The Denver City Council on Monday refused to designate as landmarks two buildings developers say stand in the way of transforming the former University of Colorado Health Sciences Center into an urban town center.
The designation would have protected the John F. Kennedy Development Center, built in 1968, and the Children’s Psychiatric Day Care Center, built in 1962.
But developers and neighborhood leaders convinced the council that protecting the buildings would undo nearly four years of planning and would complicate efforts to create a street grid pattern on the 32-acre campus, which fronts Colorado Boulevard between Eighth and 11th avenues.
The campus was vacated when the medical school moved to the An schutz Medical Campus in Aurora.
A coalition of architects, preservationists and history buffs argued the buildings are fine examples of the Usonian style developed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
The buildings were designed by noted architects Victor Hornbein and Edward White, who also designed the Denver Botanic Gardens. Local history buffs treasure White for his nearly 30-year tenure on the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission and his friendship with writers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg.
“If a plan fails to take into account the design of these buildings, then the plan is flawed, not the buildings,” one speaker, Michael Hughes, told the council.
The council expressed regret but unanimously voted against the landmark designation.
Council members pointed out that Shea Properties had agreed to preserve the Nurse’s Dormitory building and to retain an outdoor quadrangle with its mature trees. The developers also had earned the trust of nearby residents, council members stressed.
Shea plans to eventually transform the shuttered campus into a retail and entertainment hub with a hotel and multifamily residences.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
