A Block By Block Comeback Is Planned By Denver; Will Costly Makeover Craft A 21st Century Street Or Stumble?
by Glen Richardson
Demolition Derby: PCL Construction crews work to complete the 16th Street Mall makeover. Street was initially slated for completion by year’s end.
Launched in April of 2022 with a $90-$130 million cost estimate, completion of downtown Denver’s 16th Street Mall was slated for wrap-up by the end of this year at a cost of $149 million. As the deadline draws near, City Council has approved (7 to 3) a $1,150,000 contract — between the city and the Downtown Denver Partnership — to continue redesigning and reactivating the strip. The cost is now estimated at $172.5 million.
Completion is now probable “for the fall of 2025.” Workers hope to have fences down on half of the blocks under construction and open to the public at the end of 2024. Those blocks, however, will still need small-scale finishing touches.
Once home to more than 300 stores and 50 restaurants, businesses along the 1.2-mile corridor between Wazee St. and Broadway are open and accessible, but struggling. Sales are down 25-30% or more. T.J. Maxx and McDonald’s are among those driven out. The 16th Street Mall Business Support program has awarded 177 grants to 103 businesses for more than $1 million. The first to use a grant, closed a few months later due to crime and their windows shot out. Even businesses that were receiving free rent have gone.
Unique To Simulated
When opened the 16th Street Mall was among the most iconic places in Denver, recognized for its high-quality design, enduring materials, and value as a civic space. It was selected for the National Register of Historic Places due to the exceptional caliber of its design and designers, including I.M. Pei, Henry Cobb, and Laurie Olin. The Urban Land Institute called it “public art of the highest international quality.”
Shady Spaces: Rendering of shade structures being designed to hopefully make the reactivated mall desirable and engaging.
The unique is now being replicated by today’s overseers. Some of the original elements will remain, including light fixtures, trees in linear rows, and use of granite. Nonetheless, much of the project is being heavily altered. Promises were made, for example, to recreate the original granite paver-pattern, inspired by Navajo rugs and a snake skin belt. Sadly, plans shifted late in the design-build process, with PCL Construction using smaller pavers than the original, and laying them differently in the transit and pedestrian lanes. As a result, it breaks-up the unity and cohesion of the intricate and elegant design.
The intent of today’s design team — the City of Denver, the Downtown Denver Partnership and RTD — was to honor and recreate elements of the original design. However, the mall is being transformed, resulting in such significant loss of integrity that it will no longer be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
Current Construction
Tree Lined Treat: The 1.25-mile-long 16th Street runs from Union Station at Wewatta St. to Civic Center Station at Broadway.
The Road Ahead: Department of Transportation & Infrastructure rendering of what the 16th Street Mall will look like when finished in the fall of 2025.
Potholing — drilling holes to confirm underground utility locations — may still require lane and sidewalk closures on the 16th Street Mall and on cross-streets. Identifying existing water-sewer pipes, and electrical conduit lines, continues to reduce the chance of them being encountered during construction. Signage is being used to help pedestrians and motorists navigate any new closures.
Intersection renewal includes adding shallow utilities, such as electric, traffic signal, and lighting infrastructure. Plus pouring concrete pavement, painting traffic and pedestrian striping continues. Trees for the project were grown and acclimated at tree nurseries. Those trees have now been planted in blocks one and two along16th Street.
Craftsmen laid the pavers by hand along the center transitway during Phase One of the project. Texture of the new granite pavers — PCL Construction and city officials claim — will provide more traction, thus improving safety for the next generation of mall pedestrians.
Moments Of Joy
The new mall will feature elements designed to hopefully make 16th Street desirable, and engaging. Site furnishings, play features, and moments of joy are being distributed up and down the street. They include tables, chairs, benches, shade structures, and planters. The play features are designed to engage kids along the street. Lastly, there will be “Moments of Joy” to bring a bit of delight to the street; make you smile, pause for a moment, or snap a photo to share.
Magic Memories: Horse drawn carriage rides along the 16th Street Mall were for years a memorable experience for couples, kids, and families.
Distribution of the elements are being arranged along the corridor accordingly: Local Link from Market to Curtis; Press Play, Curtis to California St.; Experience 16, California to Tremont; and Jump Start from Tremont to Broadway. Arrangement of the features are designed to create attractions. But they will also provide moments of relaxation and fun for families, residents, visitors, and workers visiting downtown’s core.
Site furnishings are being organized into three basic room types: feast, lounge, and arrow. Feast rooms were created with food in mind. They will be spaces to share lunch with a friend or eat solo and catch up on emails The lounge rooms are spaces to allow you to slow down and stay for a bit. Visitors can take a moment to plan their next step. The space will allow downtown employees a place to pause in the shade between meetings, plus providing a site where residents can enjoy people watching. Arrow rooms will give visitors an accurate, vivid look at downtown.
Final Impact
Prior to the 16th Street overhaul launch, city officials said the investment would, “be well worth the price.” They reasoned it would improve or solve safety and infrastructure deficiencies. Replacement of a water line dating from the 1880s is expected to help drainage. The project also adds more surface friction on the walkways to improve pedestrian safety.
Denver Destination: Opening to the public in 1982, the 16th Street Mall was Denver’s most visited tourist destination for more than 30 years.
Moreover, removing the existing median and shifting the paths of the two bus lanes will add 10 ft. of dedicated, unobstructed sidewalk space on each side of the mall. In addition to more space for pedestrians, the project provides an opportunity to add amenities, while also being able to present additional community events.
More importantly, the city believes the project will play a key role in downtown Denver’s post-pandemic economic turnaround. Admittedly skittish about using the figure today, city leaders said prior to the launch it would increase downtown’s gross regional product — a version of the national gross domestic product, or GDP. How much? By a whopping $3.7 billion!
