To expedite people's transit between the two points — and to address complaints — Union Station Neighborhood Company shifted the alignment of the planned underground bus terminal so it ran underneath 17th Street and provided a weather-protected corridor between the terminal and the station, one complete with moving walkways. Now those transferring between commuter and light rail trains would have a choice between walking along a downtown boulevard, traveling through a below-ground passageway or taking the free shuttle bus, an improvement Gougeon calls "a more elegant answer than we even had before."
And for those who still gripe about the distance, Cannon has a patented response: "Let's take a walk." He escorts his guests out the station's front doors and gestures up 17th Street. The corridor, bustling with pedestrians, shoppers and cars, is one of the most lively in the city, and the distance between the station and Blake Street two blocks away — roughly the distance between the station and the future light-rail terminal on the other, now-vacant side of the property — doesn't look far. "Part of the problem is right now the buildings aren't there," he says. "It feels longer than it is. When you make that connection with a vibrant urban street, that experience changes."
Courtesy of the Union Station Neighborhood Company
An artist's rendering of what Union Station will look like in 2012.
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Peter Park (left), Cole Finegan and Tom Gougeon help keep the project on track.
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Most riders won't need to take the walk along 17th anyway. It's estimated that during the transit hub's busiest times, only slightly more than a thousand people an hour will be transferring between light and commuter rail, a fraction of the nearly 14,000 people an hour who will embark and disembark from the trains and buses flowing into that station during that same time.
The plan has even earned an unlikely fan: Brad Buchanan, principal at the Denver architecture and construction firm Buchanan Yonushewski Group, which helped design Union Station Partners' losing proposal. Yes, Buchanan toiled for eighteen months on the project and still has the model for his bold vision in his office (he still looks at it "every now and then"). But he's come to a sobering conclusion. "You can argue the value of either solution, but in the end, Continuum/East West's solution is more achievable," he admits. We "were just as committed, but I believe our solution would have been substantially more difficult to accomplish."
Then he echoes his former competition: "Some people have asked me, 'Are you disappointed you didn't win?' and I've said, 'I'm not sure I didn't.'"
Beyond the trains and buses, beyond the stores and offices, the rebirth of Union Station will produce some of the largest and most ambitious new public spaces the city has seen in decades, about ten total acres of land where people can shop, eat, congregate and relax.
This public realm includes a new stretch of 17th Street from the light-rail terminal to the station, a broad, two-block promenade lined with shops, restaurants and offices, and adorned with light shafts and portals dropping down into the bus station and pedestrian walkway underneath. Then there's the proposed 18th Street elevated plaza, an expansive pedestrian bridge stretching above the commuter rail lines. Below will be the commuter rail platforms, their sprawling arched roof bringing to mind historic stations such as London Paddington and Paris's Gare du Nord. Most notably, there will be a plaza in front of the station: The parking lots will be gone, replaced by a busy, multi-use piazza dotted with trees and ringed with cafes.
"When the Civic Center was built in Denver, what a huge impact it had," says Dana Crawford, chairwoman of Urban Neighborhoods Inc., who developed Larimer Square four decades ago. "And really, this is one of the great sites in Denver of the 21st century. It will be impossible to exaggerate the impact of it."
The inherent promise of these new spaces — and the restoration of the station building — has struck a chord with many Denverites. Some are inspired by the creation of a great, active train-station neighborhood that will be a social and psychological anchor to downtown. Others are driven by concerns that the design and upkeep of the public spaces and historic station may take a back seat to financial considerations.
Friends of Union Station, a grassroots organization formed in February 2005 to champion the importance of these spaces, called for an urban square, a game area, a public market, information and food kiosks, and an extended plaza across Wynkoop Street to make the thoroughfare more pedestrian-friendly. Over the past year, student teams at the University of Colorado Denver have also developed concepts — everything from a Spanish Steps-like grand staircase leading up to the 18th Street plaza, to public art evoking the immense welcome arch that once stood in front of the station, to a renewable-energy plant built into one of the plaza's side buildings.
All of these suggestions will be taken into consideration by landscape design consulting firm Hargreaves Associates as it develops a general plan for the spaces over the next few months, says Mary Margaret Jones, a senior principal at the firm. That plan is estimated to cost around $28 million.
A major sticking point, however, caused a rift inside Friends of Union Station, and the coalition crumbled this past March. The issue was whether to support the developer's plan to build wing buildings on either side of the station, development that would cut into the land available for the front plaza.
