Friday, June 29, 2007
Civic Center Stakeholders Meeting July 11, 10 AM
The State of Colorado and the Colorado Historical Society have identified and evaluated eight potential sites for a new Colorado History Museum, and one of the options involves Denver’s Civic Center Park.
The City of Denver and the State of Colorado want to get stakeholder feedback on the desirability of this collaborative opportunity and solicit input on potential issues and opportunities including the organization of additional public processes.
Denver Parks and Recreation, the Civic Center Conservancy,
the Colorado Historical Society and the Colorado Judicial Department
Invite You and Members of Your Organization
to a
Civic Center Park Stakeholders Meeting
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
10 a.m. – 12 noon
Colorado History Museum Auditorium, 1300 Broadway
RSVP to Helen Kuykendall at
Helen.Kuykendall@denvergov.org or 720-913-0630
The Colorado Historical Society and its representatives will detail their processes to date, provide an overview of the various locations under consideration, and describe the Civic Center opportunity and their conceptual programmatic ideas for a new Museum.
The City of Denver and the Civic Center Conservancy are eager for your feedback as to how this potential opportunity relates to the community’s goals of restoration and activation of Civic Center Park.
City and State officials will be prepared to answer questions relating to the Civic Center Master Plan, public and legislative processes, financing, logistics, etc.
We look forward to your feedback on this idea and what issues and opportunities should be considered. All parties are committed to a public process which your input will help shape.
Monday, June 18, 2007
New articles
Civic Center Farmers Market
Now is the time for all friends of Civic Center to visit the Farmers Market and Cafe, every Wednesday in the summer from 11-2. Buy fresh Colorado produce and specialty foods to take home. Stay for lunch from local vendors or just enjoy an iced coffee, fresh lemondade or a fruit drink sitting in bistro chairs in the shade of umbrella tables near the fountain. It is a great way to let the city know this is an important city asset that benefits from activities that encourage usage.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Sunday, December 24, 2006
A New Civic Center
http.denverpost.com/entertainment/ci_4881622
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
Interview with Dennis Humphries, Vice president of Civic Center Conservancy
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Time to Put Libeskind Ideas Away?
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/spotlight_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23962_5200172,00.html
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
New Ideas for Civic Center- post your comments
More Ideas: A presentation on additional thoughts about the evolution of
5:30 PM Wednesday December 6, 2006
Chris Frampton, from the board of the Civic Center Conservancy( CCC) introduced the program. He called Civic Center ( CC) " the heart of
David Tryba, of David Owen Tryba Architects, and a board member of the CCC began.
Yong Cho of Studio Completiva: “What if we can come up with a scheme that unites and clarifies the site?” Needs a simple clear central space. Tried to get at no elaboration but the big idea. Creating a central place and major relationship between CC building and Capitol. Several elipses with major access. strong shapes and forms- a series of ellipses. Shapes have symbolic meaning. His plan stressed connections to surrounding areas- including RTD, library etc. Very formal buildings ( capitol and CC building)- joined by an allee of trees.
Steve Chuckovich Architecture Denver
Formal edge concept. What the opportunites and connections could be?
Importance of the East West axis in all original plans- showed Burnham Hoyt plan. Scale of original elements based on scale of built environment at the time ( mid teens of 20th c) Nature, scale and complexity of city has greatly changed and elements in the park are dwarfed by surrounding skyscrapers. Importance of connections and creating value of the space
Creating a “front door” in front of CC that would create a diagonal connection with cultural complex. Take into account new uses and what our collective idea of what the history of the city is.
Dave Duclos- THK Associates
Dick Farley- Civitas
Mentioned that Noel Copeland and Bob Root did most of the work on the Veterans Memorial.He listed activities: parades start or end there, festivals, political rallies, gardens, civic pride.Should there be more activity? Should that come first or access first? Should we change the “idea” fo the park?
More activity first- stay with beaux arts structure and idea of beauty- value the intrinsic structure.
Create parking under lawns for access and convenience. Create underground passage- like the one in
Page Penk- graduate student at CU School of Design and Planning- Design and Planning create the
Susan Saarinen: Saarinen Landscape Architecture. Protect and renovate exisiting structures,better security, create focus for the park, add amenities and connections. Create 2 destinations- renovate McN and build new building. Visitors prefer intimate spaces to grand spaces- people cluster in shade. Use trees to strengthen accesses. Should we consider a transition to native landscape elements and plants? Park was planned( 99 years ago) with central water feature. Is it appropriate today? Suggested competition to create a symbol for
Randle Swan- the Cygnet Group. He is a historic preservationist, not an architect.
Suggests corral for mounted patrol. Interactive fountain for kids- like in
William Wenk- Wenk Associates.
A great space because of its monumentality but not comfortable- no place to sit, not enough shade. How to introduce human element? Showed Jean Tingley modern sculpture in Beauborg with edge seating coexisting with historic architecture. Notion that different eras can work together comfortably. Issue of traffic calming- not just bridges and tunnels. Create pedestrian streets. Encourage festivals for civic coming together. “The green ribbon”- a trellis that provides shade and services- rest rooms, kiosks- include electricity so can use for festivals.
One of the first questions in the Q&A that followed asked why the CCC & Parks and Rec didn't provide comment forms ( as they do for the Libeskind ideas). CCC apologized saying, " they didn't think of it" and suggested using the Civic Center Friends blog to post comments. We want to hear your response and ideas on these concepts.
Five Great Ideas for Civic Center
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/art/article/0,2777,DRMN_23958_5192614,00.html