Surprise! The DenverInfill blog has a new look and is now powered by WordPress. Here’s the story behind the change and what’s in store for DenverInfill in the year to come.
You may have noticed the new tagline above. It used to say: “News, ideas, and commentary about Downtown Denver and its urban infill developments.” Now it reads: “News, ideas, and commentary about urbanism in the Mile High City.” With the new wording, two differences are evident:
First, the new focus of the blog will be urbanism, the mix of physical, political, economic, geographic, cultural, and other factors that together create the wonderfully messy places we call cities. Infill development is obviously a big part of the urban environment these days, so that aspect of urbanism will continue to get a lot of coverage here at DenverInfill. But now the full spectrum of urbanism will be up for discussion: transit, public spaces, architecture, sustainability, urban policies, and so on. I’ve been heading in that direction anyway in my blog posts over the past year or so; now I’m just making it official.
Part of this also has to do with the limitations of the DenverInfill website. I created it in 2004 sort of on a whim and as a hobby. At that time, I didn’t think much about the issue of keeping it up-to-date over the long haul. Building it was a lot of work, but it was fun and, for the first few years, I was able to keep the website relatively current tracking new projects, updating construction photos, and whatnot, despite the fact that just adding one new project to the website involved a complicated, time-consuming, multi-step process of rasterizing this and cropping that and html-ing this and FTP-ing that. But for the last two years I have been much busier both at work and with the various boards and committees I’m on; consequently, the project-updating aspects of the website have suffered. I’ve generally kept up with things via the blog, but over time the blog and the website have grown farther apart from each other. Anyway, here’s the deal: Given the website’s baseline is the start of 2000 and the end of 2009 is at hand, that makes a nice even decade. Now seems like a good time to stop. The DenverInfill website will remain as a permanent online archive documenting Downtown Denver’s infill boom from 2000-2009, but its project-tracking days are over. New infill developments, however, will continue to be enthusiastically covered on the blog.
Second, in addition to expanding the focus from infill developments to urbanism in general, the blog will expand its geographic coverage. The DenverInfill blog will be no longer tied to the rigid boundaries of the website. Topics relating to urbanism and city-building from throughout the greater Denver region are now fair game, although most of the discussion will probably remain centered on Denver’s urban core, because that is where my heart is.
Yet another change starting in 2010 will be the introduction of new contributors to the DenverInfill blog. I’ll be inviting people with expertise in a variety of areas—architecture, transit, urban design, real estate development, etc.—to join me in posting about Denver’s urbanism. This will increase both the breadth and depth of the discussion and, hopefully, expand DenverInfill’s reach and influence in the community. It should also increase the frequency of posts to the blog, so that when I’m super busy or out of town, you won’t have to go days on end without a new DenverInfill post. Eventually, the DenverInfill blog will transform into Denver’s online magazine for urban planning, design, and development issues, or something to that effect. I’m also collaborating with someone on another blog/website that will be a nice complement to DenverInfill. More about that when the time comes.
Because the old version of this blog was a self-hosted Blogger blog, there were some limitations to the features available to me. With WordPress, I’ll have more flexibility and options regarding blogging tools and other web gizmos. For example, you’ll notice on the right sidebar we now have Categories. Currently, there are over 500 “Uncategorized” blog posts because, with the switch to WordPress, we imported all 580 posts from the previous Blogger format and all of those came over uncategorized. I’ve edited the most recent 20 or so posts to add the appropriate categories and, over the course of the next month or two, I’ll be working my way backwards in time to eventually categorize all 580 posts. The categories reflect broad urbanism topics or geographic areas and should help make the blog more user-friendly. If you’re looking for something more specific, such as a project name or a particular street, please use the “Search” function at the top of the left sidebar.
Finally, let me end with a few thanks. First, to Patricia at Keynote Support for the great job on importing the old posts from Blogger and customizing the new WordPress template. In 2010 we’ll be adding more features and maybe tweaking the design a bit, but I’m very happy with the new look. Also, let me thank all of you out there who visit DenverInfill. I have run into so many of you at various meetings and events around town and I genuinely appreciate all of the compliments you give me on DenverInfill. I never expected DenverInfill to be as popular as it appears to be, which tells me that there are a lot of people out there who love our city and have a strong desire to see it continue to evolve and grow into the best urban center it can be. That is extremely gratifying and makes my effort totally worth it.
I will conclude with what my mission continues to be in this new era for DenverInfill:
- To inspire Denver citizens to envision and strive for exceptional urbanism in their city and region
- To inform and educate on topics relating to urban planning and city-building
- To serve as an online resource of notable urban projects, plans, and programs throughout Denver
- To promote and showcase Denver and its opportunities to the world
- To advocate for positive changes to Denver’s existing and future built environment
And, finally, DenverInfill still loathes surface parking lots and seeks their eradication from Denver’s urban core!
Ken, it’s great to see your site evolve! However, I have an idea for you. Why not link your blog to a community updated custom google map that tracks developments – kind of like this little gem by Bukden from skyscraperpage.com – http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&z=15&om=1&msid=104293834040345690390.00000111c1705ced2c8fa&msa=0
This seems like a much faster/easier way to make updates to the site.
Love your blog! I’ve been following your blog since 2006 when I returned to the Denver area. I’m a big fan of urbanism, and living in Uptown I see plenty of good things happening and plenty of challenges ahead. Thanks for creating a site like this!
Great blog and I look I forward to the changes. Your blog actually turned me on and into urbanism and its competing theories. I live in Park Hill and enjoy leaving close to the city. My career has nothing to do with what you cover on your web site and it has made be very interested in the city planning and everything that goes into it. Over the past three or four years that I have been monitoring your blog I have learned a great deal.
thanks.
The Dirt: we have something like that in mind. Thanks! – Ken
Keep up the good work Ken, you are opening eyes and minds and connecting neighbors with whats happening in our city neighborhoods. Thank you for giving us a voice and for fighting for the best Denver can be.
Hi Ken,
I’m surely one of the people who have said hello and told you how much I admire your site and dedication to making Denver a liveable urban city that encompasses many of the ideas on development that make it better. Big kudos on the site – I’ll keep tuning in each day. Thanks for your effort on this.
Ken,
First, excellent website! I often refer your blog to friends for interesting infill projects in the Denver area.
I’ve been following for many years now, and this evolution sounds very interesting. If you’re expanding coverage to more of the metro area and including even more urban topics to discuss, I think that the blog can only get better.
Ken,
Thank you for all your good work with denverinfill, union station advocates, and the other things you do to make our city better. I completely agree with all that you’ve said on new urbanism and how it should be applied in Denver. Your website was part of my inspiration for going to architecture school. I look foreword to seeing how your blog develops and how Denver develops along side it.
Bravo Ken. When you started denverinfill, I was just a geeky kid who loved bustling cities and big buildings. I’ve steadfastly followed your site ever since, and I’m now only a couple semesters out from earning my bachelors in planning and headed for a masters after that. DenverInfill has provided much of the inspiration to get me here. Many thanks.
Hi Ken. Congratulations on getting your new blog page up and running. Looks great. Happy holidays and I’ll see you soon.
Thanks for all the work Ken. Denverinfill is one of the first pages I check in the morning; it is always a treat when there is a new post. We are all fortunate to have someone dedicated to the urban improvement of our city. Keep up the good work, can’t wait to see what you have in store for 2010.
I think this is a great change. The internet is an evolving place, and the big thing right now in the world of online urbanism is collaborative blogging of exactly the sort you discuss here. Streetsblog in New York (along with its other incarnations) and Greater Greater Washington in DC are great examples.
Next step: Get yourself on twitter.
i’ve enjoyed this blog and look forward to coverage extending farther south (e.g. Denver Design District, Gates/Cherokee/Lionstone, etc.)
note that your RSS feed broke because the new site has a different feed URL (now https://denverinfill.com/feed); people like me who read only via RSS reader won’t know the site is still alive unless they happen to find out about the switch some other way (WestWord article in my case); the cure for this is to post a note at the old feed (https://denverinfill.com/site_feed/rss.xml), if you can
I discovered your blog a few months ago and have been following it ever since. I’m a graduate student in planning at UCD and have found this blog to be a great way to keep up with is going on in Denver. Thank you for all of your work!
just want to add to the chorus of compliments, ken. though i haven’t lived in denver since ’04, i continue to keep up on what happens there, and denverinfill has been a great way to do it. it looks like you have been characteristically thoughtful about how to evolve this site and take it in a new direction. many kudos to you for all of your hard and excellent work.
The site looks great. I’m looking forward to following you in 2010.
As I central-Denver Realtor, I check your site very often and always learn something new that’s happening….in spite of trying to keep up with new projects through many other means.
Your site is terrific. Thank you and best of luck in the next decade!
Well this is bittersweet. I’m going to miss the regular project updates. Thanks so much for a trailblazing website that tracked Denver’s, well, infill. However, I do look forward to the positive changes.