By Andy Vuong
The light rail plaza officially opened to the public around 10 AM on Friday, May 18th. Here are some pictures of the celebration Kiewit threw at noon to mark to occasion – which included comments from Councilwoman Judy Montero, music from the band Electric Avenue, and dance performances from a women’s Zumba troop.
The most noticeable change to the plaza over the last couple of weeks has been the completion of the detail work of the pavers and the final landscaping of the plaza, planters, and benches. Below are close-ups of a couple of planters:
Here are close-ups of the landscaping surrounding the benches adjacent to Chestnut Pavilion:
But to truly appreciate the scale and design of the plaza – I took the following pictures from the 8th floor pool area of the Glass House. I’m sure you will agree…the plaza is truly stunning! But I can’t tell if the plaza looks better in the daytime or at night? What do you think?
Finally, I saved my favorite photo for last. To me, what makes a public space great is not just how it looks, but if the public actually uses it. We have a little while until the plaza will be fully utilized, but for now though, check out this photo of the plaza full of Rockies fans heading to the game on Friday night!
Andy, thank you for your post and coverage of the event. To answer you question, I like the nighttime shot.
I walked through the plaza the other day and it looks great. It will continue to get better as the plants mature. The lighting is really great too; looks just like the renderings. I can’t wait to see the entire Linear Gardens finished!
Thanks for the coverage, Andy. I can’t wait for the trees to grow more and make the plaza feel much more organic. Is the large covered structure an entrance to the bus station below? Does the mall ride pick riders up just East of the plaza? I definitely plan on checking this out soon.
The large coverage structure currently fenced off is Chestnut Pavilion – is is where people will enter and exit the Bus Box below. There will be a similar structure on Wewatta street to exit that side of the box.
Mall Riders will always board the shuttle in their current location (towards the Millennium bridge) but will eventually be dropped off next to the entrance of Chestnut Pavilion.
Wow! They really did a wonderful job with the plaza. I’m actually a tiny bit surprised to see they chose to plant grass in the teardrop planters instead of something interesting. Maybe that’ll change? Meh…doesn’t matter. It’s just great to see it finally filled with people!!
On to the next milestone…
I was a little surprised too about the grass, but it does provide a nice splash of Green…and when you get up close and sit on the planter…the ones fill with grass look more inviting in my opinion.
I wonder if the prairie grasses planted in the mulch planters will continue to grow in clumps over time, or spread to form a natural grass “turf”? Either way it’s an interesting way of contrasting ornamental tall-grass varieties with the more manicured Kentucky Bluegrass.