Q: What do you think should happen with Civic Center park?
A: I’m not a believer that we should just put more police in. It needs to be civic. There need to be enhancements.
The connectivity to downtown is terrible. (The park) is a blockade between the cultural center, the central business district, the city government center and the state government center.
A lot of the ideas (architect Daniel) Libeskind had were quite good. His failures were that the geometry did not respect the composition of the park, and that’s where it became disruptive. The park needs to have people stop and enjoy it, not just walk through.
Q: I understand there are benefactors willing to pay for renovations to Civic Center. What will get them to open their purses?
A: I know of one. His intentions are true and genuine. He wants to make sure there’s consensus within the community. I think we all get swept away by Daniel Libeskind. He’s a fabulous salesperson. He has this highly charismatic quality. But this park belongs to everybody.
Q: Could there be a “named” structure within the park as a result of a donation?
A: I think in today’s world where sponsors make everything successful, that’s the fear. I think that would be fair. It would have to be done with care and thought and public buy-in.
But there’s already the Carnegie Library (now called the McNichols Building). Andrew Carnegie gave millions, and his public buildings are all over the country.
Q: There have been a lot of ideas tossed about for the McNichols Building. What are your thoughts?
A: I think it should be preserved. The interior has been cluttered with infill floors and offices. It used to have a two-story space.
A restaurant in there would be great. And a place for visitors to see a film about what makes Denver unique and different from St. Louis and Chicago. The resource that water is. The way the sun is different here in the sky. It would be a fabulous introduction to the city.
Q: What makes a great city architecturally?
A: One that has great scale and great pedestrian interest; one that’s very walkable with places to work, live and recreate. Also, having great amenities nearby. Chicago has the lake, Denver has the mountains and St. Louis has the river.
Q: How does Denver rank?
A: We’ve got some great architecture here. There are some missed opportunities, but I believe people are becoming more interested in architecture. We saw that in the interviews for the Justice Center and the Clyfford Still Museum, where hundreds of people came out to hear architects talk.
Denver suffered in the late ’70s and early ’80s when the Canadians came in and built high-rise buildings based on buildings in other cities. The “cash register” building (at 17th and Lincoln avenues,) was really designed for Houston, but they decided not to put it there. When it snowed, the snow would slide off the building onto the sidewalk. Now we have higher standards and expectations.
Q: Is Denver overlooking local architects too often in favor of “starchitects” such as Daniel Libeskind?
A: It’s great to have outside influence because it raises the bar and pushes the community to work harder. It results in a much richer collection of buildings and forces the local community to think hard about architecture.
Q: Why is it so important for our jail to be symbolically beautiful?
A: It’s in an urban neighborhood. There’s an opportunity to take it to another level. We shouldn’t look at it as a stereotypical jail. When we push jails off to the suburbs, to the Smith Roads, they become very stale, and form follows function. With this jail, (the defendants) have not been found guilty yet. They should be shown some respect.
Q: What did you learn during your formative years that has helped you in your career?
A: We create spaces where people learn, worship, read and sleep. We have a pretty significant influence on people’s feelings during the course of the day.
Our projects are built for a long time. If you make a mistake, you can’t just erase it.
Edited for space and clarity from an interview by staff writer Margaret Jackson.
