DenverInfill Blog

Water, concrete, more concrete. That’s the short story of the current situation at Union Station.

First, let’s look at the water situation. Digging phase two of the bus terminal is being held up by ground water. Pumping out the ground water is being held up for analysis of the contaminants in the water, finding an effective method for filtering out those contaminants, and getting approval for the process. In the meantime, I have a good view of a not-so-good reflecting pool.

Now for concrete story number one. The concrete borders for the tear-shaped planters are being poured. Those borders will double as seats for passers-by.

Concrete story number two is about the other half of 16th Street between Chestnut Place and Wewatta Street.  As you will recall, the street was torn up during the removal of the light rail tracks that served the light rail station of yesteryear.  The new street is in but not quite ready for use. Utility work is still underway at the intersection of Wewatta and 16th. Here’s how it looks from that intersection.

Please check out more current photos at JobSiteVistor.com.

Last week in Update #86, I wrote about the start of landscaping work near the new light rail station. More has happened since then.  On Friday, about 50 trees arrived via two tractor trailers (see the first photo below).  Today, the first tree was planted, and it’s on the west side of Chestnut Place between 18th and 19th streets (second photo).  The other 49 or so trees are also destined for Chestnut.

Also referring to Update #86, the DUSPA renderings that I posted were not the best representation of the future landscaping. Ken was kind enough to find some better ones including the two below (courtesy of Hargreaves Associates).  You can find a couple more on our Denver Union Station page at JobSiteVistor.com.

Still more news.  Work has resumed on the section of 16th Street along the front of the building at 1900 16th Street.  Here is a day-old photo of that part of the project.

In answer to Corey’s question on September 16 about the mall shuttles, the prototype mall buses are due to arrive in October.

Finally, as you know, from time to time I like to post interesting, downtown photos unrelated to the DUS project. You may remember the fog last Friday (September 16). I took three photos that morning, one follows and the other two are at JobSiteVistor.com (go to last week’s “Weekly Photos” to find them). To enjoy the following one which is my favorite, you need to click on it to enlarge it. Then strain your eyes to see the top of the Four Season Hotel in the center of the frame. (I flirted with an idea of playing “Where’s Waldo” but thought you might be tiring of silly games.

You may have noticed some tear-drop shapes in the foreground of the picture in my previous posting (Kyle referenced them in his comment yesterday). Some are concrete; some are dirt; others are partially green. Here is a closeup of what will become the first elements of the project that are strictly ornamental.

The following two images are renderings from the DUSPA website. If you look carefully at the upper center of the first rendering, you can see that those tear-drop shapes will become gardens.  The second rendering is a better view at the street level.

And what’s up with the blue shrink-wrap on the new vent tubes? Well, there is a lot of work going on in the immediate area so the blue wrap is simply to protect them from damage.