Updated at 2:26 p.m. Feb. 17: The original version of this story was updated to include new comments from Denver City Council President Amanda Sandoval about outreach to Councilman Chris Hinds about the project.
Denver City Councilman Chris Hinds is frustrated with the city’s $1.5 million council chambers renovation project, which is making mobility and access improvements for people with disabilities.
Thatap because, despite Hinds being Denver’s first-ever council member to use a wheelchair, he says he wasn’t included enough in the planning for the project.
“Accessibility is strongest when lived experience is included from the start,” he said. “This could be a chance not just to meet the minimum, but to lead by embracing the disability community’s call of ‘nothing about us without us.’ ”
The renovation project will update the entire chamber, from the council members’ desks to the public seating area, making it compliant with requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Construction crews are in the process of replacing the desks, eliminating steps, creating more wheelchair-accessible seating for the public and widening walkways.
According to Hinds, while some of those changes will bring the council chambers up to the requirements laid out under the ADA, those are only a bare-minimum standard. Even the renovated room may still present challenges for people with mobility disabilities, he said.
One example: The new ramps that are being installed will have only the minimum required width to accommodate a wheelchair, Hinds said. In Hinds’ power wheelchair, he will be limited in how fast he can move through those spaces. That might be a problem if he needs to leave the room quickly in an emergency, he said.
A spokesman for the City Council office responded to questions about the process by saying that the changes were for more people than just Hinds.
“He was the advocate for why we needed this change, but this is being done for anyone in our community who has accessibility issues,” spokesman Robert Austin said.
Council President Amanda Sandoval spoke to The Denver Post after this story was published. She said that after she was elected to a leadership position in 2024, she presented updates on the project to the full council twice. She also said she met with Hinds individually in November 2024 to review the design and ask for his input.
“Accessibility is not an afterthought. It is a foundational value of this council and of my presidency,” she said.
But Hinds said Tuesday that by the time he was asked about his input, the design was mostly set. The city had been working to develop the project since 2021. Sandoval didn’t identify any changes to the design that came from the individual meeting with Hinds.
The city’s , which is under , helped in the planning for the project, Austin said.
Jaime Lewis, a disability rights advocate with the , said it was disrespectful for the city to proceed with plans without consulting Hinds.
“We have to be at the table at the beginning,” he said. “Once the cement is dry, itap kind of hard to tear it up.”
What is changing
The city began the renovation back in December, and the work is scheduled to be completed at the end of June. In the meantime, the council is using the Parr-Widener Community Room on another floor of the Denver City and County Building for its meetings.
Because that space on the third floor is much smaller, officials are asking members of the public to or on Channel 8, and to make public comments online when possible.
The project will make several changes to the chamber, including:
- Eliminating a step up to the presidentap desk on the dais so that someone in a wheelchair could preside over meetings.
- Moving all council desks slightly forward so that there is enough space behind the dais for a wheelchair to move freely.
- Replacing the original desks with one long desk.
- Orienting the placement of the council members’ positions to be in a crescent moon shape so that members can all see one another.
- Making some of the public seating wheelchair accessible.
- Widening the aisles between the public seating areas.
- Altering the lectern where staff members present and public commenters speak so that it can shift up and down for speakers’ needs.
- Two new doors by the council desk to add separate exits for council members
The project will be paid for using the city’s capital improvements fund.
Removing historic desks
City officials are in the unusual position of trying to decide what to do with the set of historic council desks that will no longer be used.
Most of the desks have been with the building since it first opened in 1932. The city had only nine of them then because it had fewer council members, said Councilman Kevin Flynn, a former journalist who’s an unofficial historian for the city. The other desks were added in the 1970s, when the council expanded to 13 members.
“They are so beautiful,” he said about the desks. “A lot of the story of Denver is behind those desks. Good, bad and ugly.”
Each desk has an ornate carving of an inlaid diamond on the front. The backs have a large top drawer and three side drawers. Flynn said he liked to keep candy in his desk.
Last week, the council to the not-yet-existent Museum of Denver.
Council members Shontel Lewis, Darrell Watson and Diana Romero-Campbell took three of the desks to their district offices. That leaves the remaining four without a home, though the city may auction them off to the public, Flynn said.
First in new museum’s collection
The six desks that the city is donating to the also don’t have a home quite yet because the museum doesn’t officially have a space.
The nonprofit organization that is seeking to create the city museum applied in January to use the second floor of the McNichols Civic Center Building in Civic Center.
While the city confirms it does want to have a museum in the 8,500-square-foot space, it hasn’t decided who will operate it. Officials plan to make an announcement about the space in March, a city spokesperson said.
“The intent for the museum is that it showcases the history and culture of Denver. We’re hoping for a partner that provides a uniquely Denver experience — inviting downtown residents and visitors alike to learn and enjoy something new from their visit to Civic Center Park,” said Jen Morris, the chief of staff for Denver Arts & Venues.
The desks are the first artifacts that the museum will possess, said Kendra Black, a former councilwoman who is the chair of the nonprofitap board. Black said that once the nonprofit is more established and has a space, it will work on obtaining or borrowing more items to display.
“We will likely use (the desks) for when you come and check in and to display other things,” she said.
The group estimates it will need to raise at least $1 million in donations to open its doors.
