Did you notice there’s a new tower crane in Downtown? A few have come down recently (Zi Lofts, Sugar Cube, 1400 Wewatta) but the new one is for 1800 Larimer, Westfield Development’s 22-story office tower and future home for Xcel Energy.
Here are a couple of photos, courtesy of Rick A.:
Also, you can keep up with construction at 1800 Larimer with their webcam. Go here: http://www.1800larimer.com/webcam.htm
This doesn't have much to do with 1800 Larimer, but an article in the NY Times today listed Denver as a city that "has introduced" or "plans to introduce" streetcars to the city (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/us/14streetcar.html) – anyone know anything about this? Last I heard, streetcars in Denver were mere speculation, did something change?
Technically, the line that will go up Downing to intersect with the line that goes to the airport will be a streetcar.
There are always studies being done for a Colfax streetcar. Carla Madison, District 8, travelled to Portland a few months ago to check out their system.
Still, cash, as always, is the deciding factor and right now there is none. Next year when the oilman's out of the White House I bet we'll start to hear things…
Streetcars downtown and connecting central neighborhoods would be killer.
This article has me excited – even I think they may have incorrect information regarding Denver. I'm so glad that Portland has pioneered the "modern streetcar" system and have demonstrated great success, including bountiful private investment that soon followed. Their experiment in bringing back this already proven urban infrastructure will hopefully reverberate around the nation. The whole "creating a sense of place" should not be diminished, which is why you can't compare the cost of rail with buses since rail has a greater influence at bringing in other investment. However, Portland's "experiment" is still relatively new (less than 7 years old) so the lessons are still being learned, studied, and hopefully set up for duplication in other cities – as we're seeing in the article.
Cities need to compete with the suburbs to attract the high-end homeowner (for a tax base) just the same way that they should try and attract business. And rail would help that effort tremendously, especially considering the future of oil/gas. The trends will be that people will prefer to live in more dense locations and get away from having to use a car for everything. A lot of people are reluctant to using buses, but most everyone enjoys a train ride.
C'mon Denver – let's get on board!!
awesome! glad to see another major project going up!