 |
| Public presentation of the new NFL Denver Bronco Stadium - Press from across the country, national media, local reporters, and hundreds of community members came to hear about their proposed future |
by Gregory Saville
We walked across cracked sidewalks and street litter beside the deteriorating railway grounds known as Denver’s Burnham Yard, only a few blocks from the Art District on Santa Fe. I found myself wondering what this place will look like in five years when the massive new Denver Broncos football stadium rises from this worn industrial landscape.
It brought to mind the role of Third Places as community activators, how they are the core of neighborhood life, and how fragile they are. Third Places have made previous appearances in this blog about creating social life out of industrial decline, and how art co-ops lower crime.
Anchoring the Art District is the Denver Art Society (DAS). It stands as a Third Place and cultural anchor that artists built through years of volunteer effort and community commitment, and I could not ignore the uneasy questions that follows so many large development projects across North America: When the stadium arrives, will this cultural nexus survive as part of the new district? Or will it be pushed aside in favor of land uses that generate revenue but leave the streets quiet between scheduled events?
The unique Third Place that is the Denver Art Society during the monthly First Friday artwalk |
Long before Burnham Yard attracted such interest, artists had already transformed the Santa Fe corridor into a place of daily cultural production. It hosts open studios, exhibitions, music performance venues, and cultural anchors such as Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center, the Colorado Ballet Academy, and the Center for Visual Art at Metropolitan State University of Denver.
Through co-ops like DAS, artists mentor young creators and welcome visitors into shared and safe spaces where participation matters.
 |
| Denver's First Friday monthly artwalk is among the busiest, and liveliest, in the country |
History warns that when large developments arrive in districts already shaped and restored by artists, the outcome often follows a familiar pattern. Artists transform overlooked industrial areas into places people want to visit and experience. Their presence attracts attention and investment. Rising land values create pressure for redevelopment that favors larger and more profitable uses. The cultural anchors that made the district desirable struggle to survive within the new economic landscape they helped create.
THE PUBLIC MEETING
On Feb 13, I attended a Denver Bronco public presentation that revealed both the scale of public interest and the limitations of conventional participation processes. I stood with hundreds of residents and two city councilwomen to learn about the proposed stadium and its surrounding development.
 |
| Over 700 community members attended the new stadium announcement - one city planner described attendance as the largest he has seen |
We have learned repeatedly in our SafeGrowth work that, if large development projects are to fulfill their economic promise, they must become part of a living district rather than stand apart from it. Protecting and strengthening institutions like the Denver Art Society is not an obstacle to economic development but a prerequisite for its long-term success.
THE CHOICE FOR THE FUTURE
The choice facing Denver is not simply where to locate a stadium. It is whether to build upon the existing cultural foundations on Santa Fe that already support year-round creative life and economic activity, or to repeat a familiar pattern of displacement that replaces community assets like the Denver Art Society with occasional spectacle and inactive streets.
The future of Burnham Yard will reveal whether lasting economic vitality in Denver grows from the daily life of its communities, and whether the cultural institutions that built the Art District on Santa Fe will remain part of that future or become another casualty of progress that failed to recognize the value already present.
The offices of the DSP Group are located in a large 10,000 square meter warehouse that once stood in a completely dilapidated port area in Amsterdam. The derelict warehouse (www.veem.nl) was squatted in the 1980s by a group of young people from the socio-cultural sector: a theater, restaurant, photographers/filmmakers, fashion designers, but also craftsmen, a contractor, metal and woodworkers, a research agency, and a bakery. In total 80 renters en members of the Veem association (a co-op). It is a mix to the max at a low rent. The building was completely renovated by the new tenants and is now a national monument. The area around the building became gentrified (partly because of this?) and now boasts the most expensive high-rise building with penthouses costing millions. Yet the building continued and continues to function perfectly well as a kind of alternative village in this environment. Why? One concept plays a key role in this: ownership. The tenants are also members of a joint association and were able to buy the building for next to nothing in the 80s and now manage it together. Ownership in combination with a convenient local land policy (leasehold) is therefore the essence. Come and have a look, I'll show you around :)
ReplyDeletePaul van Soomeren
Paul’s response and the Blog itself reminds me of the story of Temple Bar in Dublin. In short, an area built for the textile industry got taken by the Municipality when the industry took a major downturn, the decision to offer cheap, short term rentals until they could decide what to do long term, turned into a model for great unintended consequences . Once the spaces started being occupied by cafes, pubs and artists, the residents responded. When the City “decided” what they were going to do with the space, the residents fought back and Temple Bar continued as it was, becoming a world famous tourist attraction. The Denver case should be learning about these unintended gems of the world in Dublin and Amsterdam by understanding human behaviour and plan for it. We have history to learn from.
Delete