An Interdisciplinary Perspective on Urban Culture, Space, Architecture, and Design
Denver is well-known nationally as a city dedicated to New Urbanist development. Several projects in the city—most notably Belmar, Stapleton, and Highlands Garden Village (HGV)—have received lots of prominent press and some significant praise. The Congress for the New Urbanism […]
Water is a key resource constraint in urban development, especially here in the West. Because of projected population growth—anticipated to double to 10 million people by 2050—Colorado is predicted to have a municipal and industrial water gap by at least […]
At its meeting on November 10th the Colorado Boulevard Healthcare District (CBHD) Board gave its blessing to Sembler Company’s latest conceptual plan for developing the infill site at 9th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. Some details were reported here, with a […]
(Speaking of Pruitt-Igoe and “urban renewal”, a version of the following appeared in yesterday’s Brighton Blade, co-authored with Kyle Cascioli and Ron Throupe) The Metro Wastewater Reclamation District (MWRD) recently paid for 84 families and businesses to relocate in order […]
The short answer is Yes and No. Details ahead… Last week I finally had a chance to see the much-heralded film The Pruitt-Igoe Myth: An Urban History at the Denver Starz Film Festival. I wasn’t disappointed. It’s a powerful and visually […]
Denver’s Lincoln Park—ground zero for the Occupy Denver protests—is part of a larger public space called Civic Center Park. Civic Center Park is a classic City Beautiful composition. The Occupy Denver protests coincided with a required visit by my Culture […]
I’m interested in the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement for several reasons, not least how it relates to the idea of The Right to the City and what we might learn about using public space to secure such a right for […]
In this series of posts (for earlier ones see the “9th and Colorado” category) we’ve been chronicling Sembler Company plans for developing the old University of Colorado Health Sciences Center campus at 9th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, and also editorializing as […]
New York Times commentators have always figured prominently in my urban studies reading lists, whether its Paul Krugman advocating Old World urbanism, David Brooks explaining American exurbanism, or the extant architecture critic opining about the latest addition to the global […]
Kaid Benfield’s recent post about the BMW-Guggenheim Lab’s Urbanology game inspired me to play the game a few times myself. Then I asked my University of Denver Culture and The City class (which met for the first time last week) to […]
Well, not exactly dead on arrival, but close. Almost from the start the great Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava’s designs for Denver International Airport’s South Terminal Project were assailed by critics for disrespecting the original (and now iconic) Curtis Fentress design […]
Public monuments are an important aspect of the good city. In his Art of Building Cities (1889)—a book that helped to establish the modern study of urban design—Camillo Sitte suggested that monuments “bring back historical memories” and constitute “the glory […]