Billie Bramhall counts famed architects Daniel Libeskind, Michael Graves and Gio Ponti as her neighbors. Sort of. The design trio doesn’t actually live in the Golden Triangle neighborhood, but they’ve certainly left their mark there.
“We watched the Art Museum addition go up from our balcony,” said Denver’s former director of community development under Mayor Federico Peña. “It’s an extraordinary place to live.”
Ponti designed the original Art Museum building, Libeskind added onto it, and Michael Graves is in the history books as the architect of The Denver Public Library’s main branch.
All those structures anchor Denver’s newest reincarnation of an old neighborhood: The Golden Triangle.
Formerly known as the Civic Center neighborhood, the Golden Triangle forms the geometric shape from Colfax Avenue to Speer Boulevard over to Broadway just south of downtown. Although not technically part of it, many businesses along Lincoln Street also consider themselves part of the neighborhood.
“We loved the idea of living in the middle of it all,” said Bramhall, who moved into the Triangle in 1997 after retiring from helping to plan the area.
Civic Center was first envisioned by Mayor Robert Speer in 1904, after he visited the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was to be the center of everything in Denver. Victorian cottages and row houses lined Delaware, Bannock and Cherokee streets. The two houses joined to form the restaurant Cuba Cuba at 11th and Delaware are an example of those homes.
After World War II, residents moved out of the neighborhood to greener pastures and their houses were replaced with industrial businesses, parking lots, auto body shops, car dealerships.
“The Sports Authority building (on Broadway)… formerly known as the Gart’s Sports Castle was a Chrysler dealership. Then there was a Studebaker dealership on Broadway and a Cadillac dealership at 11th and Cherokee,” said Rhonda Knopp, a Realtor who also lives in the Triangle.
In the late 1980s, city planners started looking at the neighborhood as the home to a new convention center. When that plan failed, developers moved in and The Golden Triangle was born.
“The idea was that we were going to build a village. It was close to downtown and all the major thoroughfares,” said Mickey Zeppelin, a developer and Triangle resident. “It was a golden opportunity.”
He said that’s how the area got its name.
Zeppelin looked at the past for the future. He developed the first housing in an old Cadillac Motor Co. service garage at 10th and Cherokee. The Cadillac lofts made way for a housing boom that includes The Prado, The Beauvallon and The Belvedere, to name a few. It’s also home to Libeskind’s artful museum residences, adding upscale housing to the cityscape in styles that range from ultra-modern to neo-classical.
According to Knopp, there are about 700 condos in 12 buildings and 400 rental units currently open. There are about 800 rental units in the planning stages.
The people who live here are empty-nesters, double-income-no-kids, and professionals, including some high-profile athletes. There aren’t many families living in the Triangle.
When developers started building here the price per square foot was cheap, according to Zeppelin. He remembers it at around $15. Now, that price runs anywhere between $300 and $600 per square foot. The lowest price of a property currently on the market is around $300,000. The highest, $2.06 million.
Business is also booming in the Triangle. There are more than two dozen restaurants and bars, more than 20 art galleries, 18 spas and salons and a handful of coffee shops.
There is also the neighborhood Acoma Theater that has offered critically acclaimed plays and programs.
And retail that continues to grow.
Zeppelin would love to see a defined commercial center in the neighborhood, which he admits will be hard to find.
Moving past the concrete, Bramhall was concerned about moving into the urban hood in her golden years.
“I thought it would be cold. I thought I’d given up neighborliness,” she recalls.
But, she says, she discovered it’s not that way.
She recounts events during one of last winter’s snowstorms. Her neighbors had all brought tables and chairs into the building’s hallway, set up candles and had dinner together “looking out at the snowstorm covering the city.”
“It’s just a great place to live.”
Golden Triangle/Civic Center neighborhood
Where it is: It forms a triangle between Colfax Avenue, Speer Boulevard and Broadway, just south of downtown.
Who lives there: Empty-nesters, double-income families with no kids, professionals.
Average price of housing per square foot:
2004: $185
2005: $262
2006: $431
2007: $418
Main attractions: Denver Art Museum, Denver Public Library’s main branch, Colorado History Museum, Civic Center.
Common complaints: Aside from Civic Center, not much green space. No main neighborhood retail center.
Schools: Dora Moore Elementary, Morey Middle School, West High School, PS1 Denver Charter School.
Shopping: The 16th Street Mall – and 32nd and Lowell, Cherry Creek Shopping Center and Cherry Creek North, which are all a 10-minute drive away.
Source: Rhonda Knopp, Distinctive Properties Ltd.
