Voelz Chandler: Preserving place poses weighty issues for city

Published January 20, 2007 at midnight

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Growing pains and development pressure have been a constant in Denver since someone pitched a tent on the Platte. But now the stakes are bigger. The Rocky's arts and architecture critic Mary Chandler looks at three major urban projects that pose a challenge of preservation and design.

Civic Center

• Where: Bounded by Lincoln and Bannock streets, between West Colfax and West 14th avenues.

• What it is: A beaux-arts collection of buildings and landscape elements that form Denver's civic and cultural heart.

• Why it's significant: History, design, civic status and recent animated discussions have made news since architect Daniel Libeskind in August showed "ideas" for Civic Center that would overwhelm the existing design. Ire is not too strong a word for the reaction to concepts funded by the Civic Center Conservancy, which has partnered with the city on the project.

• Preservation status: Project manager Helen Kuykendall presented the results of surveys and other communications from the public about the Libeskind concepts during a recent meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. More than 1,000 people participated - and were vocal - in numerous meetings, and 677 filled out surveys. The responses were 4-1 against the Libeskind ideas.

The first priority was to preserve what is there. The top "theme" mentioned is that the Libeskind ideas are too radical, incompatible with Civic Center and too busy. Then came security, and preserving historic integrity and open space.

Meanwhile, the conservancy has opened up membership of its board and design committee to several people who had been chilly to the Libeskind concepts.

• What's next? Good question. Parks and Recreation Manager Kim Bailey said the department has no money to fund Civic Center restoration projects. But Diane S. Barrett, in the mayor's office, said three elements (the McNichols Building, major historic features and park connections) are being considered for inclusion in a bond issue to address the city's infrastructure needs.

"The next step is to figure out the next step," said Chris Frampton, the conservancy's new board president.

Other board members said weeks ago that the Libeskind plan is off the table, but Frampton will not go that far. Perhaps the design of some elements is history, but discussions will continue on such things as a pedestrian overpass and new pathways into the park, he said.

Don't be surprised if Civic Center winds up on an "endangered places" list this year.

Bell Park

• Where: on a parking lot at 14th and Larimer streets.

• What it is: Home of Denver's first City Hall, but now the linchpin of a larger issue: creation of a fourth special review district called the Historic Urban Edge District. It stretches from just east of Market Street to Wewatta Street, and from 14th Street to Speer Boulevard.

• Why it's significant: When developer Buzz Geller asked the city in 2005 to split the Bell Park site from the Lower Downtown Historic District, so he could build a tower of up to 370 feet in height, preservationists howled that it dramatically exceeded LoDo height restrictions.

While a group of stakeholders met for months on the tower proposal, discussion turned to looking at all the blocks in this sensitive "edge" along Speer Boulevard and Cherry Creek. Design guidelines were written, along with other documents to allow two choices on Bell Park: a 375-foot tower (plus 25-foot spire) with open park land nearby; or two shorter buildings.

• Preservation status: The design guidelines (which do not call for exemplary design if the giant tower ever comes to pass) were the only issue the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission could address. Their decision was a squeaker, moving forward to the Denver City Council in a 5-4 vote.

Talk about a tough choice: Make way for a comprehensive look at how development should proceed on prominent land on Speer Boulevard and allow an out-of-scale tower, or ditch the planning to keep building heights on that parcel in line with lower downtown.

• What's next: The process has moved out of the council's Blueprint Denver committee and is expected to move to city council this month.

Country Club Gardens

• Where: South side of East Ellsworth Avenue between South Downing and South Ogden streets.

• What it is: A complex of apartments built in 1940 to a design by Fisher, Fisher and Hubbell, as the first Federal Housing Administration project in the region. The lines are moderne, the landscaping lush.

When the landmark commission began to consider the campus for historic district status in the late 1990s, owner Pat Broe said no way; he was considering plans to demolish more than 50 percent of the site to put up 28-story towers. The flap led to a three-year discussion and a months-long public hearing to create a development agreement and design guidelines if Broe wanted to proceed on the site.

• Why it's significant: Those plans are back, though modified. Now Broe is talking two towers, at a maximum height of 300 feet, holding up to 500 units, plus a 36-foot-tall parking structure. About 30 existing units would be destroyed and views affected at the neighboring Norman.

• Preservation status: The owners have moved the new towers to mitigate that impact and asked for revisions in the 2001 design guidelines. The landmark commission last month approved moving those changes to the city council, but asked for the architects to restudy massing of the new buildings.

• What's next: A decision by city council and refinements to the towers.

Mary Voelz Chandler is the art and architecture critic. Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2677.

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