Watch out, Lincoln Center: Denver’s Performing Arts Complex (DPAC), the second largest in the nation after New York’s Lincoln Center, is poised for a remodel so that it may, according to the city’s Next Stage master plan, become a more “vibrant, public regional center of cultural activity in the heart of downtown.” The plan will be presented formally to Mayor Hancock and a focus group on Jan. 25 and will go to the public and City Council in February.
The arts complex’s re-envisioning started in 2007, when Denver voters approved a $60 million bond issue meant to refurbish the Colorado Symphony’s Boettcher Concert Hall, a facility which was showing its age after over 25 years of use. The bond issue hinged on the symphony raising half of the total, which given 2008’s Great Recession, it could not do. As a result, all but $16.8 million of the money was spent on other projects like Red Rocks Amphitheater and McNichols Civic Center Building. [Editor's Note: Denver Zoo, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver Art Museum, Denver Center for Performing Arts and Denver Botanic Gardens also shared these remaining funds.] Then, adding another layer to his re-envisioning of the Convention Center and the 16th Street Mall, last year Mayor Hancock suggested considering improvements to the entire arts complex. Ginger White, deputy director of the Denver’s Arts and Venues Department, says redevelopment of the Performing Arts Complex is needed in order to increase usage: “most people see the DPAC on a weekend night when the place is bustling,” she says. “But on a Wednesday afternoon,” she gestures out the window to the empty Galleria, “you can shoot a cannonball down the Galleria and not hit anybody.”
H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture of New York (h3hc.com) drafted the redevelopment plan. Their portfolio includes one of the Lincoln Center Theaters and The Ranch at Santa Fe Opera redevelopment. The plan would create a more vibrant cityscape along 14th and Arapahoe streets by converting the ground floor parking garage into shops and restaurants. The project would also create a 1200- to 1500-seat concert hall for the symphony and other musical events with adjoining practice spaces and a lobby on the second through fifth floors. The Mayor’s committee and H3 also propose the current Boettcher Concert Hall be converted into a Denver Public Schools school of the arts. Conversations with DPS are already in progress.
Perhaps the most interesting component of the redevelopment are the plans for Sculpture Park—the wedge of greenery between the arts complex and Speer Boulevard dominated by the two 50-foot white sculptures,The Dancers. The master plan calls for raising the park to level with the Galleria and building a parking garage underneath. The goal is to create a green space for Denverites living downtown with direct access from the 16th Street Mall, down Champa Street and through the Galleria. H3 envisions a pavilion, band shell, picnic facilities, a garden and a dog park. The Dancers would be moved to a different spot in the new park.
In tandem with the Convention Center’s proposed remodeling project, also designed by H3, plans are in the works to remodel the Convention Center light rail stop, described by one speaker at the December 10th Executive Leadership Team (ELT) meeting as “not an inviting gateway into downtown.” The remodel calls for improving lighting, adding greenery and improving sight lines and pathways to the ticketing area, DPAC, the Convention Center and the Sculpture Park.
(Editor's Note: MIG out of Berkeley, California designed the proposed remodeling of the CCC, not H3.)
Mayor Hancock’s hand-picked, 29-member ELT is headed by Tom Gougeon of the Gates Family Foundation and Marilee Utter of the Urban Land Institute. Over its six public meetings, the team has solicited input from Denver businesses as well as civic and arts leaders like Jerry Kern, Director of the symphony, and Tony Garcia of Su Teatro.
The most pressing question now is, of course: where will the money come from? White notes that the $16.8 million remaining from the bond issue, even when matched by the symphony, is not enough. Mayor Hancock, Arts and Venues director Kent Rice and both Gougeon and Utter emphasize the Master Plan is just a starting point, and over the next year they will seek funding through public and private partnerships that may include DPS, RTD and collaborations with the Convention Center. In the process, White and Mayor Hancock anticipate more public meetings and expect more changes will be made to the Master Plan.
See videos and slide shows of the current plan, leave comments and questions and receive information about upcoming public meetings by going to artsandvenuesdenver.com and clicking on the link to “The Next Stage.”
A .pdf of The Next Stage plans can also be found at denvergov.org. Search “The Next Stage” from that page. For a portfolio of H3 projects, visit h3hc.com/#/303.
(Editor's Note: MIG's work can be viewed on their website at migcom.com.)
