6 JUNE 13-19, 2024 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | Things Are Looking Up! REMEMBER THE ’80S? THE DENVER SKYLINE DOES, BUT THAT’S CHANGING. BY CATIE C HESHIRE Denver’s skyline isn’t as large or as iconic as those of New York City or Chicago, but the view is getting better every day, with a handful of interesting structures added to downtown’s boxy, 1980s-era buildings — and more to come. “Folks in Denver, whether they’re visitors, whether they’re companies, whether you’re watching a Rockies game or a Broncos game, you get to see what the skyline looks like,” says Chris Gleissner, Denver Community Planning & Development’s director of site design and neighborhood development. “It’s always a popular picture to show.” Downtown Denver is sited at an angle to the east-west, north-south orientation of the rest of the city. Without a large body of water to inspire horizontal development, its buildings are clustered rather than spread in a row. As a result, the skyline can look very different from different directions (see story, page 9). Certain buildings, like the iconic “Cash Register” with its rounded and uneven top, are unmistakable no matter your loca- tion. Gleissner is par- ticularly partial to the views of downtown from Highland and South Broadway. “Looking up Broad- way on a clear day and seeing downtown, it feels really close but really far away at the same time,” he says. “If you’re out on the west side of town, just coming in from the mountains, it’s always really cool to see the low level that is most of Denver with sort of that spike right in the middle of the towers.” According to CPD guidelines, when buildings reach over eighty feet in height, there’s more room to be creative with their design; most city regulations focus on how people on the street interact with struc- tures. Denver uses a planning tool called a Waldram diagram to ensure that tall buildings don’t block too much light and air, but the number of windows and kinds of materials aren’t as regulated for skyscrapers, Gleissner notes, giving architects an op- portunity to make their mark. Or not. Oil Boom Fuels Denver’s Skyline Denver’s modern skyline started emerging in 1957, when a 28-story building was con- structed on 17th Street. Initially called the First National Bank Building, this new skyscraper changed its name to 621 17th Street when First National merged with Wells Fargo in 1996. By then, a second tower had been added at 633 17th Street. The two concrete-and- glass-striped buildings form a plaza on the corner of 17th and California streets. Before this complex rose downtown, the tallest building in town was the circa 1910 Daniels & Fisher Tower, which rises 325 feet high and climbs 22 stories (if you count the top of the fl ag). Downtown really started looking up in 1958, when the city established the Skyline Urban Renewal District as part of the Den- ver Urban Renewal Authority. The project spanned the 27 blocks between Speer Bou- levard, 20th Street and Market and Champa streets, and was designed to rehabilitate what was considered a blighted area. In the process, DURA demolished many historic buildings and displaced people who had been living downtown — but it also helped create Skyline Park and Sakura Square and jump-start the Denver Performing Arts Complex. As DURA was wiping out much of Denver’s past, the oil boom of the 1970s and early ’80s promised a prosperous future. During this time, the city saw the construc- tion of 21 new build- ings over 25 stories. “Fifty buildings were erected in down- town Denver from 1973 to 1982, with more than $2 billion invested in skyscrap- ers between 1979 and 1982 alone,” reported a buildings survey compiled in 2016 by local historians Tom and Laurie Simmons for Discover Denver, a partnership of the City and County of Denver and Historic Denver, a nonprofi t created in 1970 to save what could be saved. In 1972, the Lincoln Center was erected at 1660 Lincoln Street, along with the Colorado State Bank at 1600 Broadway. The Executive Tower went up at 1405 Curtis Street in 1974. In 1975, the US Bank Tower came online at 950 17th; 1978 brought 555 17th Street and the Johnson Manville property at 717 17th. The World Trade Center I building, at 1675 Broadway, rose in 1979. Before the oil boom went bust, the 1980s saw the construction of 17 buildings over 25 stories. In 1980, 1670 Broadway, World Trade Center II and 1125 17th went up. In 1981, fi ve buildings between 30 and 42 stories were added: MCI Plaza, at 707 17th; Denver Place South Tower, at 999 18th Street; Denver Financial Center, at 1775 Sherman Street; Larimer Place, at 1551 Larimer Street; and The Barclay, at 1625 Larimer. Architects Metz, Train & Youngren de- signed the 53-story 1801 California Street building in 1982. Its interlocking octagonal towers are made of panels of granite and concrete aggregate, according to Discover Denver. Today, it’s the second-tallest build- ing in Denver. Also emerging in 1982 were the 17th Street Plaza building at 1225 17th and Dominion Plaza at 600 17th. Denver’s skyline played a starring role in the opening credits of the prime-time soap opera Dynasty, which originally aired from 1981 to 1989. The buildings were tall, but were they good? “While the quantity of high-rise architecture undeniably grew during the period, the quality was open to debate,” architecture and design commentator Mi- chael Leccese wrote in 1998. “Denver saw its downtown ravaged by a 1970s energy boom, which, over the next decade, resulted in the hasty construction of a banal, Houston-like skyline.” NEWS KEEP UP ON DENVER NEWS AT WESTWORD.COM/NEWS Denver’s iconic “Cash Register” building debuted in 1983. JACK SPIEGEL continued on page 8 A view of Denver’s skyline in 1964. ROBERT J. BOSER VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
