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Modernism Bites the Bullet
By Kathleen Brooker

A trustee recently asked me if the advocacy work of HDI was not largely complete, given the recent success of the Downtown Denver Historic District in protecting 43 buildings from speculative demolition. It was an interesting question and I gave the matter some serious thought. The answer is no, especially if we examine the legacy of post-War buildings.

As 2001 draws to a close, we know we have not done well by a number of important architect-designed buildings from Denver’s recent past. Included among theses are two Expressionist designs by architect James Sudler: the Columbine Building (1845 Sherman Street), its undulating facade now stripped away to its skeleton and “for lease”; and the elegant 1959 Daley Insurance Building (1576 Sherman Street), undergoing renovation and losing its distinctive disk-clad surface in the process. Currigan Exhibition Hall (1324 Champa Street), an award winning civic engineering masterpiece from 1969, bares its beautifully designed space framed interior as demolition crews dismantle the structure in order to double the size of Denver’s convention center. Even the humble White Spot on Broadway, a popular Googie coffee shop landmark if not a designated one, was demolished earlier in the year. Plans to redevelop its site have recently been put on hold, leaving a sad void. If this pace continues, we will have little of quality and character to remind us of the Denver, which came confidently out of WW II and into the ‘50s and ‘60s. We can visit a number of these buildings in Denver the Modern City, the Historic Denver Guide published in 1999, and note some saves such as the 1938 Hotel Monaco at Champa and Seventeenth and the U.S. Courthouse and Rodgers Federal Building at 1929 and 1961 Stout Street. In another positive development, 2001 also marks the publication of the American Institute of Architects’ Guide to Denver Architecture, which is intended to be “an educational resource about design and the building of a great city.”

The time is now for the design and preservation communities to work together to identify recent works we must not lose and to engage their owners in a proactive discussion about the future of these important buildings. This advocacy should keep us well focused on our mission to preserve Denver’s distinctive architecture. The 20th century is now part of our history and worthy of our attention and action.