Some of the world’s best architects are clamoring to build in Denver, and it’s not the trendy condos of LoDo or the chic boutiques of Cherry Creek that are attracting them.
It’s something much more mundane: drunk tanks, courtrooms and jail cells.
Denver’s new justice center, scheduled to open in 2009, promises to play a prominent role in the architectural renaissance sweeping Denver’s downtown. City officials have attracted an A-list of firms vying to build the new courthouse and 1,500-bed jail.
“It’s extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary,” said David Owen Tryba, a local Denver architect who is coordinating the project for the city. “These are some of the best practicing architects in the world.”
The list includes Steven Holl Architects of New York, selected by Time Magazine as architect of the year in 2001. Then there are two recipients of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize, considered the Nobel of architecture: London-based Foster & Partners and New York-based Richard Meier & Partners Architects.
As if that weren’t enough, Norman Foster, the lead architect at Foster & Partners, also has a knighthood. The Richard Meier firm designed the Getty Center in Los Angeles, which houses the Getty Trust’s artwork.
The architects interested in the Denver project want much more than a piece of the $378 million price tag the project carries, Tryba and several of the finalists say.
“Historically, the jail had a prominence second only to the courthouse in urban design up until the 1950s,” Tryba said. “If you go back to 3,000 years ago, and you go to Venice and any of the great cities of the world, you will find that jails and detention facilities were central to the whole idea of urbanism.”
As the website of Valerio Dewalt Train Associates Inc. of Chicago, one of four finalists for the new jail building, proclaims: “Build or die.”
The finalists say they want to play a role in a new architectural movement in America that places issues of justice at the forefront of the civic-design realm.
The federal government kicked the movement off about 10 years ago when it developed high design standards for new federal courthouses and began requiring that a jury of architecture peers play a role in selecting which architects got to design those courthouses.
That process produced the Sandra Day O’Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix, a stunning glass box with an enormous public atrium that was designed by Richard Meier & Partners.
Denver officials have copied the concept of a jury of peers. The jury will forward its recommendations on who should design the new jail and who should design the courthouse to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper in December.
James Mejia, Denver’s project manager for the justice center, said the process Denver adopted ensures the new jail and courthouse will have a standing similar to other architectural successes in Denver, such as the Denver Performing Arts Complex and the expansions of the Denver Central Library and the Denver Art Museum.
Denver has become the leading municipality to shoot as high as the federal government when it comes to justice issues and architecture, said Christopher McVoy, a partner at Steven Holl Architects.
“This is the most high-profile one that’s local that we’ve seen where there clearly is the ambition to create something lasting in the world of architecture,” he said.
Bill Kissinger of Valerio Dewalt Train said it’s crucial that the new jail and courthouse in Denver build on the civic mall that spills from the state Capitol into Denver’s downtown.
“A certain sensitivity of how the buildings create space is important here,” Kissinger said.
“The city and county of Denver are looking at this as an important site on which they want to put a building that is reflective of this Civic Center location.”
The finalists for the courthouse portion of the project are Foster & Partners; Kallmann McKinnell & Wood Architects of Boston; Koetter Kim & Associates of Boston; Richard Meier & Partners Architects; Robert A.M. Stern Architects of New York (in association with 4240 Architecture of New York); and Steven Holl Architects.
The finalists for the jail portion of the project are Hartman- Cox Architects of Washington, D.C.; HOK of St. Louis; Ten Arquitectos of New York (in association with RNL Design and Durrant); and Valerio Dewalt Train Associates.
Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-820-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.
