In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Water EventsFlow and Collection in Skyline Park
  • Ann Komara (bio)

Introduction

Skyline Park was conceived to enhance renewal of central downtown Denver and render it more desirable for commerce, development, and people. The park was a significant component of the Downtown Urban Renewal Authority’s (DURA) revitalization of the “Skyline Renewal Area,” a 37-block area in the heart of the once thriving downtown (Figure 1). A landscape park was integral in their earliest planning studies; one first appears as a linear park lining the edge of three city blocks along Arapahoe Street in plans published for DURA in the 1960s. An excerpt from DURA’s disposition plan for two of the 37 blocks shows part of Skyline Park along Arapahoe Street between 15th and 16th streets (Figure 2). Early conceptual studies for a park on this site depicted it as an open tree-lined promenade linked to elevated terraces and walkways connecting to buildings projected for the renewal area. To execute this element of the Master Plan, in 1970 DURA and the City of Denver hired Lawrence Halprin and Associates as designer and consultant, and they promptly began work on the new park.


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Figure 1.

Map showing Skyline Park within the 37 blocks of the Skyline Urban Renewal Area as conceived and developed by the Denver Urban Renewal Authority [DURA] in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Wright Water Engineers archive).

Halprin’s office produced the schematic design plan ideas shown in Figure 3. Ideas and details were refined during design development but the study conveys the final direction and general arrangement of parts comprising this dynamic setting of gathering spaces, shady seating areas, and engaging fountains. Although the park was radically altered in a redesign in 2003, the original design should be remembered as a sophisticated project that both addressed stormwater infrastructure criteria defined in the downtown master plan, and created a visible statement of Denver’s urbanity in a park that provided an engaging respite from the heat and bustle for visitors and downtown workers. [End Page 101]

Skyline Park was produced between 1970 and 1976, a period when Halprin was stepping back from his direction of all office projects; nevertheless, it effectively expresses his design ideals for urban systems and functions. Skyline’s project designer was Junji Shirai under the direction of Sat Nishita, with Halprin involved for key decisions and meetings. The Halprin team collaborated with architects, engineers, technicians, and artists. This collaborative process supported two important components of the park’s function and appearance. First, Skyline Park was an engineered urban drainage catchment for flood events. The design response to urban stormwater addressed Denver’s history of catastrophic flood events by implementing an innovative detention system in the park. Second, it was an artistically wrought setting. The signature fountains, one per block, became sculptural focal points that encouraged people to enter the park and enlivened its public spaces. Thus, water operating in two distinct systems—the hydrological and the experiential—integrally positioned Skyline Park within a dynamic urban environment.

Denver’s Urban Context and Master Planning Goals

Denver’s urban renewal efforts began in the 1950s when a group of local business owners convened to promote downtown redevelopment, address issues of economic growth, and create strategic opportunities for capital investment and design projects (Foster and Gibson 2000, 5).1 Over the next decade this group solidified as the Downtown Urban Renewal Authority (DURA), which sponsored numerous studies and explored and vetted alternative plans and design ideas for the downtown business area. By the late 1960s an accepted Master Plan document was in place to guide work for the city (MHA et al 1970). A convergence of political will, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and federal transportation grants, and developer involvement led to the approval of “a $1.2 million, three-block-long Skyline Park,” in which, according to the Rocky Mountain News announcement on September 25, 1970, the “sunken areas will . . . serve as holding reservoirs during heavy downpours to alleviate excess runoff” (8). DURA Director Robert Cameron noted in 1972, “the urban concepts study for the Skyline area, performed under DURA’s direction, won two national...

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