The holiday season is upon us and we here at DenverInfill would like to give thanks to the great city we live in.
Back in April, Ken Schroeppel and I went around central Denver creating a time-lapse video for the global One Day on Earth media campaign. On April 26, we had a 24-hour window to film around Denver to answer a specific question about our city. Totaling 4,842 photos, our time-lapse video attempts to answer the question: How do pedestrians interact with their city?
Saturday, April 26, 2014 was a typical Saturday in the Mile High City, and there were no major sporting events or conventions in town. As expected, the chilly morning didn’t bring many people out at first but, as the day warmed up, the amount of pedestrian activity increased considerably all over the city.
Shooting commenced at 5:06 AM to catch the sunrise, and ended at 7:55 PM when my last camera battery, out of seven, died as the skies darkened. Ken accompanied me for the entire shoot, helping carry equipment and transporting us to every location. This project would not have been nearly as amazing without Ken’s help, knowledge, and creative ideas. Thank you, Ken!
Once we shot the beautiful sunrise, we visited an additional 15 sites. We had the process down to a science: get to the site, setup, shoot 250 photos at 4-second intervals, take down, and move on. There was no looking back and no retakes.
Without further ado, we would like to present One Day on Earth – One Day in Denver!
In case you missed it, about a year ago we premiered our first time-lapse video, A Day in Denver; a title that would prove to be coincidentally similar to 2014’s One Day on Earth – One Day in Denver media campaign. Make sure you check it out!
Ken and I and everyone at DenverInfill and DenverUrbanism thank you all for following along with us as we chronicle Denver’s remarkable growth and development and its transformation into an even more amazing urban place. We love our city!
Happy Thanksgiving, Denver!
On this day of giving thanks, I thank you for making this such an enjoyable website that I follow almost daily to keep abreast of all the wonderful things happening in my favorite city. Your work is very much appreciated.
Tim, Trinidad (Colorado, not the island!)
I agree with Tim! Ryan and Ken, I also look at both this and urbanism once a day. After 19 years in Denver, I left it 7 years ago and am writing you from my home in the southeastern B.C. region of the Kootenays, in the nice little city of Nelson (10,000). But Denver I consider my (US) ‘home’. I visit at least once a year and continue to be impressed with its dynamism and attractiveness.
Simply awesome. Love the variety of sites that were chosen.
Very nice stuff guys. I really like that sunrise sequence in particular.
Kudos on a job well done!
As a Denver transplant currently leaving in the Sacramento, CA area I often dive into this web site to get my ‘fix’ of what I believe is one of the most livable cities in the US. Your website reinforces that belief on so many levels and does so once again with this time lapse feature. Thanks so much and keep up the great work.
Love it! Thanks for all your fantastic photos and posts all year, you help keep me informed on what is happening in our fabulous city especially when the building is happening so fast. Happy Thanksgiving to you!
When I moved to Denver, I had no idea I would find myself living in one of the most amazing urban neighborhoods that this continent has to offer. My girlfriend and I found an apartment on Craigslist during mid Autumn 2013. We nestled ourselves between Colfax and 17th –or- Cheeseman Park and the Hospital Complex –or- East High School and Downtown. In the first few weeks of living in this wonderful and brand new city, we sold our car and were blown away with how much we would and could submerge ourselves in on our immediate surroundings and how much those surroundings would change in just one year.
And a lot has changed since I moved into the Uptown/City Park West/East Colfax/Cap Hill North zone. Quite a mouthful.
Olive & Finch and Patxi’s would eventually emerge from the dust of a busy construction site. I could eat a pizza at Serrioz and a drink a margarita at Las Margarita’s. There was not a sugar laced confectionary odor battling with Bourbon Chicken’s savory scented smoke for Colfax Ave air rights. Now there is the nostalgic BSide, and the classic Argyle. A neon pink buzz dazzles those waiting curbside on Colfax for Voodoo Doughnuts 24-7. The air has never been sweeter.
Other new comers arrived in all different shapes and flavors. The District, Ice Cream Riot, Alpine Dog Brewing Company, Lost Highway and Kava Sutra have nicely mixed things up around here. Some establishments would make adjustments. The Denver Bicycle Café went beer-centric nocturnally and ditched nighttime coffee service. P17 changed its menu’s geographical direction. The Squire expanded with a patio. Udi’s morphed into Silvi’s Kitchen
This neighborhood is truly a cornucopia with its endless options for food, booze, and a good time. Believe it or not, there’s even more coming. Another brewery, Deep Draft, will be tucked between P17 and Next Door Bar. The District has plans for a rooftop setting. Coming soon at the old D Bar location, attached to Humboldt, is a Mexican eatery and bar dubbed Dos Santos. Izu Sushi is the venture that will complete another block of Colfax; they’re sprucing up the former City Pizza spot next to Blush & Blue. Yet another installment of Illegal Pete’s is gearing up cattycorner to the legendary Pete’s Kitchen, their new digs are in the late Mama’s Café; a long red A-framed building which is in dire need of a paint job.
We’ll see if any of the newcomers will add more public artistic elements to the neighborhood among their edible offerings. Lets cross our fingers. Luckily there actually have been artistic visual additions, such as the District’s painted sign and the Ascent Uptown mural on 17th. The colorful Upper Main Street Clothes Line sculpture dressed up a depressed slice of Park Ave. just before Colfax.
The roundup of the St. Joe’s Hospital upgrades will come to the long awaited completion in early December. The Hunger Relief Center ‘s attractive building at 18th and Downing is days away from a ribbon cutting as well. Maybe one day soon we can see a repurpose to the grand and potentially haunted Tammen Hall? Meanwhile there is a tree rapidly growing in the rear courtyard. For weeks now a dumpster has been perched on the front step of a boxy red carwash, an eyesore from Colfax’s yesteryear that sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb on the Queen City’s Main Street. There’s tons of potential. Lets hope something is in the works. Around what I like to call ‘The valley of vacancy’, at the diagonal parcel of 1655 E. Lafayette, a chain link fence baricades a brutalist mid-century monolith that looms over an unfortunately placed parking lot. The presence around this place has about as much character as a prison. Could this be the beginning phases of the cleverly titled 17th Avenue Pavilions that was proposed back in 2010? Such a development could instantly spark interest across the street where a handsome retired fire station lies adjacent to a wide vacant lot. At that corner of 17th sits a tired and underused gallery space in dire need of a fresh start. This corner is as ripe as its ever going to get. A huge development at 1655 is an absolute game changer. Currently it’s the missing front tooth of a pretty smile.
As for now I can say it seems as though the fire is blazing in this exciting corner of Denver. That thing called ‘location, location, location’ is proving itself to be blistering hot yet again. I wish this fantastic location could settle on one name however. Doesn’t it seem silly that when I walk three to four blocks in any direction from 16th and Franklin I am in a different hood? City Park West, Uptown, Upper Colfax, Whatever…All I know is that it’s on the up and up. I sure am thankful to be here to enjoy it all.
What a delightful read. Thanks for the effort.