A public park is a living organism that feeds and supports the quality of life of the City and the people that live there. It evolves as the City evolves and changes perception as we change perceptions of ourselves.

 The city beautiful movement that defined not only this park but a great deal of Denver, evolved out of the Beaux arts design movement most predominate in the 19^th and early 20thCenturies. There is a lot of history and complexity to the movement, but in the US the initial focus was city and campus planning.

 The intent of Beaux Arts planning was to organize buildings and uses around large open spaces and along axial arrangements developing a clear order to the specific environment. Both of these are evident in the Civic Center. Beyond the large scale planning was the imposition of building geometry and form; a typology that established the hierarchy of formal design elements.

 There were defined transitional edges in both scale and material. A very strong trait in the City Beautiful movement was the desire to attempt to balance the pastoral with the urban context of the day. 

 The urban context has changed dramatically as has our perception of the use of urban space as well as our patterns and modes of movement. The scale of Denver has changed and a shift in the elemental hierarchy has as well. Structures like the Vorhies Memorial are now a smaller part of the overall urban landscape.

 I believe that a major desire in the conception of the Civic Center Master Plan is to recapture the qualities that existed in the original design of the space. To do this in a meaningful way we have to be willing to reorganize and to shift scales in some of that space.

 Our proposal exploits the opportunity to take the framework of what exists as a base and create an enduring usable design that becomes a legacy to the city and provides flexibility for the future.

 We believe that the planning process should look at the entire environment and dispassionately explore the evolution of an order that can indeed create memorable and functioning urban space that is accessible to the entire community and takes on a real value in the community consciousness.

 This proposal uses the over riding symmetrical arrangement in the park as a foil to create opportunities for the complexities and scale of the urban fabric of both downtown and the museum precinct to define and enhance the original design elements of Civic Center. This scheme is about the overall framework. Detailed uses and spaces can be programmed as needed and allowed to evolve over time.

 The scheme presented breaks down the symmetry north to south across the short dimension of the Civic Center while reinforcing the east west axis from the Capitol to the City and County Building and the mountain views beyond. To achieve this, the grid of downtown is allowed to graft into the edges of the existing open space along the north. This will allow for the introduction of new buildings with mixed use functions (office/retail with restaurants on the first level) along this side of Civic Center creating a more formal edge. The intent would be to bring businesses and tenants into the park edge so that these occupants “own” the park. This activity will be one of the most important moves that can be made. This ownership activity will ultimately keep the park vibrant and safe over a long period of time.  

 This new construction will also create special plaza spaces for the Vorhies Memorial and Pioneer fountains giving them greater prominence in the urban context than they could achieve in their present situation. On the south edge the undulation of 14th avenue around the Greek Theatre is greatly accentuated up into Capitol Hill. This move would also result in a larger plaza space in front of the State Court Building as well.

 The only way this could be achieved is to sink Colfax into a tunnel below Civic Center (think lower Wacker Drive in Chicago). The removal of Colfax at the surface would break down the major barrier to linking the downtown north to south through Civic Center to the Golden Triangle.

 A major design element will be the uninterrupted linking of the park over Lincoln and Broadway by the undulating landscaped ribbon. This construction could be done with minimal impact to the street elevations by using the existing grade change and the construction of a thin green platform built conventionally over the roadway. Public parking could be constructed below the ribbon. The space could accommodate almost 1000 autos.

 Access to Civic Center Station from this new parking venue would be at grade within green space with negotiating Colfax no longer a factor. This access to the 16^th street mall and ultimately to the multimodal center at Union station makes Civic Center accessible by transit from every point in the metro area.  

 Although a site is already selected, we would place the Clifford Still Museum (or other prominent on the lawn directly southeast of the City and County Building balancing the original library building with a contemporary structure within the original plan.

 Establishing a pedestrian connection that would begin at the Wellington Webb building and continue to the museum and library and then beyond, the cultural center of the City would now be directly linked to the urban core unifying all of the individual elements and functions and truly creating a Civic Center in the tradition of the great cities of the world.

 Our perception of urban space from the grand and formal city beautiful model to a more informal user friendly functional environment has already taken place as the public perception of what is valuable in public space has shifted with time. This is evident by the changes and additions to our other city parks over time. This scheme is about new connections and evolving uses. It is also about honoring the artifacts of our collective urban history.

 This scheme as we have presented is grand and parts of it are expensive. This scheme is about ideas and opportunities not about specific solutions. The conversation about this space cannot be about band aids. The City has evolved and changed in ways that the planners and designers in the past never anticipated and it will change again in the same manner. IF the goal is to preserve the qualities of the original space and bring meaningful uses that give value back to the city for the long term then the cost associated with a scheme that could set the stage for the future is not great. If band aids are the solution with small tweaking here and there we will be back talking about this space in 10 years.