A milestone: Update #100. So, what’s all the fuss about? Why 100 blog posts about a lousy bus station? I will try to answer that from a variety of perspectives.
First of all, the station itself is historic. Yeah, it’s 131 years old, but I think the more important part of its age is the people who have traveled through the old building. Of the millions of Union Station’s travelers, I’m sure that the vast majority was ordinary people simply going from Point A to Point B. Many others were soldiers and sailors going to wars, sadly fewer coming home. Still others were going off to and coming home from college, weddings, vacations, meetings, you name it. In the early days, I bet many were get-rich-quick schemers, gunslingers, gamblers, plus those who hoped to tame the schemers, gunslingers and gamblers. Through it all, Union Station welcomed them: the good, the great, and the bad.
Second, it’s big: hundreds of millions of dollars, hundreds of workers, years of work.
Third, it’s nice. The complete project will fill in the only remaining space that was once, well, you know … pretty ugly. A bustling bus station, and shiny, new buildings will be a dramatic improvement.
Fourth, we can see a glorious future. I think it’s fascinating that the old, great station can come back to life with even more ordinary, famous, and infamous characters. The prognosticators predict that 220,000 passengers a day will travel through the station complex within a few years. By comparison, last year, 147,000 passenger a day traveled through DIA which was the eleventh busiest airport in the world.
Fifth, there is probably a personal connection for you. There is for me, and I’m the new kid in town. When Ken Schroeppel and I discussed this milestone posting, he suggested that I had become an “accidental celebrity-blogger.” That put a smile on my face and caused me to think about how it happened. My wife Cini and I traveled to Denver about 15 years ago when we lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. We were searching for a big-city downtown to which we could retire when the time came several years later. We stayed at the Grand Hyatt on Welton Street for several days, during which we strolled around downtown. When we came upon Union Station, we wandered in, sat on one of the big benches, and gawked around the train room which was occupied only by a couple of Amtrak employees. We pondered the day when we could live here and ride the train.
Fast forwarded to about 2005 when my retirement was approaching. We chose Denver as the place to live, having rejecting places like Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, Phoenix, and many other big cities. In anticipation of our move, I wanted to learned more about the city that would become home. I don’t remember how it happened, but I found DenverInfill. After watching the blog for several months, I contacted Ken via email, and he responded. A year or so later, we moved to the 19th floor of Glass House. We had a bird’s eye view of the station and an intense interest in the goings-on in our new hometown. When I joined the board of Union Station Advocates, I finally met Ken. One thing led to another, and I accepted his offer to write about the Union Station project for the blog.
And lastly, I think we like this project because of our collective personal involvement. I am impressed with the rigorous process through which dreamers go to get big things done, and done right. Among the long list of tasks, they seek input from anyone willing to provide it, and they negotiate differences of opinion. In the end, we all become owners of the result, even if it’s a tiny piece of ownership. The process isn’t easy, and it isn’t quick. But when it’s done, it can be magnificent.
So, there you have it. According to your resident blogger, that’s why we like this bus station.
Well Said!
Thank you for the updates on this exciting and monumental project. I’ve been lucky enough to live in Denver for some twenty years and have seen so many transformational projects take place. I’ve always been curious about the various large projects going on around town; from the twice renovated convention center, to T-Rex, and of course the completion of Denver International Airport, To think as a city we’ve built arenas, stadiums, museums etc. and we are now demonstrating the wisdom in building a transportation network that will hopefully link all of this together efficiently. The Union Station Complex will be the centerpiece of this whole project.
It is great to read your eyewitness accounts of the genesis of this endeavor.
Great hundredth report Rick! I’ve really enjoyed your DUS reports the last several years.It looks like the next several will be especially exciting!
I loved this. Thanks for all the great 100 posts!
DenverInfill has long been a comforting community for people who double-take at new construction cranes, look at parking lots as possibilities, get giddy about interesting city blocks, and travel partially to influence our thinking about home. Keep up the great work Ken, Rick, and all of the other contributors.
Very well put!!
Very well said, Rick. Enjoyed blog #100 and your interesting perspective.
Thank you Rick for a great post and many more like it in months past!
There was some discussion at some point in 2011 the Greyhound Bus Depot currently located at 19th and Arapahoe was going to be relocated to the southeast corner of Alameda and Santa Fe on a rather sizable lot that stretches south along Santa Fe on the west side of the BNSF railroad and RTD light rail tracks to north of the existing Home Depot facility at Santa Fe and I-25. Any news or information on that and when and if it is going to happen ? If so, is there any scuttlebutt on what may be developed on that street block-sized lot once it is vacated ? I believe a 15 to 20 story residential high rise would be one of the better possible options.
Too much stucco! Grrrrrr! Oh wait…wrong post, sorry…
Great series Rick! I’ve read all 100 posts and look forward to many more. (And you’re no longer allowed to go off on trips and deprive us of updates for weeks at a time. m’kay?) :p
I find it interesting that you and your wife chose Denver out of all those great towns. It sort of makes me proud of my home town when I hear things like that. Too often, when I mention my desire to one day move back to Denver, I get a response along the lines of: “What? Why on earth would you want to move back to that cow town now that you’ve lived in California?” All I can do is guarantee them that if they spent any amount of time in Denver, they’d find it’s a really cool place.
A couple weeks ago, on a visit to Denver, I walked out to the CPV, stood on the millennium bridge, took in all the changes taking place, and thought about the scope of the Fastracks/Union Station project. It gave me this sense that Denver was on the cusp of the kind of boom (not just in terms of real estate, but in terms of culture, economics, etc.) that would make it a true world class city, with a world class reputation, not many decades from now.
Congratulations on 100 Union Station updates.
My first impression of Denver came when, in 1984, I stepped off the Amtrak train and into Union Station. To this day I cannot think of one without thinking of the other.