Winter Wonders

Two Wazee galleries heat up Denver's art scene with spectacular showings.

A A A Comments By Michael Paglia Thursday, Feb 10 2000

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The house has been allowed to run down, but it's built like a brick you-know-what, so it's hard to believe it has structural problems. But condition is not the reason the owner wants to tear it down, anyway. No, he wants to cram two mammoth, neotraditional monstrosities on the lot. And if the neighbors aren't alarmed by this, then they're in denial.

At the commission's meeting last week, the owner, Todd Hulme, called the unique and significant house "a derelict building of the Englewood type." His builder and the applicant for the demolition permit, Beth Hennessey of Arris Design/Build, added that it's a "nasty, trashed-out suburban house...that has no place in the historic district." (This is called the casting of pearls before swine.) These negative characterizations were contrary to what commissioner Barbara Norgren had pointed out earlier: that the "Sun Ray" house illustrated, along with only a handful of other houses in the district, the great shift in American architecture at mid-century from traditional to modern.

"North," by William Stockman, charcoal on wall paint.

"Full Circle," by Trine Bumiller, oil painting.

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Luckily, on November 16, 1999, the commission had already determined that the house was a contributing element of the historic district. So the fact that Hulme and Hennessey didn't like the place was pointless. It was hardly an argument that was going to lead to a demolition permit -- and it didn't. After the commission voted against the idea of tearing down the house, Hulme and Hennessey stormed out of the meeting.

Let's thank the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission for reaffirming that the city's historic districts were created to preserve Central Denver's charming old neighborhoods and to protect them from those who are only out to make a buck.

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