Art Museum Residences, Denver Justice Center, Denver Newspaper Agency Building, Denver Square, DHMC Pavilion, Diamond at Prospect, Diamond Lofts, DMHC Parking Garage, East Village Redevelopment, Embassy Suites Hotel, Emerson Uptown Lofts, EPA Region 8 Headquarters, Fire Clay Lofts, FirstBank at Colfax & Franklin, Flats 15, Flour Mill Lofts II, Four Seasons Hotel & Residences, Franklin Square, Frontview 40, Garden Factory Lofts, Gates Corporates Headquarters, Gilpin Grove, Glass House, Glenarm Place Condos, Golden Row, Grant Park, Hampton Inn Highland, Highland Bridge Lofts, Highland Court, Highland Crossing, Highland Lofts, Highland Square Lofts, Highland Terrace, Highlands Vista, Hilton Garden Inn, Humboldt Gardens, Hyatt Denver Convention Center Hotel, Inca 29 Urban Brownstones, Italianate Townhomes, Jack Kerouac Lofts, Jefferson at CityGate, La Villa de Barela, Lofts at Downing Street Station, Lombard Gate, Luxe Modern Row Homes, Marais Uptown, Merchant’s Row, Metro State Parking Garage, Metroview Urban Living, Monarch Mills, Museum of Contemporary Art, Off-Broadway Lofts, One Lincoln Park, One Riverfront Park, Park Avenue West Residences, Park Place Lofts, Pearl of the City, Pearl Street Victorianan, Piranesi, Portofino, Premier Lofts, Promenade Lofts, Quality Hill Townes, Rail Yark Marketplace, Renaissance Riverfront Lofts, Residence Inn by Marriott, Residences at 1882 Race, RiverClay, Riverfront Tower, Shoshone Heights, Shoshone Lofts, Speer Lofts, Spire, St. Joseph’s Medical Offices, St. Lukes Lofts, State Capitol Parking Garage, Steelbridge Lofts Annex, Strada Flats, SugarCube, Swallow Hill, TAXI, Tejon Square, The Bartholomew, The Beauvallon, The Dakota, The Delgany, The Edge at City Park, The Ellington Lofts, The Gathering Place, The Manhattan, The Mansion, The Metro, The Milan, The Park One Riverfront, The Point, The Proado, The Renaissance, The Station at Riverfront Park, Titanium Lofts, Tower on the Park, Townhomes at Riverfront Park, Umatilla Townhomes, Upper Larimer Lofts, Uptown Apartments, Uptown Lofts, Uptown Square, Urbans @ Curtis, Urbans @ Glenarm, Urbans @ Stout, Urology Center of Colorado, Villa Riva, Villages at Curtis Park, VOA Bob Magness, Walker’s Row, Washington Square, Waterside Lofts, Wellington Webb Municipal Building, Welton Place Townhomes, Wyandot Overlook, Zi Lofts, Zocalo Condos… and many more I’m sure I’ve missed.

Not too bad for a 1.5-mile radius of Downtown, huh?

The Aughts were a pretty darn good decade for urbanism in Denver. Let’s hope for an even better decade in the Tens… there are a lot of surface parking lots to go!

Filed under History, Infill, Urbanism.
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Denver Union Station: Portal to Progress Film Premiere

Posted by Ken on February 2, 2010

Havey Productions, one of Denver’s leading film production companies and producers of several historical and cultural documentaries of significance, will premiere their new film, Denver Union Station: Portal to Progress this Friday, February 5, at the Hyatt Regency Denver – Convention Center Hotel.  You are invited!

2010-02-02_dus_film

At Union Station Advocates, we’ve been working for over a year to help raise funds for the film’s production. Along with many other community groups and contributors, we are thrilled that this feature-length movie on Denver’s Union Station is now ready for its big debut. General Admission tickets are $15 and available at 6:00 PM. Patron Level tickets are $100 and include a hosted bar and hors d’oeuvres reception at 5:30 PM. To purchase tickets in advance or to check out a trailer of the move, click here.

Denver’s Union Station redevelopment has been a long time in the making. First, Lower Downtown blossomed in the 1990s. Then, the Central Platte Valley emerged in the 2000. Waiting patiently in between those two vibrant districts has been our historic Union Station and its neighboring parcels, which is now poised to be the star of the 2010s.

The excitement about this project is palpable. This past fall, 800 people packed Union Station for a party the likes of which the old station hasn’t seen in generations. Fundraising is underway to bring back the Welcome/Mizpah Arch to the Union Station site. New projects like the relocation of IMA Financial’s headquarters to the Union Station site are being announced. Design work for the massive project is nearing completion and the project authority, DUSPA, has a new website with all the latest renderings, plans, and diagrams. And now… Denver Union Station-The Movie… is set to premiere. Please join us this Friday to celebrate not only a movie, but the launch of Denver’s most important civic project since Denver International Airport.

Filed under Events & Meetings, History, Media, Union Station.
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#3: The Amazing Denver Voter

Posted by Ken on January 30, 2010

Cheers! to Denver voters for coming in #3 on our Denver’s Top 10 Urbanism Achievements of the Aughts countdown. Frankly, Denver voters should probably come in #1 for not just this past decade, but for all 15 of Denver’s decades, considering their record of voting for civic projects of every kind.

The reasons for Denver’s enthusiasm for approving civic projects are complicated but discernible. Part of it has to do with Denver’s inferiority complex. Since our city’s founding (relatively late as big cities go—the late 1850s), we’ve tried to overcome our new-kid-on-the-block, dusty-outpost-in-the-middle-of-nowhere insecurities (the “cowtown syndrome”) by proving to the world that we can do all the stuff bigger and older cities do—and then bragging about it. When that fails to earn us the respect we believe we deserve, we try even harder. Next, Denver seems to draw people who are seeking a better place to live or who are looking to make a fresh start; so upon moving here, many newcomers are predisposed toward community improvement. Denverites are also known to be an optimistic bunch (due to the ubiquitous sunshine and stunning mountain vistas, no doubt), so one way people here express that optimism is through investing in their city. Finally, Denver has been fortunate over its history to have had a municipal government that has been relatively competent and corruption-free and that generally delivers civic projects as promised. Along with our strong-mayor system and the dynamic, effective leaders it has produced, a sense of trust exists between the citizens and the city that perpetuates an environment of collective civic ambition. That’s my take on it, anyway. Now, back to the voters:

  • November 1999 (just a few weeks from the start of the new decade): Denver voters approved (55%) an increase of the city’s lodging and car-rental taxes to raise $261.5 million toward the expansion of the Colorado Convention Center, a $62.5 million general obligation bond for expansion of the Denver Art Museum (61%), and a $62.5 million bond for upgrades at the Denver Zoo (66%). Denverites also voted in favor (66%) of the state’s TRANS proposal which authorized the $1.7 billion T-REX light rail and highway reconstruction project. Denver voters also approved TABOR exemptions for both RTD and Denver Public Schools.
  • November 2002: Denver voters approved (68%) general obligation bonds totaling $25 million for the renovation of the Denver Auditorium (creating what is now the Ellie Caulkins Opera House at the Denver Performing Arts Complex).
  • May 2003: Denver voters approved (65%) general obligation bonds in the amount of $148 million for the expansion of the Denver Health Medical Center.
  • November 2004: Denver voters approved (65%) an increase in the sales tax of 0.4% for RTD’s FasTracks program. Also, Denverites voted in favor (74%) to extend the 0.1% Scientific & Cultural Facilities District sales tax for another 14 years.
  • May 2005: Denver voters approved (56%) the issuance of $378 million in general obligation bonds for the construction of the new Denver Justice Center courthouse and detention facility in Downtown and other improvements at the existing County Jail on Smith Road.
  • November 2005: Denver voters approved (66%) increasing the city’s lodging tax by 1% to pay for Denver tourism and convention marketing programs, and a 10-year exemption from TABOR for the City & County of Denver (64%). Also, Denver voted in favor (63%) of Referendum D, which would have authorized the state to spend $2.1 billion for transportation and other capital improvements. Referendum D failed, however, statewide.
  • November 2007: Denver voters approved all eight of the Better Denver bond issues by margins ranging from 52% to 67% for a total of $550 million in capital improvements for health and human service facilities, libraries, transportation/public works projects, parks and recreation projects, public office buildings, public safety facilities, existing cultural facilities, and new cultural facilities (expansion at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the reconstruction of Boettcher Concert Hall). Denver voters also approved (55%) a permanent 2.5 mill property tax increase for regular capital improvements and infrastructure investments.
  • November 2008: Denver voters approved (68%) general obligation bonds in the amount of $454 million for renovations and new construction for Denver Public Schools.

The only Denver ballot item for a civic project that I could recall that failed during the decade was in November 2001 for the Denver Justice Center—then planned to be built at I-25 and 6th Avenue—which was controversial mostly due to the location and was approved a few years later after the switch to the Downtown site.

Denver’s legacy of supporting civic projects and investments in the city’s infrastructure continued to flourish this past decade, which is why I’m including it in our list of Denver’s Top 10 Urbanism Achievements of the Aughts.

Filed under Economic Growth, History, Infrastructure, Politics.
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North by Northwest

Posted by Ken on September 28, 2008

In an issue directly related to my recent “Highland or Highlands?” blog, today let’s talk about… Does the Downtown grid point north or west?

The definitive expert on all streets Denver is Phil Goodstein who wrote the book Denver Streets in 1994. It traces the etymology of every street name in the entire metro Denver and Downtown street grids and provides insight into many other aspects of Denver’s physical development. It’s a must-have for anyone with an interest in Denver’s history and evolution as a city.

From his book, I quote: “Moreover, while downtown streets are diagonal, Denver also defined their directions. The named streets, which run northeast away from Cherry Creek, are said to be going ‘east,’ i.e., into old East Denver as the area on the downtown side of Cherry Creek was known after the merger of Denver and Auraria in 1860. The named streets heading southwest are defined as going west since the entire section of town the other side of Cherry Creek was West Denver. Numbered streets that go northwest across the Platte River are said to be heading north into the heart of North Denver where North High School is located near Speer and Federal boulevards. The numbered roads which run southeast toward the Capitol are south bound.” Because of Mr. Goodstein’s authority on the issue, throughout my DenverInfill website, I refer to the Downtown numbered streets as running north-south, and the named streets running east-west.

Fast forward to the recently completed 2007 Downtown Area Plan. In that document, wherever directional references are mentioned, the numbered streets Downtown are described as running east-west and the named streets as running north-south. While I was relatively involved in that planning process, I didn’t spot the error until near the end, and even though I brought it to the attention of the planning team, the final Downtown Area Plan document today still describes the Downtown grid as running counter to what Phil Goodstein states is the City of Denver’s policy on the direction that our diagonal Downtown grid officially points. The Union Station redevelopment planning process that’s currently in full swing repeats the Downtown Area Plan’s error, as it describes the Wynkoop side of Union Station as the “east” side and the Central Platte Valley side of the historic station as the “west” side.

The argument in favor of what is apparently the recently forgotten “official” position of the city on this issue is that the neighborhoods northwest of Downtown have been known for over a century as North Denver, as documented in my “Highland or Highlands?” blog and as anyone who grew up in North Denver, like my buddy Joe, knows from personal experience. If northwest Denver is “North Denver” then that means the numbered streets run north-south, not east-west, otherwise we’d refer to Highland as “West Denver.”

The argument in favor of the opposite perspective is that the numbered east-west avenues on the metro grid were originally designated to roughly align with Downtown’s numbered streets. As Denver continued to grow and the city switched the platting of streets to the more logical north-south-east-west grid, it decided to name the new east-west avenues south of Downtown in a manner that would associate them to Downtown’s numbered streets. Consequently, the avenue that ran east from the southern terminus of 17th Street was named East 17th Avenue, the avenue that ran east from the southern terminus of 16th Street was named East 16th Avenue, and so on. Following that system, the east-west avenues to the south were named in descending numerical order until the “zero” avenue was reached—Elsworth Avenue—which became the dividing line between north and south on the metro decimal street address system. Because the numbered avenues run east and west and they were associated with the numbered Downtown streets, there is some logic then in saying that the Downtown numbered streets also run east and west.

Our Downtown grid is aligned at almost a perfect 45-degree angle to the cardinal directions, not for an intentional mathematical reason, but because the Downtown streets were laid out to be parallel to Cherry Creek and the South Platte River, which just happen to intersect each other at roughly a 90-degree angle in a 45-degree rotated setting. So whether we say Lower Downtown is the “north” or “west” end of Downtown is really an even judgement call. Historical precedence points one way, recent usage points another. From my 20 years of living in Denver, it seems to me there is no consistency among locals as to a directional preference. We somehow manage to understand each other regardless, and as for the tourists and the newbies—they’re baffled by the diagonal Downtown grid anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.

After 150 years, we apparently still haven’t come to any consensus. Perhaps that’s a good thing. The confusion of direction only adds to the uniqueness and intrigue of Downtown Denver.

Filed under History, Streets.
9 Comments

Highland or Highlands?

Posted by Ken on September 21, 2008

Most people familiar with Denver know there is a difference between the names Highland and Highlands to describe the area northwest of Downtown, but I suspect few are very clear as to when to use the one versus the other or if there should be any distinction at all. Even on my DenverInfill maps, I use the name Highland for the entire district, even though I know that’s not entirely accurate. So, in the spirit of civic enlightenment, here’s a brief primer on the difference between Highland and Highlands. My sources for this information are the books Rediscovering Northwest Denver by Ruth Eloise Wiberg and Denver, A Pictorial History by William C. Jones and Kenton Forrest.

The first attempt in establishing a settlement in what is today Denver occurred on September 24, 1858, when some Kansans established the St. Charles Town Association, which claimed the area immediately east of the Platte River and north of Cherry Creek (known today as Lower Downtown). However, they didn’t stick around to actually settle the site; instead, they went back to Kansas to seek a legal town charter from the territorial legislature with plans to return in the Spring of 1859.

Meanwhile, a separate party—from Georgia—established the Auraria Town Company on November 1, 1858 and immediately started building cabins and laying out streets in the area immediately east of the Platte and south of Cherry Creek. Consequently, we will officially celebrate the sesquicentennial of our city’s founding on November 1, 2008, thanks to those Georgians and their settlement named after the town of Auraria, Georgia.

Another party of Kansans, led by General William Larimer, showed up a few days later and unilaterally “assumed” the St. Charles Town Company’s claim and established the town of Denver City on November 17, 1858 in the same area east of the Platte and north of Cherry Creek. (Later, the St. Charles people would return but they failed to assert their claim.) On December 11, 1858, General Larimer waded across the Platte and established on the west side of the river the third town in the area, Highland (without the “s”). Of particular importance to this blog topic is that the western boundary of the town of Highland was Zuni Street (Gallup Avenue at the time).

Among these three towns, not quite one hundred cabins existed that first winter of 1858-1859.

The towns of Auraria and Denver City didn’t get along very well. A rivalry existed as to which town would become the dominant community. Although Auraria had the early lead, thanks in part to the fact that Denver City had the stagecoach station and the only official U.S. Post Office for the three towns, Denver City prevailed. On April 3, 1860, Auraria residents voted to merge with Denver City, and Highland joined in as part of the merger too. The new combined town was named just Denver, and had a population of about 4,700. The area that was once Highland became known within the local government as North Denver, Auraria became West Denver, and Denver City became East Denver.

Over the next decade or so, most of the growth in Denver occurred east of the Platte. But by the mid-1870s, the land to the west of the original town of Highland—i.e. west of Zuni Street—finally caught the attention of a real estate speculator. In the area around what is today W. 32nd Avenue and Federal Boulevard, a new upscale subdivision named Highland Park was platted in 1875 that was modeled after a Scottish village and included curvy streets with names like Argyle, Dunkeld, Caithness, Firth, and Fife. Dozens of additional subdivisions sprang up nearby and later in 1875, the town of Highlands (with an “s”) was established. The eastern boundary for the town of Highlands was Zuni Street (the western boundary for the original Highland), and Highlands eventually extended north to W. 38th Avenue, south to Colfax, and west to Sheridan. Its city hall was located at the corner of 26th and Federal where Denver Fire Station #12 is today.

Highlands was an elite suburb that looked down (literally and figuratively) upon the dirty, crowded, smoggy, crime-ridden city of Denver. Highlands prided itself on its clean air, beautiful gardens and tree-lined streets and, in particular, its high moral standards. Thanks to a fee of $5,000 to obtain a town of Highlands liquor license, there wasn’t a single bar in the entire community. While sinful Denver surged by 1890 to a population of 106,000, affluent clean-living Highlands counted about 8,000 residents.

Denver tried to annex the town of Highlands several times, but Highlands residents always voted against it. Finally, it was their financial state that caused Highlands to give in. The lack of an industrial tax base, a treasury depleted by the Silver Panic of 1893, and a long list of needed infrastructure investments left the town with little choice. On June 22, 1896, the town of Highlands voted to be annexed to Denver.

That’s the story. So what does this mean for us today with regards to the Highland versus Highlands question? I suppose it means that if you are referring specifically to the oldest part of northwest Denver closest to Downtown (east of Zuni Street including the little section of the Downtown street grid west of the river), you should probably call it Highland, and if you are referring to anything west of Zuni, you should probably call it Highlands. Or, call the whole thing Highland and distinguish the part closest to Downtown and the Platte River as Lower Highland. But please, please, whatever you do, just don’t call it “LoHi”!!

Filed under Highland, History.
19 Comments

Steel’s Department Store Grand Opening

Posted by Ken on August 27, 2008
The December 16, 1922 issue of the “Steel Sparks” newsletter describes the scene on December 9, 1922 in Downtown Denver as over 120,000 people jammed the new Steel’s Department Store at 16th and Welton, now the renovated Sage Building.
To read the full account of the Denver store opening, which included in the basement a 500-seat Cafeteria complete with a 10,000-dish-per-hour dishwashing machine, click here to download it in PDF (2.9 mb).

Here’s a photo from the newsletter of the Steel’s Department Store the afternoon before the grand opening:

Throughout these many newsletters, President L. R. Steel has always been referred to in glowing terms and hailed as the glorious leader and beloved founder of the Steel’s department store chain. Interestingly, according to researcher Dave Dyer, Mr. Steel was deposed as the head of the company just two weeks after the Denver store opened. Perhaps he personally wrote the newsletter. In March, 1923, Mr. Steel died of a stroke and the company went out of business just a few months later.

Filed under Central Downtown, History.
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More Steel’s Department Store Photos

Posted by Ken on August 22, 2008

If you’ve been following this blog over the past couple of months, you know that Dave Dyer in Texas is researching the history of Steel’s Department Store, the long-defunct company that built in 1922 what is now the Sage Building on Block 162. Dave’s been kind enough to send me scanned images and articles from the Steel Company’s newsletters when they relate to the Denver store. For previous blogs on this topic, go here, here and here.

Dave is nearing the end of his stack of Steel newsletters, so this may be it. Here’s a page from the December 9, 1922 issue with a photo of the completed building (with fake clouds added, no less):

One other interesting photo from the same newsletter is of the Steel’s Denver warehouse:

No where in the newsletter does it say what street it’s on, but it’s clear from the photo that the street address for the warehouse is 2133 – 2139, and the taller building next door has an address of 2145. Anyone out there think they know what street the warehouse was on?

UPDATE: Thanks to Scott (see Comments) for figuring it out: 2145 is the historic building with the brewpub attached to Coors Field. The Steel’s warehouse building is no longer there… demolished to make way for the stadium or perhaps razed even before then. It was still standing at least in 1979 when the photo posted at the Denver History Tours blog was taken.

Filed under Central Downtown, History.
3 Comments

Red White and Blue for the Sage Building

Posted by Ken on August 20, 2008

With exterior renovations complete, the Sage Building at 16th & Welton is recreating the look from its 1923 grand opening as Steel’s Department Store by decorating the building with bunting and US flags… nicely appropriate to celebrate next week’s Democratic National Convention. Here’s a shot from a few hours ago when just the first few flags had been installed:

When complete, it should look something like this:

Thank you, Evan Makovsky, for bringing this building back to life in so many ways!

Filed under Central Downtown, Historic Preservation, History.
5 Comments

Steel Building Under Construction

Posted by Ken on July 21, 2008

A few weeks ago, Dave Dyer, who’s researching the long-defunct L. R. Steel Company, sent me some scanned images of the company’s newletter showing the building once located at 16th and Welton before the current structure was built, and the rendering of the proposed Steel Building.

Dave continues to work his way through several years of the company’s newsletters, and when he comes across something about the Denver store, he sends me a copy. So, here are some of the latest images in the exciting saga of the development of the “new” Steel’s Department Store in Downtown Denver:

First, from the March 11, 1922 newsletter, a series of images of the old store being demolished:

Next, from March 18, 1922, the groundbreaking ceremony, featuring President Steel himself:

From May 20, 1922, a two-page spread of photos of the excavation for the new structure (zoom to view at full size):

Dated June 24, 1922, the new building is starting to rise:

From July 22, 1922, the new structure is almost topped off:

Don’t you wish our 21st Century infill projects would go from proposal to demolition to construction to completion as quickly as the Steel Building did?

Thanks again to Dave Dyer for his willingness to share his research! More to come.

Filed under Central Downtown, Historic Preservation, History.
9 Comments

Original Steel Building Rendering

Posted by Ken on July 1, 2008
As a follow up to my blog of two days ago about the historic Steel/Fontius building, Dave Dyer sent me another image from the Steel Company’s newsletter—this time of the September 3, 1921 issue, showing an artist’s rendering of the “proposed” Steel Building. Thank you again, Dave. This is good stuff.

By the way, I have it on good authority that the correct pronunciation of “Fontius” is fon-shus, not fon-tee-us.

Filed under Central Downtown, Historic Preservation, History.
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