I was walking through the Golden Triangle tonight and I was annoyed by a couple of blocks that are my personal pet peeves. I thought it would be fun for SSP forumers to hypothetically select five blocks in Denver for total redevelopment, regardless of cost, politics, land ownership, etc. Feel free to get totally Sim City on these blocks. Destroy buildings that are already there! I don't care. Feel free to choose any blocks based on metrics you think are valid, but I'd love to hear about your own pet peeve blocks in our city. What five blocks would you change if you could wave a magic wand and make it happen overnight?
Here are my choices:
I'm spending two votes on the same area. I think the Golden Triangle feels weird without some kind of major transition point between it and Civic Center Park. I want two 20+ floor mostly-residential towers on both of these blocks, with maybe a little bit of office in the lower floors and restaurant and retail in the ground floor. I feel like these blocks could even help Civic Center Park's problems as well by bringing some more uses to an area with mostly daytime uses. I feel like a well-done redevelopment of these blocks would make people do a double-take about this entire area:
The same story is true of my third choice, which i would also develop into a 20-ish story residential tower. I think the city is making a gigantic mistake by making every government building in this area daytime-use only rather than mixed use. A few large residential towers would help:
My fourth choice is personal. I walk by this block every day and it is like our own little Soviet Bloc over there. I don't have a good strategic reason why this should be transformed, apart from aesthetic reasons. I'd redevelop this as something akin to The Pinnacle in city park, with townhomes on the bottom level and residential (and perhaps some office?) up above.
Finally, I think a nice mix of office and residential would be great for this block, perhaps even being home to the famed Urban Target that we have all planned in our heads for Block 162. This area in particular could use a grocery store to inspire some more nearby development, and could end up being the hub of Arapahoe Square. Plus it would make the residents of One Lincoln Park not feel so goddamn lonely.
If you get a chance, please submit your own Top 5 ideas! This is just for fun, so if people start talking about logistics or feasibility, please shame them into letting loose and picking five of their own.