{"id":1089,"date":"2012-03-12T07:57:42","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T13:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=1089"},"modified":"2013-01-22T14:49:10","modified_gmt":"2013-01-22T21:49:10","slug":"saving-arapahoe-acres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=1089","title":{"rendered":"Saving Arapahoe Acres"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Arapahoe Acres<\/a> is a nationally famous suburban subdivision located just south of the University of Denver in Englewood. \u00a0It was \u00a0built between 1949-1957 by the developer Edward Hawkins<\/a>, with help from the architect Eugene Sternberg<\/a>. Sternberg was then employed by the University\u2019s regrettably short-lived (1946-52) School of Architecture and Planning.\u00a0 Hawkins was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright\u2019s Usonian<\/a> architecture and Sternberg by the Bauhaus<\/a> International style. Their collaboration produced a unique neighborhood that, in 1998, became the first post-World War II residential subdivision in America to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places<\/a>.\u00a0 The best history of the neighborhood has been written by Diane Wray<\/a>, who also spearheaded the Register nomination.\u00a0 In May 2011 the Denver magazine 5280<\/em> <\/a>cited Arapahoe Acres as one of best places to live in Denver.\u00a0 The subdivision has just been named by This Old House<\/a><\/em> magazine as one of the \u201cBest Old House Neighborhoods 2012.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Arapahoe Acres, Aerial View<\/p><\/div>\n

Because of this recent publicity a story about Arapahoe Acres was a featured last week on the front page of The Denver Post<\/em>.\u00a0 The story<\/a> described a growing tension in Arapahoe Acres as new homebuyers renovate their homes in ways that threaten architectural coherence and uniqueness. \u00a0This raises the question: Has the collision between old and new brought this neighborhood to a tipping point?<\/p>\n

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Rickard House, 1950 (Sternberg’s Original Model for Arapahoe Acres)<\/p><\/div>\n

Denver landscape architect Eric Crotty, Arapahoe Acres resident since 2002, was quoted at some length in The Post<\/em> story. \u00a0Crotty previously detailed his concerns about \u201cunsympathetic renovations\u201d in Arapahoe Acres in a 2011 online piece<\/a> for the Cultural Landscape Foundation<\/a>. \u00a0The Foundation had\u00a0identified Arapahoe Acres as one of America’s \u201cAt Risk Landscapes<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0 There, Crotty provided this money quote about the subdivision\u2019s historical significance:<\/p>\n

The neighborhood represents a snapshot in time and records the exuberance of the post-WWII era for experimentation and enthusiasm for distinctive residential architecture in a prosperous country.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Crotty admits that today the homes are \u201ccomparatively inefficient in many ways\u201d and that renovation and maintenance are necessary.\u00a0 In other words, he understands that change is inevitable.\u00a0 But he also worries that Hawkins\u2019 and Sternberg\u2019s \u201coriginal design intent\u201d is being compromised by even the most well-meaning renovations.\u00a0 They are taking a cumulative toll and threatening the one thing that best guarantees the value of each individual homeowner\u2019s investment: the overall architectural coherence of the neighborhood\u2019s design aesthetic.\u00a0 The Cultural Landscape Foundation piece ends with Crotty calling for a re-establishment of covenants that Hawkins had originally devised but that hadn\u2019t been enforced since at least 1967 (when Hawkins left the neighborhood), including provision for an \u201cArchitectural Control Committee.\u201d\u00a0 He suggests re-establishing such a committee to help residents \u00a0balance the values of preservation and sustainability.\u00a0 The Post<\/em> story ends with Crotty making another plea, this time for broader education about the neighborhood\u2019s distinctiveness:<\/p>\n

We have to teach people what makes this place special\u2026My interest is less now on how we get immediate neighbors to understand it but how do we create pressure from the outside on residents\u2026It’s about creating a dialogue <\/em>[with] the larger design and preservation community that filters into the neighborhood.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Wagner House, 1954<\/p><\/div>\n

Reader comments on Denver Post<\/em> stories are always interesting for what they suggest about the pulse of public sentiment on an issue.\u00a0 In this instance more than a few readers were put off by Crotty\u2019s passion for historic preservation and, I suspect, his call for creating outside pressure on residents.\u00a0 The majority of 25 commentators<\/a> reduce the Arapahoe Acres issue to one that pits property rights and personal freedom against historic preservation and top-down imposition of regulations.\u00a0 By my count reader sentiment runs about two to one in favor of property rights, with the very first commentator predictably opining that \u201cThe neighborhood NAZI\u2019S [sic] should mind their own business or move to UTAH [emphasis in original]. \u00a0Such \u201cproperty rights at all cost\u201d comments\u2014again, predictably\u2014suggest a deep ignorance of Denver\u2019s architectural history and completely miss Crotty\u2019s point that it’s the wider public\u2019s appreciation of Arapahoe Acres as an iconic place on the American landscape that makes the neighborhood desirable and that adds value to the investment of those who live there.\u00a0 You\u2019d think that individual Arapahoe Acres homebuyers\u2014who can undoubtedly afford to live in many other Denver neighborhoods\u2014would want to take this wider sentiment into account when considering their investment and the factors that can protect or erode it.<\/p>\n

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Old Renovation, South Marion Street (D. Saitta)<\/p><\/div>\n

I use Arapahoe Acres in my classroom teaching<\/a> at DU because the neighborhood has considerable pedagogical value in illustrating not only Mid-Century Modern<\/a> housing but also the residential component of Wright\u2019s imagined Broadacre City<\/a> and the more general concept of the city as \u201ca work of art.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0So,\u00a0 I appreciated Crotty\u2019s point about educating residents and would-be residents about the neighborhood\u2019s historical significance. \u00a0\u00a0In working with Arapahoe Acres I\u2019ve drawn on the really nice website by Tom Lundin<\/a> that pairs photos of individual houses with lovely sketches detailing their exterior features.\u00a0 Students are always surprised that such a neighborhood exists a stone\u2019s throw from campus and I know that some seek it out to have a closer look.\u00a0 \u00a0Those who do agree that it\u2019s a \u201creally cool\u201d neighborhood, as resident David Steers opined in The Denver Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Recent Renovation, South Marion Street (courtesy Brent Jones)<\/p><\/div>\n

Academics should be under no illusion that they\u2019re strategically positioned to exert meaningful pressure on people to think and act in particular ways. But we can always hope.\u00a0 It would certainly be tragic for both residents and the wider, admiring public if Arapahoe Acres was renovated beyond recognition.\u00a0 Charles Birnbaum, president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, makes great sense where he tells The Post<\/em> that \u201cthere\u2019s a lot of wiggle room\u201d to renovate and update individual houses in ways that simultaneously preserve the neighborhood\u2019s exterior coherence.\u00a0 The wiggle room allows for the wholesale gutting of interiors to meet the changing needs of American families, and I doubt that Hawkins, Sternberg, or Frank Lloyd Wright himself would object to solar panels on the peaked and cantilevered roofs.\u00a0 Minimally, the question of Arapahoe Acres\u2019 future doesn\u2019t have to be framed as an \u201ceither\/or\u201d as regards property rights and historic preservation.\u00a0 It will indeed be worth watching how, as one Post<\/em> commentator describes it, the \u201cinteresting social dynamic playing out in this little area\u201d will evolve in the months and years ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arapahoe Acres is a nationally famous suburban subdivision located just south of the University of Denver in Englewood. \u00a0It was \u00a0built between 1949-1957 by the developer Edward Hawkins, with help from the architect Eugene Sternberg. Sternberg was then employed by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4,6,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-architecture","category-denver-urbanism","category-urban-studies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1H2bI-hz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1089"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1097,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1089\/revisions\/1097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}