6 FEBRUARY 16-22, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Get the Message? DENVER’S MAYOR HAS AN ALERT FOR TRAVELERS LANDING AT THE AIRPORT. BY CONOR MCCORMIC K- CAVANAGH Although the major construction project snarling Denver International Airport began back in 2018, passengers trekking through the third-busiest airport in the country wouldn’t know that from the messages that have been playing on the train that travels between Jeppesen Terminal and the concourses. Mayor Michael Hancock has made re- cordings welcoming travelers to Denver and the great state of Colorado, encouraging them to enjoy the Stock Show and other events. And this past fall, a message featuring the voices of Colorado Avalanche legends Gabriel Landeskog and Erik Johnson praised Denver for its status as Hockey Capital USA, a fi tting tribute for a city that’s home to the champion Avalanche, University of Denver Pioneers, Denver East Hockey squad and PeeWee Jr. Avs. But beginning on January 3, a familiar voice offered a new message: “Welcome to Denver. This is Mayor Michael Hancock. We appreciate your patience while we’re under construction to improve our airport and make travel safer, easier and more comfort- able for all of our passengers. Enjoy your time in our great state and the Mile High City.” Finally. The recorded message marks the fi rst time that travelers heading into the main terminal on the train are warned of the construction ahead. “Since we have signifi cant construc- tion going on that causes an impact to travelers, it makes sense for the mayor to acknowledge that — that we are mak- ing improvements and to thank them for having to deal with it,” says Stephanie Figueroa, an airport spokesperson. Fortunately, the city made a deal back in 2010 that allows the airport to change the message to make such acknowledgments. Of- fi cially known as “Train Call,” the circus-like music on the train and the recording were part of the original public art commission that went to sound artist Jim Green, who had to authorize any changes to the recording during the airport’s fi rst fi fteen years. Real- izing that more immediate message changes would be handy, the city purchased the rights from the artist a dozen years ago. The current construction is part of the much-delayed Great Hall Project, which will modernize the airport’s approach to security. For example, new security lanes on the sixth fl oor will increase the airport’s capacity to process passengers by 60 percent, according to airport CEO Phil Washington. The proj- ect’s price is now pegged at over $2 billion, with an expected completion date in 2028. The present-day iteration of the Great Hall Project is a scaled-back version of the one agreed to by the Hancock administration under the leadership of then-CEO Kim Day, a 34-year, $1.8 billion deal with a Spanish company to remodel Jeppesen Terminal. That agreement, which included a major shopping emphasis on the main fl oor, im- ploded under the pressure of delays and cost overruns, and Denver terminated the contract in August 2019. After that, the airport moved ahead with parts of the Great Hall Project under other contractors, with a focus on improving security and effi ciency instead of encouraging shopping. But in the meantime, the construction has led to a confusing experience for people attempting to navigate the terminal in recent years, with temporary wall blockades and inadequate signage. But at least Hancock’s message alerts passengers fresh off planes to what lies ahead. “The airport wanted arriving travel- ers to be aware of the work being done, as there are currently many walls up, and construction in the terminal is particu- larly impactful at the moment,” says Mike Strott, a mayoral spokesperson. Despite the constant construction, Denver International Airport had its busiest year in 2022, serving 69,286,461 passengers, an increase of 17.8 percent over 2021 and 0.4 percent over 2019, when it saw 69,015,703 travelers. The only airports in the country that are busier are Atlanta and Dallas. In order to prepare for the increased passen- ger load, the airport is in the process of replac- ing the train’s cars, some of which have been in operation since the airport opened in 1995. However, cars both old and new will still offer the “Hold on, please” cue of Alan Roach, the famous Colorado announcer who just worked the Super Bowl between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. Email the author at conor.mccormick. [email protected]. NEWS KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS “Train Call” was an early airport art commission. FLYDENVER HAPPY LANDINGS Denver International Airport plans to spend over $7.4 million on three suspended-sculp- ture public art projects to be fi nished within the next three to fi ve years, in keeping with the city’s 1 percent for art program estab- lished more than thirty years ago by Mayor Federico Peña. The airport started awarding public art commissions even before construc- tion started in the early ’90s. The result is a collection worth tens of millions of dollars, with pieces ranging from Luis Jiménez’s controversial “Mustang” to the even more controversial “Children of the World Dream of Peace,” by Leo Tanguma, which is in storage while construction continues on the Great Hall. “Train Call,” by sound artist Jim Green, was also one of the early commissions. The new artworks will be designed to “refl ect the individual personality of each concourse and its travelers,” according to Ashley Forest, an airport spokesperson. They will also “act as a landmark or meeting point” and provide a sense of “place” and “wonderment.” One newly approved project, “Dance the Sky Softly,” will place a large, suspended art- work “inspired by the light, form and colors of the Colorado Rockies” in the Concourse A-West expansion. “Series of catenary curves of ball chain will cascade throughout the ceil- ings, creating moiré patterns that oscillate in color to create cloud like forms,” according to the proposal. Nogues Studio, the fi rm of artist Benjamin Ball, a former Coloradan who now lives in Los Angeles, will receive $2,499,474 to complete the project in three years, with the opportunity for two one-year extensions. The second $2.5 million commission is for another suspended piece, this one by artist Kipp Kobayashi of Claremont, Cali- fornia, that will be in the Concourse B-West expansion. “The artwork will be created from stainless-steel welded mesh titled, ‘The Cosmology of Flight,’” city documents note. “The translucent sculpture will allow pas- sengers the uncommon view of an airplane up-close to appreciate the modern marvel of air travel.” And Danielle Roney, an artist out of Brooklyn, will create two suspended sculp- tures for the Concourse C-East expansion, including the outdoor observation deck, dubbed “The Constellations” and “based upon the geometry of specifi c constellations positioned above Denver’s skies during the Winter and Summer Solstice.” Denver International Airport is an en- terprise fund, and its operational budget — including money to pay for public art — comes from the revenue it generates rather than the city’s general fund, which is fi lled by tax dollars. Denver City Council approval is required for large contracts, however, and the contracts for the three larger sculptures were big enough to qualify. They were ap- proved by council on February 13. In October, the airport announced that local artist Thomas “Detour” Evans would create a suspended sculpture for Concourse B-East called “It’s Not What You Take, It’s What You Bring Back.” The work has a budget of $450,000, so it didn’t require council approval. Helping keep costs down is Detour’s plan to use donated pieces of luggage for much of the piece. By the way, another one of the airport’s original art commissions, Terry Allen’s “Notre Denver,” has been stored during construction, but soon those bronze gar- goyles will once again oversee the baggage claims area, perhaps watching out for future Detour materials. — MCCORMICK-CAVANAGH “It’s Not What You Take, It’s What You Bring Back,” by Detour. FLYDENVER
