What TWO THINGS would you steal from other cities?

[Cirrus]

Let's play a game. You can steal TWO THING from any other city/cities in the world, and put those TWO THINGS in Denver, SLC, Boise, or any other Mountain West city. What would you steal, where would you put it (be specific), and why?

Please adhere to these simple rules:

1. By TWO THINGS, I mean TWO AND ONLY TWO buildings, parks, public spaces, pieces of infrastructure, or whatever. But ONLY TWO. You may take your two things both from a single city, or one thing from two different cities. But only two things in total. This game is not an endless wish list. Forcing you to prioritize is the point of the game.

2. Any individual building, park, etc counts as "one thing." You cannot take a whole neighborhood, or a whole transit system, or a whole park system.

3. Take only something that humans have constructed; you may not steal a natural feature.

4. You ARE allowed to give answers for more than one city, but only one city per state. For example, a Denver forumer may opt to suggest two things for SLC, in addition to the 2 things they'd take for Denver, but they may not also suggest 2 things for Fort Collins (we don't want to overwhelm the thread by everyone taking 2 things for every suburb they can think of). But do so ONLY IN GOOD FAITH. Do not turn this thread into a "versus" thread by saying you'd plop a garbage dump in somebody else's downtown.

[TakeFive]

I'd steal one of these gems...

Courtesy of WIRED

and run it from Denver to Salt Lake City to Boise. What a ride that would be.

[RyanD]

Well, I already have these in my Flickr...

I want Denver to have the Barad-dûr:

Originally Posted by Cirrus

But do so ONLY IN GOOD FAITH. Do not turn this thread into a "versus" thread by saying you'd plop a garbage dump in somebody else's downtown.

*These are pre-existing and have been posted before. It's a joke. Hahaha silly silly.*

And... Salt Lake City gets the Denver Skyline with the Willis Tower:



And Denver vs. Tallest building in the world. I have a feeling Bunt has something better

[PLANSIT]

1. Transit/Bus Tunnel | Seattle - I'd run it on 15th/16th Street in Denver
2. Streetcar | Any city with modern streetcar - Numerous options, but would probably run it as a perpendicular service to 16th Transit Mall, so maybe Larimer or Lawrence into RiNo/Curtis/Arapahoe Sq. Would mostly be economic development tool.



[breaks the rules]
3. Any building taller than 800ft and nice to look at | Any city with building as described - just want the skyline to "peak" a little better.

[Cirrus]

Ryan fails. Denver's skyline is an "entire neighborhood," in clear violation of rule #2. And Barad-dûr was constructed by a Maiar, in clear violation of rule #3. C'mon, man.

[bunt_q]

Pending Colorado Springs City Council approval...

[The North One]

I would steal Paris' mid rise density and the Louvre.

[Cirrus]

^
You are not allowed to take a whole neighborhood. "Paris' mid-rise density" is not one thing. That's not the point of this game.

The Louvre is a good answer.

[bunt_q]

In all seriousness, I think a downtown transit tunnel like Seattle's for Denver is an excellent suggestion for something to steal. Probably my #1. We'd of course need transit lines to connect to it... but I'll assume (so as not to violate Dan's rules) that if we had built the tunnel, the transit would come.

My #2 would be a good public plaza space. I am not sure exactly which one I'd steal, as there are so many good ones to choose from. I'll think about that some more. But if we had a great central square somewhere in the heart of downtown (a plaza, not a park), then I think we'd be able to turn 16th Street back into a street of some sort - or maybe we wouldn't have to, because it might would work as-is if it didn't need to function as both our primary circulation route and our premier public space at the same time.

[s.p.hansen]

I'd put the World Wonder Petra in Salt Lake City so that we could yield higher production and food in desert terrain up to 3 hexes away west and south of the city.

[Cirrus]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

In all seriousness, I think a downtown transit tunnel like Seattle's for Denver is an excellent suggestion for something to steal. Probably my #1. We'd of course need transit lines to connect to it... but I'll assume (so as not to violate Dan's rules) that if we had built the tunnel, the transit would come.

My #2 would be a good public plaza space. I am not sure exactly which one I'd steal, as there are so many good ones to choose from. I'll think about that some more. But if we had a great central square somewhere in the heart of downtown (a plaza, not a park), then I think we'd be able to turn 16th Street back into a street of some sort - or maybe we wouldn't have to, because it might would work as-is if it didn't need to function as both our primary circulation route and our premier public space at the same time.

This is EXACTLY my #1 and #2. EXACTLY, right down to the "I haven't decided what plaza to take yet" part.

My list for Denver is:

1. Seattle's downtown subway.

2. A good plaza/square somewhere about midway along 16th Street Mall. I've considered and not quite been happy with NY's Washington Square and Bryant Park, Indianapolis' Soldiers & Sailors Monument, Cleveland's Public Square, Philly's Rittenhouse Square and Logan Square, DC's Dupont Circle and others, SF's Union Square, Portland's Pioneer Square, Detroit's Grand Circus. Some of those come close, but none of them are quite right. I want something with a mix of softscape and hardscape, an ornate fountain in the middle with a ledge you can sit on, and the right distance from edge to center. I need to think about Europe.

[s.p.hansen]

I'm really struggling because if we take something from one city that means it's gone and I couldn't bear to take away these things away. So the only way I can make this work is that the sea level is rapidly rising and San Francisco is being sold off piece by piece.

1. I'd take the San Francisco Ferry Building with its public market and slap that right where Union Pacific Station is in the Gateway. This would involve getting rid of the everything at the gateway in the North Section and that would be no loss. The loss of Union Pacific Station would be a tragedy (Disney modeled his train station in Disneyland after it) so that could be moved in the dead space around of old tracks further south.



2. I'd take the Palace of Fine Arts and put it in Liberty Park.

[SLC Projects]

I would take the......

1. The Devon Energy Center on Main Street and the parking lot block between 400 and 500 South. Because, god, we really need a new tallest.

And

2. The London Eye that we could place somewhere on the west side on downtown somewhere near the gateway since it would be a fun attraction with great views of downtown, the mountains and the rest of the valley.

[Cirrus]

I think I've got my #2 answer for Denver. I'm taking Cincinnati's Fountain Square, and plopping it with the fountain centered on 16th Street, so it interrupts the grid (we'll let the mall shuttle go through the square, but make it shuffle a bit to either side of the fountain).


metro-cincinnati.info

It's the right size and the right shape. The fountain in the middle is exactly perfect (right size, right amount of ornament, has a seating ledge). I wish the outer edges had a little more green (the mall shuttle could be the boundary between the plaza center and park-like outer sections), but this is the closest to what I want that I can think of.

Location? We could put it between Arapahoe and Curtis (incorporating Skyline Park, I guess), but I'd prefer a little more uptown. Between Tremont and Glenarm (knocking down the half block of buildings on either side) is about right, and would finally give us us a clear head-on view of the Pavilions' Denver sign, but the problem with that is Republic Plaza's underused plaza right across the street, which starts to become too much plaza. And I don't want to put Fountain Square on Republic Plaza, because that's a little too uptown. And I don't want to go a block or two west because I don't want to knock down any historic midrises.

[seventwenty]

Seoul's T-money payment system for transit. And Berlin's M1 tram line.

[jubguy3]

I'm stealing 16th street after you guys get done with it and putting it right over Main Street.

In exchange for every entity of the Mormon church.

oh and weed

[Evo5Boise]

For Boise, I'm thinking.................

1) KOIN Center from Portland. Boise could use a signature tower. Though something taller would seem ideal, I think anything extremely tall in Boise's relatively short and stocky skyline would look goofy or out of place.

2) This spot I have a few ideas I'm juggling. I'm going to have to think about it. I will have to weigh my options in this massive decision. haha

[ToysNoiz]

I give Denver two Lehi LDS temples.

[eastidaho]

Boise: (1). street car line that connects St. Lukes to Whitewater Blvd. (2) downtown triple A baseball field like Isotopes Park in ABQ.

SLC: (1) convention hotel designed by Robert AM Stern. (2). Ballpark like Camden Yards on the edge of downtown like Coors Field, hoping it would be a catalyst.

Denver: (1). Airport with a location close to downtown like DCA is to DC. (2) HSR to Pueblo.

[The Dirt]

One of my wishes would be to steal Cirrus from DC so that he could make more of these threads. Basically, this is my ploy to get unlimited wishes.