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Students offer ideas to enliven Union Station

By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published May 13, 2008 at 11 p.m.

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Fountains and grand staircases. Ice rinks and xeriscaping. Supermarkets and glass arcades.

Different approaches to revitalizing what are now two dreary parking lots in front of Denver Union Station, but all zeroing in on one goal: making the station's rebirth as a transit hub a friendly experience for users.

Graduate students in a studio class of the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado Denver have come up with four ideas for what many hope will become lower downtown's next great public gathering space.

The class showed their results to the public Tuesday night.

But the students aren't wedded to the specific results of their hard work.

The individual designs, all as different as the students on each team, are interchangeable - or don't need to be adopted at all.

The students and their instructor, Professor Jeremy Nemeth, would rather see RTD follow the class' guiding principles of community involvement, environmental sustainability and historical integrity while efficiently serving as the center of six FasTracks rail corridors.

"We hope that whoever ends up designing it takes the same approach that we did," said Jana Davis, one of the students.

"We hope they realize we saved them some time," added Ryan Poole.

The students held a workshop in March that attracted 120 downtown workers, commuters, residents and others who want the area along Wynkoop Street to become an attractive public space.

The class challenge was to integrate the sometimes competing interests of those groups into plazas that achieved all of their goals - and stayed within a budget of about $14 million.

Each of the four concepts has elements dramatically different from the others.

One proposed a small amphitheater for events, including weddings.

Another had a glass arcade along the station wings for shops, along with a supermarket in one of the new office buildings.

Comments

  • May 14, 2008

    8:59 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Preserve writes:

    The Students had some very good thinking and ideas, but there are two major limitations to their study. First, there should have been one concept plan of maximizing both historic preservation and the views to and from the station and the other buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places as well as the historic setting and integrity of the building-plaza entity. This allows a larger plaza with flexibility for many activities and uses for decades to come. Second, the students limited themselves to too small an area ; there are spaces to the west side (the back) of the building that could have some of the square footage that fills the plaza to these other location, thus creating plaza use flexibility, view protection and historic setting integrity. Hence, comparison of a wider range of alternatives cannot be limited to these four concepts, and the desires of most of the public for more open space can be satisfied. This station/plaza is one of Colorado's most important historic places and deserves special respect as such. "Preserve"

  • May 14, 2008

    11:20 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Ztliano writes:

    Union Station is a waste right now. Tear it down and build me a giant starbucks.

  • May 14, 2008

    2:16 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    dogtown writes:

    The students were wrong. We should cordon off the four blocks surrounding union station and create a shrine dedicated to the past. Anyone wishing to gain access will have to pledge allegiance to the history of union station and kneel at the foot of the building while promising to sacrifice their first born child to the gods of union station. It’s what Roosevelt would have wanted.