16th Street Mall turns 25

Planned face-lift to solve problems with loose granite

Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Denver's 16th Street Mall marked its 25th anniversary on Monday with a quick look back and the prospect of a midlife face-lift.

Tami Door, president of the Downtown Denver Partnership, announced at a "birthday" celebration at Skyline Park that her group, along with RTD and the Denver planning and public works departments, will start a new mall plan early next year to position the strip and the land surrounding it for the future.

What that means immediately is a project to solve the mall's worsening maintenance problem.

The mall is recognized by its distinct pattern of multicolored granite pavers, designed by internationally renowned architect I.M. Pei. But the square stones set in a diamond pattern also are a maintenance nightmare for RTD, which operates free shuttle service along the more than 1.1-mile length of the mall.

The buses and other traffic such as delivery trucks are too heavy for the mall's foundation, and the granite constantly comes loose.

RTD is talking with Door's group and the city about a short-term test project. RTD would tear out the granite in the two bus lanes between Broadway and Tremont Place, a 2 1/2-block stretch, and replacing it with gray concrete. If that gains acceptance, it would be extended for the rest of the way.

The patterned granite would remain in the sidewalks and the pedestrian spaces between the bus lanes.

RTD spent $985,000 last year replacing the granite, a record amount. Under a legal settlement with the designer, RTD receives $120,000 a year, but that ends in 2012.

Door spoke, along with Mayor John Hickenlooper and RTD General Manager Cal Marsella.

The study also will look at what was on the mall when it opened in 1982, how the buildings and uses of them have changed over the years and where the community wants it to go from here.

"Downtown has changed a lot over the last 25 years," Door said. Now the mall needs "new investment and rejuvenating in order to be able to thrive."

Hickenlooper gave an award to RTD mall shuttle driver Russ Nipper, who has been driving there since opening day, and spoke of how the mall invigorated Denver's moribund downtown.

"The mall is a remarkably powerful symbol of just how incredible our downtown has been," said Hickenlooper, who opened a restaurant in lower downtown in 1988 when downtown was struggling. "Now the mall is our No. 1 tourist attraction."

About 60,000 people a day ride the shuttle. The mall, costing $76.1 million including buses and two terminal stations, was built as a transit facility to link Denver's elongated downtown and help keep regional buses out of the heart of downtown.

Marsella called it a "horizontal elevator" that people can hop on and off to reduce their walking on side streets. RTD and the city plan a second shuttle system along 18th Street from Union Station to Broadway after FasTracks corridors start feeding more commuters into downtown in 2012.

flynnk@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5247