Urban Design continued from page 5 also studied at the University of Southamp- ton in England, started her career with the NYC Department of Planning through a summer internship in 2009. About two years later, the city brought her on as a full-time associate urban designer working on a range of projects, including fl ood resiliency and revitalization of transit-oriented develop- ments. She eventually moved into a new role as a senior urban designer before spending a year as a fellow with the Urban Design Forum and about a year and a half with WXY Studio, an urban design fi rm, while also teaching urban design at Cornell University. After that, she went back to the NYC plan- in 2002. It was through that process that it became very clear the Mile High City needed to create the role of a chief urban designer. Later that year, after Hancock tapped Laura Aldrete, a Denver native who had worked on real estate development at Denver International Airport, to be the new execu- tive director of the Denver Department of Community Planning and Development, she set a goal of hiring a chief urban designer. “I have seen moments where we have focused on design and then we ebb away from it,” Aldrete explains. “I think we are in a moment where we are coming back to thinking about strong quality urban design in our public realm, and the moment is now.” Urban design is the nexus of city planning with architecture and landscape architec- Planning and Development fi nally posted the chief urban designer job in July 2021. A year later, the city hired Di Girolamo. What stood out about Di Girolamo was her ability to heavily consider “community and social equity” in urban design, Aldrete says. “Those items aren’t often coupled together, and that was her starting point as she had the conversations with me and with the selection committee about where the urban design fi eld should move. It felt like she was thinking about it from a 21st- century perspective.” Urban designers think about the overall plans of a city while also looking at stylistic choices of individual developments and everything in between. The urban designer considers the lived experience for everyone of Community Planning and Development. Denver already has a few urban designers on staff, which is great, and from my conversa- tions with people on the city team and in the private and academic sectors, it was clear how much urban design was valued here. I found it refreshing and inspiring, and I’ve loved getting to know the people and places in Denver so far.” But there’s so much more to see! This is only her fourth day on the job, and Di Girolamo has agreed to a tour of certain parts of Denver where urban design issues are front and center. Laura Swartz, director of communica- tions at Community Planning and Develop- ment, comes along for the ride...and walk. And while our travels are designed to collect While Civic Center Station with its lot fi lled with rocks is a miss, Eugenia Di Girolamo is impressed with Civic Center Park. ning department, taking a job as a senior lead urban designer before ultimately becoming the deputy director of urban design. During her work in New York, Di Gi- rolamo stressed the importance of public engagement. “I love to base my urban design approach on community planning and community engagement. I’m a fi rm believer in knowing the place fi rst, visiting the place, listening to the people who live there and work there, understanding from them what are the is- sues that they face every day, how can the city help them, and how urban design can help them live better in the city they love,” Di Girolamo says. While at the department, she helped create a website that would help city residents better understand urban de- sign projects. Urban design has been a mystery to many Denver residents for years as they’ve watched fugly developments spring up all over the city. And while the City of Denver has em- 6 ployed urban designers over the years, it hasn’t had a high-ranking offi cial focusing solely on urban design since long before Michael Hancock became mayor in 2011. And it’s never had a chief urban designer. In 2019, Denver City Council adopted updates to Blueprint Denver, the land-use and transportation plan originally approved ture. And while architecture has been a pro- fession since ancient times and city planning and landscape architecture have been their own professions for over a century, urban design has only recently been recognized as its own fi eld. “Urban design is less recognized as a dis- crete profession, at least in the United States, partly because it doesn’t have a correspond- ing professional licensure or national regu- who uses a city, including residents, tour- ists, commuters, pedestrians, bikers, transit users and drivers. “In general, [it’s] thinking about people, their experience of the city, giving them services that they need, thinking about how they live in the city and how urban design actually impacts people’s lives — because where you live, your walk to work, your drive to work, your walk to school, whatever that "I approach urban design from an engagement and equity perspective. I believe good city-building should be about people and their experience of the city where they live, work and spend free time." latory organization the way that the other three do,” says Ken Schroeppel, director of urban design at the University of Colorado Denver’s College of Architecture and Plan- ning. “When you go to Europe, for example, and you talk to planners and designers who live and work in European cities, they really describe themselves more as urban designers than [ones that] have a technical expertise in one of those three fi elds.” After pivoting to focus on other tasks dur- ing the fi rst year of the pandemic, Community may be, really has a social impact on your life,” Di Girolamo explains. And an “equitable distribution of good and great design” across the city is of ut- most importance. “I approach urban design from an engagement and equity perspec- tive,” Di Girolamo adds. “I believe good city-building should be about people and their experience of the city where they live, work and spend free time. I clearly saw an alignment between my values and passion for community engagement and the values Di Girolamo’s insights and observations about certain sites, some of the tour involves getting her up to speed on the background of certain locations and some of the major issues that Denver is facing. Our fi rst stop: Civic Center Station and Civic Center Park Our tour starts at the northeast corner of Broadway and Colfax. “It would be in- teresting to understand how many lines come through here and how that would be serving the downtown,” says Di Giromalo, peering at the awnings of RTD’s Civic Center Station, which was renovated in 2017 after the transformed Union Station reopened as a multi-modal hub and RTD’s Market Street Station closed. “How you serve it now, and how you serve it in the future. I think invest- ment in public transit is always extremely important for a city as large as Denver.” Between the station and the corner is a barren lot fi lled with rocks and surrounded by fencing, which is owned by First Inter- state Bank of Denver. What would Di Gi- rolamo do with this space? “I think it’s tough to know right now,” she answers. “What I would do is really understand better the uses and the businesses and what’s around the site, and how the site plays a role in the area, and then just go from there, understanding the site and the area fi rst.” Across the street continued on page 8 AUGUST 18-24, 2022 WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | westword.com WESTWORD WESTWORD
