By Andy Vuong
Today’s update is all about pavers! We have lots of progress on the walkways that lead away from the light rail station and surround the tear drop planters. The pavers not only look nice, but are also easier to maintain due to how they are installed. For the walkways, several colors of pavers (beige, grey, and red) are being used and will form a series of shapes and angles that will break up the space nicely.
It’s taken about 6 weeks to get to the progress shown in the picture above, so we can probably expect the pavers to continue to be laid down for another couple of months. How many pavers do you think it’s going to take to complete the entire walkway?
Andy Vuong is a management consultant who lives and works in the Union Station neighborhood and is an avid proponent of urban density. Andy will be providing updates on the Union Station project as a back-up to Rick, our regular Union Station project blogger. DenverInfill’s Andy Vuong is not the same person as the Denver Post writer of the same name.
Love the progress! How many pavers? Hmmm. I’ll guess 546,129. Is there a prize for the closest answer?
Forgot how this works. Once everything is done, will mall buses drop everyone off underground at Union Station or will they still do the circular thing on 16th St. and Chestnut, etc…. And if that’s the case, will shuttle stops be added at the bridge and on Wewatta???
Rick:
I’ll have to think of a good prize for the closest guess and let everyone know in a subsequent post.
Chocolo:
The mall shuttle will continue to operate on its current route – with the one exception that it will drop people off at chesnut pavilion and pick people up under the canopy (like it does at Market Street Station). As for additional stops – there will not be a planned stop at the bridge, but there will be a new stop added at Wewatta.
Additionally, there will be a downtown circulator which operates on 18th Street which will go into the underground bus terminal an have stops at chesnut and wewatta pavillions.
Thanks for the update!
One question about the underground bus station itself: because of the off-center arrangement of 17th Street, will the alignment of Chestnut and Wewatta Pavillions similarly be asymmetrical from within the bus station itself?
I’m assuming all of the skylights and station entrances would actually be anchored a dozen or two feet off of center along the 17th axis, but maybe I’m missing something. Or is the entire underground portion of the bus station also shifted over a bit to align itself underneath the pedestrian zone above?
Ryan, the bus facility, skylights, and pavilions are all centered within the 17th Street right-of-way. Only the surface street is shifted to the south for the 1.5 blocks between Wewatta and the LRT station to consolidate the public spaces (17th Street Gardens) to the north. These images should help:
https://denverinfill.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/2010-05-16_bus8.jpg
https://denverinfill.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/2010-05-16_dus3.jpg
Ah, now I remember. I forgot about that great rendering showing above and below ground simultaneously. Thanks for posting those, Ken!
Do you think that once all the pavers are in place around the Chestnut Pavillion that they will open that area up? Or, will it continue to be off limits until the underground bus facility is complete?
Good question. I’m not sure but we can probably find out.
Richard, once the light rail plaza work is complete it will open to the public. I don’t know what the current schedule is, but Im guessing 2-3 months from today since besides the pavers they need to do some other things like lighting, plant trees, and misc other work.