Skip to content
Archive of posts filed under the General Urbanism category.
« Older Entries

Community Coordinating District and Eddie Maestas Park

Posted by  on May 16, 2012

By Jorgen Jensen

The Community Coordinating District (CCD No.1) is a unique metropolitan district (metro district) established to facilitate public improvement and development initiatives throughout the Denver metro area. They’ve recently engaged “virtual town hall” technology through Mind Mixer and are making a push through the attached Mini-Contest to raise awareness of their own website.

CCD No.1 was created to address a familiar hurdle in community development projects. The challenge, as with most collaborative efforts, is aligning multiple stakeholders to work together toward a common goal. This requires a clear and actionable strategy, the right funding resources, and positive action from everyone involved

With many of these issues especially prevalent in Northeast Downtown neighborhoods, CCD No. 1 was established with cooperation from Councilwoman Judy Montero, the Ballpark Neighborhood Association, and Urban Market Partners to help with placemaking efforts and other goals of the Northeast Downtown Neighborhoods – specifically in and around the Triangle Parks area. We’ve all seen the Triangle Parks along Broadway near shelters at Lawrence and know there’s work to be done.

  

It’s important to highlight that this metro or “Special District” is the first of its kind in that it has no Service Area Plan Boundaries. In fact, the District has no geographical boundaries and provides an “Opt-in” structure so that other groups or community development efforts can someday use this as a vehicle to more efficiently partner with their respective City.

For their pilot project, CCD No. 1 has chosen Eddie Maestas Park at Park Avenue and Lawrence Street, across from the Denver Rescue Mission. The conversation has since expanded and is now addressing issues and opportunities at Sonny Lawson Park and along the entire 24th Street corridor. It’s clear that the issues surrounding the Triangle Parks are just as much about the social infrastructure as they are the physical design or infrastructure. Further, what happens at Eddie Maestas affects Curtis Park and Sonny Lawson Park, so a more global, holistic approach to the programming of the neighborhood wide public realm is needed.

You can learn more about CCD No. 1 by visiting their website or find them on Facebook.

This coming Monday (21st) at 5:30PM, CCD No. 1 will be hosting its Monthly Public Work Session Meeting at Redline at 24th and Arapahoe.  This meeting is especially important because ALL temporary design plans for Triangle Parks will be presented. The goal is to collect all public and stakeholder feedback and select a concept to advance. The CCD No. 1 Creative Working Group meets every Monday at 10AM at 450 E. 17th Ave #400. This group exists to focus on the temporary and long term vision surrounding Eddie Maestas. The Long Term Vision Group meets every Monday at 11AM at Redline. This group focuses on the entire Northeast Downtown neighborhood area and the many possibilities for revitalization. Any and all are welcome and encouraged to attend both the monthly work session next Monday and the Creative Working Group meetings!

Bookmark and Share

Filed under General Urbanism, Infrastructure, Land Use & Planning, Parks & Public Spaces, Public Health, Revitalization, Urban Design.
Comment

DenverUrbanism Podcast Collaboration: Auraria Campus

Posted by  on April 26, 2012

This is our fifth joint podcast between DenverUrbanism and UrbanDesignPodcast.com, a great podcast run by local urban designer Arina Habich. Once a quarter, DenverUrbanism hosts a roundtable discussion about a timely Denver urbanism topic which Arina produces as a podcast on UrbanDesignPodcast.com. Our four previous podcasts covered the Denver Union Station project, Downtown Denver’s 14th Street Initiative, the future of Downtown’s Arapahoe Square district, and Denver’s vibrant Civic Center area. This quarter, we take a look at the Downtown Denver’s Auraria Campus.

Located immediately west of Denver’s Central Business District, the Auraria Higher Education Center is home to three growing institutions: the University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State College of Denver, and the Community College of Denver. Together, over 44,000 students attend the Auraria Campus. Built in the 1970s in an automobile-oriented suburban manner, the campus and the rest of Downtown are separated by major streets and challenging pedestrian connections. Now, the Auraria and Downtown communities are working together to forge stronger connections, both physically and socially, and to better integrate the campus into its Downtown setting.

Our conversation about the Auraria Campus, hosted by Ken Schroeppel, includes Jill Jennings-Golich, the Auraria campus planner, Chris Geddes, campus planner and urban designer at studioINSITE, and Gary Desmond, principal at NAC Architects and chair of the Connecting Auraria Coalition.

http://urbandesignpodcast.com/index.php/2012/220/

You can also download the podcast from iTunes by clicking here.

Bookmark and Share

Filed under General Urbanism, Infrastructure, Urban Design.
1 Comment

Essence of Urban

Posted by  on April 18, 2012

As most of us can attest from our childhood, the suburbs always seemed lacking in some certain ingredient. Many of us grew up in a -ville or -burg just far enough outside of somewhere more substantial. For me, at the age of nine, the most obvious indicator of a city was its skyline. Growing up just outside of Pittsburgh, probably the most gripping experience I can recall is entering into the forested hillside that is home to the Fort Pitt Tunnel, and then waiting for the moment when you burst through the other side to an entirely different world. Skyscrapers, a 50-foot high fountain, three rivers, helicopters, bridges spanning in every direction. It was blissful sensory overload.

When you are young, you understand the thrill, but it is difficult to break apart the experiential chaos to focus on individual components.  Those of us who are drawn to cities and who might consider ourselves urban enthusiasts could probably make a lengthy list of reasons why we’ve chosen this lifestyle over the placid alternative. Recently, it occurred to me that, if put on the spot, I would likely list predictable conveniences such as public transportation, walkable neighborhoods and density. But what about the less obvious attributes? The ones that may not even have to perform some greater function other than to remind you that you’re somewhere unique.

Cities excite us because of their complexity. The innumerable layers, textures, sounds, smells and distractions keep our senses constantly engaged with our surroundings. The urban fabric is always changing, businesses are coming and going….and so are people. What keeps all of this constant motion and change so thrilling is that, if you blink, you could miss some of the more confounding captivations. Everybody has a different experience depending on what block they choose to turn down. Maybe a good example of this is the tourist who wanders down Curtis Street swearing she hears a subway and is having trouble locating the station (until she realizes that Denver just likes to have a sense of humor with its public art). Even better is when you feel you’ve uncovered all there is to see in your city, then you turn down the same lifeless block you’ve walked down a hundred times and see something new for the first time.

Last weekend I had the delight of being humbled in that exact way. Just off 14th street, a collection of stunningly vibrant graffiti-style pieces stopped me dead in my tracks. The larger-than-life creations triggered a reaction in my hands to fumble through my pockets anxiously searching for my phone to snap a picture from the middle of the road. Yes I looked like a tourist, yes I could have been run over by traffic as a result of my panicked state, and yes I am 100% thrilled to live in a city that allows me to connect with the same sense of wonder and curiosity that I embodied at the age of nine.

Stumbling upon these experiences reminds you that the place you live in is full of surprises, creativity and wonder. It’s the same reason we chose to be urbanites in the first place.  So when presented with the opportunity, remember to stop and smell the roses every once and a while….or at least the sewer gas.

(If you have a favorite urban experience or nuance about the Mile High City that captivates you, I encourage you to share in the comments section.)

Bookmark and Share

Filed under General Urbanism, Parks & Public Spaces.
7 Comments

Denver Union Station Construction

Posted by  on April 11, 2012

I’m late posting these pictures, but it’s better late than never. Thanks to the folks at RTD and the DUS Project, I was lucky enough to be invited on a site tour of the $500 million Denver Union Station redevelopment project a few weeks back. We saw the construction of the second half of the bus box close to the historic station, the work going on inside the portion of the bus box already built, as well as the plaza space close to the new light rail station.

The day of the tour was coincidentally the day of one of the major concrete pours for the floor of the new bus box. There were going to be a total of eight pours required to complete the floor – that’s a lot of concrete. Notice the intricacies in the rebar required for the bus box.

 

 

I think one of the biggest improvements (besides simply access and capacity) over the future DUS Bus Station over Market Street are the new skylights being installed to allow natural light to flow in. Market Street Station usually seems like a cave, even on very sunny days. It also feels dank and compact with the absence of anything resembling natural light. The future DUS Station will have very large skylights (I believe a total of seven) to bring in natural light.

 

As most of us know, the portion of the bus box that has been constructed is a little more than half of the future DUS Bus Station. It spans from just west of the Wewatta Street alignment out towards the Consolidated Mainline tracks and the new light rail station. The bus box seems surprisingly spacious, however, once the interior walls are constructed, I’m sure it’ll not feel so large. Not compact or tight by any means, but probably not as roomy.

 

Crews are currently working on interior utilities (water, power, exhaust, etc.) and to say it looks complicated is an understatement.

 

One of the more visible components of this project that sparked some of the most intense discussion are the three air intake/exhaust outlets on the western end of the bus box. They’ve been temporarily wrapped in blue plastic to protect their white exterior during construction, but will be unwrapped when construction’s complete. One of the outlets is for air intake, one for exhaust, and one is going to be used only in emergency situations (bus fire, station fire, etc). You’ll notice they’re not perfectly vertical either – this was done on purpose. The designers used analysis looking at how air flows through the site to ensure that the air exhaust doesn’t feed right into the air intake. That’d obviously not be a good thing. The outlets have a bit of a sculptural quality to them, which we’ll see once they’re unwrapped. On the plus side, their blue wraps makes for a cool blue hue in the bus box below.

 

The plaza up above the bus box and directly adjacent to the new light rail station is starting to take shape as well. The pavers are being laid and the area will be landscaped soon to take advantage of the time without passengers to help them get established. Notice the large planters – the edges of these planters are the perfect height for people to sit on.

 

 

As you can imagine, the area is buzzing with activity. There are workers all over doing everything from pouring concrete at the bus box floor to building flagtone-lined planter beds in the plaza area.

 

This project has come a long way in a short time, but we’ve still got two more years of construction before its all done. The second half of the bus box will be buried, Wewatta Street reconstructed, interiors of the bus box will be completed, the 17th Street Promenade area will be constructed, and the commuter rail station (among many other smaller projects) will be completed all within the next two years. When combined with the transformation of the historic station into a hotel and other private development projects in the CPV, the DUS area will be a mecca of construction over the next few years.

Bookmark and Share

Filed under General Urbanism, Infrastructure, Transit, Transit-Oriented Development.
6 Comments
« Older Entries