• Built Environment and Culture: Notes Upon Leaving London

    Built Environment and Culture: Notes Upon Leaving London

    LONDON 12 January 2013  A visit to the English capital never disappoints.  Tomorrow I head home to Denver further enriched by what London has to offer. The goal this time was to research the status of post-Olympics East End regeneration and […]

     
  • Credit: Nick Brown

    The Towers of London

    LONDON 4 January 2013.   London is currently experiencing a relative frenzy of high rise building. The existing and proposed structures are known locally by their shapes, including “The Shard,” “The Cheesegrater,” and “The Walkie-Talkie” (or—better in my view—“The Pint”).  Just […]

     
  • A Happy (London) New Year!

    A Happy (London) New Year!

    LONDON, 1 January 2013.  It’s great to be back in the English capital. Last night we celebrated the new year with a few thousand others from a vantage point on Primrose Hill, one of our favorite places in the city.  […]

     
  • London Calling: Investigating Post-Olympics Regeneration in the East End

    London Calling: Investigating Post-Olympics Regeneration in the East End

    An earlier post about London on this blog was inspired by that city’s August 2011 riots.  In reporting the results of Hackney borough research by my former student Kiley Dowling I wondered if the urban improvements promised by London’s “Regeneration Games” […]

     
  • Reconfiguring 9th and Colorado

    Reconfiguring 9th and Colorado

    With the ending of the Walmart War at 9th and Colorado the main players are back at the drawing board.  Mayor Hancock, developer Jeff Fuqua, City Councilwoman Jeanne Robb and others have their say in this press release from the […]

     
  • Millennial Urbanology

    Millennial Urbanology

    Like the question about what constitutes good urban placemaking, the question about the lifestyle tastes and desires of the particular demographic that creative placemakers seek to attract—the Millennials—is a major preoccupation for urbanists.  Yesterday’s Denver Post, for example, contains an […]

     
  • Development Possibilities for 9th and Colorado (Westword)

    Housing the Homeless at 9th and Colorado?

    While doing a Patricia Calhoun check this morning I came across her post-mortem on the Walmart War at 9th and Colorado entitled “With Walmart Out of the Way, What Should Fill the CU Healthcare District?”  Patricia has some tongue-in-cheek suggestions, including one […]

     
  • Density of the Creative Class Across US Metros

    Questioning Creative Placemaking

    Placemaking talk is everywhere these days.  So too is “creative class” talk.  Richard Florida—formulator of the creative class concept—combines them in a recent essay for Urban Land.  Many people are on board with the notion that quality of place has […]

     
  • Civic Center Park and Surrounding Buildings

    Revisiting–and Reconditioning–Civic Center Park

    The news came in late last week: Denver’s Civic Center Park has been added to the list of National Historic Landmarks (NHL). It joins 22 other NHL sites in Colorado, of which the Ludlow Tent Colony is the closest to my […]

     
  • Ludlow Tent Colony

    George McGovern and Colorado’s “Tent City” on the Prairie

    The many obituaries of the American politician George McGovern published in the aftermath of his death last Sunday mention that he earned a PhD in History from Northwestern University. But other than that they offer precious few details about George McGovern’s life […]

     
  • Who Won the Walmart War at 9th and Colorado?

    Who Won the Walmart War at 9th and Colorado?

    As reported in The Denver Post and the The Denver Business Journal, Walmart has pulled out of the development at 9th and Colorado.  Neighbors have declared victory, as captured in this statement from the Anti-Walmarteers at Do It Right at 9th: […]

     
  • Crowd at the Birthday Party, Skyline Park (D. Saitta)

    The 16th at 30

    Denver’s mile-long 16th Street Mall celebrated its 30th birthday this week. The Mall is Denver’s #1 tourist attraction, generating almost 50,000 free shuttle rides per day and millions of dollars in revenue for the city.  Guest speakers at the party […]