Ugly duckling Fontius revealing its handsome self

Revival on 16th Street Mall is peeling away decades of neglect

By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Javier Manzano / The Rocky

Fontius building renovation Jay Lewis welds a metal beam that will help support a ceiling in the downtown structure at 16th and Welton streets. The exterior is expected to be finished this summer before the Democratic National Convention in August, but interior work will continue, with completion planned for 2009. Vacant since the Fontius shoe store left in 1989, it had been considered a rotting corner in recent years. 3

Javier Manzano / The Rocky

The Fontius building at Welton and 16th streets is undergoing a major renovation. "What we're really doing is taking it 90 years back in time," project manager Todd Piccone said.

What is now commonly called the Fontius building opened in the heart of downtown in 1923 at Welton and 16th streets.

"It was a lively time," said Denver historian Tom Noel, who co- wrote an 85-page essay on the building for Evan Makovsky, the developer who is in the midst of a sweeping renovation of the structure.

Eighty-five years ago, the four-story building housed the Steel department store. It was built in an area that was originally home to Indians and later became the upscale residential area for pioneers, such as Frances Wisebart Jacobs, founder of what is now National Jewish Medical and Research Center.

By the time the Steel building opened, Denver had a worldwide reputation as a City of Lights, but, as if foreshadowing its fate decades later, the department store failed after only a year or two.

In recent years, the building has been called Denver's biggest eyesore, blighted and a rotting corner.

The Fontius shoe store was the anchor tenant starting in 1966, but after it left in 1989, the building stood mostly empty and uninviting. Another former tenant was Duplers Furs, and its faded sign, painted on the bricks along the alley at the back, will remain as the building is renovated.

Makovsky, principal of Shames-Makovsky, came to the rescue last year by buying the building and other properties on what is called Block 162.

Last week, workers began hanging large windows that pivot just as the original ones did. The new energy-efficient windows cost about $1 million. Makovsky had to get permission from the Landmark Preservation Commission to replace the originals. Without energy-efficient windows, the entire project could have been scrapped.

And the terra-cotta exterior has been restored on the upper floors, which from the 16th Street Mall reveals a handsome building that had been hidden for decades under dirt and disrepair.

An artist has been hired to mold 9 tons of clay by hand the way craftsmen did in the 1920s to restore the terra-cotta exterior of the bottom floors for the Renaissance Revival-style building, Todd Piccone, project manager of Milender White Construction Co., said on a tour of the 53,000- square-foot building.

"What we're really doing is taking it 90 years back in time," he said.

The building was designed by Merrill Hoyt, a North High School graduate, who was the brother and business partner of Burnham Hoyt, one of the most prominent architects of the time.

Whenever they can, workers are using the original equipment as well as the original blueprints, Piccone said.

For example, they found 20 pieces of hardware for the pivoting windows, shined them and installed them. They hired a company in Michigan to reproduce exact copies of the hardware for the vast majority of the windows.

"I think we're going to start a trend with these," said Robert Johnson, in charge of business development for Milender White, as he watched a worker demonstrate how the window pivots. "When people see these, everyone is going to want one."

A 60-year-old elevator, now being used to ferry construction workers and equipment, will be utilized as a service elevator. A rooftop deck will provide views of the mountains as well as the 16th Street Mall.

There are about 55 construction workers on the site each day. The exterior work should be done this summer before the Democratic National Convention in August, but interior work will continue. The building likely will be completed in 2009.

Brian Klipp, the architect for the renovation, said the building was built using a structural frame that was the latest technological advance in that era.

Using a structural frame instead of load-bearing walls allowed more and bigger windows to be built, he said.

"It's a very transparent building," Klipp said. "It has a very light, floating quality to it. With the terra cotta and the many windows, it is a very delicate building."

rebchookj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5207

Renovation workers were greeted by 'disgusting' sight

When Milender White Construction started the renovation of the Fontius building, workers didn't find any old shoes left behind by a company that sold footwear for almost a quarter-century from the historic building at 16th and Welton Streets.

What they found were boxes of pelts.

Zebra pelts as well as hides from donkeys, squirrels, ponies, and of course, cows.

They were left behind in clearly marked boxes on the fourth floor by another long-gone tenant, Duplers Furs.

"They were disgusting," said Todd Piccone, project manager for Milender White. "They were all dried up and shriveled. It was certainly nothing I would wear. My wife didn't even want them. We ended up tossing them."