I just received this afternoon a copy of the presentation Hargreaves showed at the October 30 meeting discussed below. I’ve uploaded a copy of the presentation at the Union Station Advocates Blog.
I’ll be posting my comments about the design here, as well as over at USA, soon. What are your thoughts about the public realm designs?
ps. Keep in mind that this is still at the concept level and that the literal to-be-built detailed designs have not yet been created. That will come over the next year or so.
I am actually very impressed. I am pleasantly surprised.
One concern. How will they fill all that retail space?
What do you think of it ken?
The train hall looks wonderful, and the rendering is a big improvement from a year ago. The Kinetic Plaza is a bit too edgy for me, though. The front plazas are okay, but I'm not sure if I like the water fountains. I like the effort put into making these spaces busy 24/7, but I would hate to see them turn into another Civic Center park. They must be sustainable in the long run, or else they'll become deadzones.
Good stuff. I have some nits here and there (see below), but on the whole I like it. The only space I'm particularly unhappy about is the kinetic plaza, and I absolutely adore the train hall.
Comments on each space:
For the DUS south plaza, I like the marketplace option best. It will most effectively pull activity to and from 16th Street Mall, which is the most important function of that space. This square is probably the most difficult to design of any in the plan. Designers are going to be tempted to turn it into a sculpture garden, but it needs to be a throughway.
I like the concept for the DUS north plaza. It should be somewhat softer than the south plaza, but active as a destination rather than a cut-through. The big challenge is going to be integrating the stairs up to the kinetic plaza effectively. Speaking of the stairs, I think they should mimic the Spanish Steps in Rome. They should be stone, with heavy traditional ornament. The two DUS plazas are good places for contemporary art, but the steps need to be very heavily decorated if they're going to look at all special.
The kinetic plaza I think is just going to look lame and instantly dated. They're trying too hard to be edgy, as mymilehi says, and it's just not coming off as mature. Worse, it's too big a space to be devoid of commerce. Honestly, I'd be happier with a concrete pad filled with lots of vendor carts.
The train hall, OTOH, looks magnificent. It will instantly become a postcard-worthy landmark. I love it. I think it's the first time that as a Washingtonian, I've been jealous of something in Denver. And for the record, I actually like it better with the gap in the roof. The gap makes it less insular – visually connects it with the buzz of the city around.
Wewatta plaza is about right. It's a good place for a fountain. The only problem is that I think the entrance to the train hall from this side needs some work – it should be more monumental. This is going to be one of the main entry points to one of Denver's best public spaces, but it looks more the back door to a cafeteria. I *love* the train hall, but for its entrance here I think they should depart a from the space-frame theme and do something a little more substantial.
I'm not sure how I feel about the 17th Street linear park. The renderings look great, but I'd like more of that space to be usable rather than just planted, and if I were a passenger moving from the LRT to DUS, I'd be annoyed at the obstructions. Lots of outdoor dining is perfect, for the perimeter though. I guess I think the concept here is about right, but it still needs a lot of refinement.
There's not much there about the light rail plaza. I guess I like the idea of the "landform" play element, but I'm not sure that's the place for it. I think a clock tower on the order of about 60 feet tall would look fabulous in that location. Since clock towers are easily recognized elements of train stations world-wide, it would be a good visual tie to DUS, even if the architectural style of the clock tower were totally different.
Finally, two general comments:
1. I hope the designers are paying attention to how pedestrians will move from the transit plaza to 16th Street Mall, because that's going to be an extremely important movement.
2. I know these renderings are concepts for the public spaces and have nothing to do with the commercial buildings, and I know the massing models in place of buildings are just there for reference, but just to be on the record: For the love of god please don't make all the buildings blank glass curtain walls.
In the final slide on the USA website there is mention of a Cherry Creek Circulator at Union Station. Could someone tell me what this is? A bus? A train? Something else? I'm intriuged.
Ken,
Where will the Taxi pick-up/drop-off be located? Will there be a single point on Wewatta, or will there be multiple Taxi connection points around DUS? Also, I remember the discussion of bicycle parking/lockers at DUS. Is this still a part of the plan and if so where would the bicycle parking be located? Will it be easy for bicycle commuters to connect to Denver bikepaths?
– ME
I have a concern about the light rail plaza and how it connects to the Millennium Bridge plaza. The design explicitly says that there is a clear path to the 18th street bridge but doesn't say anything about access to the Millennium Bridge on 16th. Since the Millennium bridge is the way people from Highland will access the light rail plaza it will most likely continue to have more pedestrian traffic than the 18th street bridge does after it is built. There needs to be a clear and direct way for that traffic to get to the shuttle stop and the light rail plaza.