Hard as it might be to imagine, there was a not-so-distant time in Denver’s history when cross-country motorists could not glide through the city on Interstate 70 and avoid even a single stoplight.
Instead, the main east-west thoroughfare was U.S. 40, which became Colfax Avenue as it passed from the metropolitan area’s outskirts into the city core, running past the state Capitol and Civic Center before emerging in the sprouting suburbs.
The street remains a melting pot of architectural styles. Art deco and modernism rub elbows with neoclassical and Italianate styles. Perhaps most important has been what is known as commercial vernacular architecture.
With the city ramping up to redevelop Colfax, preserving that architecture from the past century in all its colorful, variegated guises and using it as a springboard to the future is the key to revitalizing this once-great avenue and keeping its essence intact.
Just as today’s interstate exits are packed with motels, gas stations and restaurants of all kinds, Colfax was lined with businesses that catered to the thousands of road-weary occupants of the automobiles that passed by every day.
But unlike today’s fast-food franchises and chain hotels, all numbingly the same, these businesses tried to be as distinctive, even outlandish, as possible to stick out amid myriad choices.
Owners used brash neon signs and flashing lights to attract attention. Customers were lured with exotic architectural styles and shapes, such as the little Dutch-mill pavilion near Oswego Street, and catchy names like the Bugs Bunny Motel at Kendall Street, which changed its name to Big Bunny after Warner Bros. threatened legal action in the late 1990s.
Once the interstates arrived, the suburbs began expanding in other directions, and the section of Colfax running through Denver’s downtown suffered many of the same problems as inner-city corridors across the United States. The street sank into decline.
Many plans have been floated over the years to revitalize this once-bustling artery. Such efforts reached a crescendo in April in Denver with the City Council’s approval of an innovative and far-reaching redevelopment plan for East Colfax.
It mandates the rezoning of about 300 parcels of land along the oldest section of the road from downtown to Colorado Boulevard, a plan designed to increase the district’s density, encourage residential development and enhance its appeal.
It is impossible to argue with the notion that Colfax needs revitalization. The central question is: What form should that redevelopment take? Is there a way for Colfax to evolve and still retain its unique character?
To see what Colfax could become if care is not taken, one need only look at a new strip mall between Krameria and Kearney streets. The generic structure could be anywhere in the city – or the U.S., for that matter.
If redevelopment is to succeed along Colfax, architects and developers must pay heed to the quirkiness and funkiness embodied in the decades of commercial vernacular architecture that define the street more than anything else.
Yet the beauty and value of such structures is not always readily apparent to everyone, as a recent news article made clear with its dismissive description of Colfax as a “slew of shabby motels, liquor stores and rotting buildings.”
Similar adjectives were once applied to much of LoDo before a few visionary people saw its potential and set about turning its fading buildings into the desirable neighborhood it is today.
The key is to look beyond grit and grime and envision what many of these buildings were and what they could become. At the same time, it is essential to rethink what constitutes a significant piece of historic architecture.
Almost everyone understands that Civic Center or the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception are landmarks. But newer and seemingly more banal buildings such as diners or gas stations can be equally noteworthy because of their distinctiveness, playfulness and vital if unsung role in the city’s development.
Though many such structures have met the wrecking ball, fine examples still abound. Among them is a quick shop at 9445 E. Colfax Ave. that occupies a rare and remarkably intact adobe-style gas station from probably the 1920s or ’30s.
For years, planners in Lakewood failed to appreciate the architectural treasures along West Colfax, said Becky Clark, its community planning and development director. In a misguided desire for modernization and conformity, the city tried to alter their essential character.
“Finally, it dawned on us,” Clark said. “Let’s keep some of this history, and let’s turn it around and let’s embrace the neon and the big signs and some of the odd-sized signs that some of the old hotels had. Why fight it? Let’s just embrace it.”
Mesh new with old
Such thinking needs to be extended all along Colfax. How the new can successfully mesh with the old can be seen in Starbucks’ creative reuse of a barn-shaped building at Milwaukee Street – a quintessential Colfax structure – that was once a Red Barn fast-food restaurant.
Of course, it is impossible to save all the vernacular architecture along Colfax, and it makes no sense to do so. But architects of new buildings should strive in fresh ways to recall some of the innate quirkiness of the street’s commercial past.
This can be something simple, like the wonderfully retro sign topped with a crown slightly askew that accents the otherwise unremarkable Premier Car Wash at 7633 W. Colfax Ave.
But idiosyncratic doesn’t always have to mean mimicking the past. Why can’t contemporary architects create their own brand of commercial vernacular architecture and design buildings with an urban flavor and Colfax flair?
City planners point to Chamberlin Heights at Steele Street, hailed as the first new residential complex on Colfax in 80 years, as the way of the future. While the architecture is not bad, there is nothing distinctive about it either. Surely we can do better.
One tangible way to link past and present would be to landmark some of the most flamboyant and festive commercial signs along Colfax – the Satire Lounge near Race Street comes to mind – keeping them intact even if the businesses they advertise disappear.
Such preservation is especially important for the many memorable motel signs, such as the stylish one advertising the Riviera at Beeler Street. Many of these motels inevitably will be razed and otherwise forgotten as Colfax evolves.
The landmarked signs, which could be mapped and promoted as part of self-guided tours of the thoroughfare, would serve as literal and figurative links to the past – colorful reminders of the thoroughfare’s vivid history.
Although Denver has never declared a sign a landmark, Chris Murata, a preservation architect with the Landmark Preservation Commission, sees no reason why it could not be done.
Saving a street’s soul
The future of Colfax is about values. Is creating fancy lofts, swank restaurants and upscale boutiques enough, or is it also important to preserve the soul of this historic avenue that cuts through the heart of the city?
That soul is tied to Colfax’s commercial history, to its innate funkiness, a heritage that cannot be ignored if it is to move successfully into the future and not just become another gentrified neighborhood.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
