Best News for a Downtown Institution 2001 | YMCA | Best of Denver® | Best Restaurants, Bars, Clubs, Music and Stores in Denver | Westword
Navigation
Support Us
Search

Best News for a Downtown Institution

YMCA

For decades, the downtown YMCA has offered low-cost housing both for people just passing through and for those trying to turn their lives around right here in Denver. And so last year, when the Y announced it would be selling the building in order to help finance needed renovations of its fitness facilities, many feared that housing would be converted into high-end lofts or offices. But then the Y agreed to sell the structure to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, which will renovate the 189 rooms, continue to offer them to the public, and also allow the 95-year-old YMCA to rehab its recreation facilities. This is one real estate deal that includes something rare in the development world: a social conscience.

Best TV Sportscaster

Drew Soicher, Channel 9

Drew Soicher, the wiseacre brother of Channel 4's Marc Soicher, has a nicely jaded sense of humor, which he exhibits both during newscasts (love his witty "Drew or False" feature) and while reporting. In one memorable package, he tried to patch up the differences between two warring hockey players by telling each that his counterpart wanted to get to know him better. The players involved didn't get the joke, but the audience sure did.

Best TV Sportscaster

Drew Soicher, Channel 9

Drew Soicher, the wiseacre brother of Channel 4's Marc Soicher, has a nicely jaded sense of humor, which he exhibits both during newscasts (love his witty "Drew or False" feature) and while reporting. In one memorable package, he tried to patch up the differences between two warring hockey players by telling each that his counterpart wanted to get to know him better. The players involved didn't get the joke, but the audience sure did.

Best New Building Plan

The Denver Art Museum's new wing

Construction of a wildly fanciful wing for the Denver Art Museum, designed by architectural superstar Daniel Libeskind, is about to get under way just south of the museum. Although its unconventional structure has been likened to a plane crash, this wing will surely be one of the best buildings in town. Almost as remarkable as the Libeskind design is that DAM director Lewis Sharp was savvy enough to have guided the commissioning process, allowing overlapping committees to have their say but also making sure that the existing Gio Ponti museum building was protected.

Best New Building Plan

The Denver Art Museum's new wing

Construction of a wildly fanciful wing for the Denver Art Museum, designed by architectural superstar Daniel Libeskind, is about to get under way just south of the museum. Although its unconventional structure has been likened to a plane crash, this wing will surely be one of the best buildings in town. Almost as remarkable as the Libeskind design is that DAM director Lewis Sharp was savvy enough to have guided the commissioning process, allowing overlapping committees to have their say but also making sure that the existing Gio Ponti museum building was protected.

Best Eye in the Sky

Lynn Carey, Metro Traffic

Lynn Carey's work ethic, which she displays weekdays on Channel 7 and a slew of radio stations, including the Peak, KDKO, KNUS and Boulder's KWAB, was honed in area restaurants. She spent twenty years working as a waitress at such places as McCormick's Fish House & Bar and Dixons Downtown Grille (she still subs at the Edgewater Inn on occasion), and she brings a waitperson's mentality to the traffic beat. In other words, she does her best to fill every order and gets the information to customers while it's hot.

Best Eye in the Sky

Lynn Carey, Metro Traffic

Lynn Carey's work ethic, which she displays weekdays on Channel 7 and a slew of radio stations, including the Peak, KDKO, KNUS and Boulder's KWAB, was honed in area restaurants. She spent twenty years working as a waitress at such places as McCormick's Fish House & Bar and Dixons Downtown Grille (she still subs at the Edgewater Inn on occasion), and she brings a waitperson's mentality to the traffic beat. In other words, she does her best to fill every order and gets the information to customers while it's hot.

Best Way to Save the El Jebel Shrine Temple

Build a fifty-story tower on the parking lot

The El Jebel Shrine Temple was designed in 1906 by the Baerresen brothers, Denver's kookiest early architects. The Shrine is a former Masonic temple, but it looks like an Arabian Nights fantasy plopped smack-dab in the middle of Capitol Hill. And like many good things in Denver, it's been in danger of falling into the hands of developers who would just as soon demolish it as cherish it. But now Denver developers Wes Becker and Martin Wohnlich may be coming to the rescue. They recently paid $3.9 million -- a steal considering all the barrel vaults and gold-painted plaster work inside -- to buy the building (the former home of the Eulipions theater group), with plans to preserve the many gorgeous interior spaces. To do so, though, they need the money that would be generated by building a fifty-story tower on what is now a parking lot next door to the temple. And they've taken a sensible, sensitive approach to that, too: They've already hired local architect David Owen Tryba to design the tower and supervise the restoration of the old building.

Best Way to Save the El Jebel Shrine Temple

Build a fifty-story tower on the parking lot

The El Jebel Shrine Temple was designed in 1906 by the Baerresen brothers, Denver's kookiest early architects. The Shrine is a former Masonic temple, but it looks like an Arabian Nights fantasy plopped smack-dab in the middle of Capitol Hill. And like many good things in Denver, it's been in danger of falling into the hands of developers who would just as soon demolish it as cherish it. But now Denver developers Wes Becker and Martin Wohnlich may be coming to the rescue. They recently paid $3.9 million -- a steal considering all the barrel vaults and gold-painted plaster work inside -- to buy the building (the former home of the Eulipions theater group), with plans to preserve the many gorgeous interior spaces. To do so, though, they need the money that would be generated by building a fifty-story tower on what is now a parking lot next door to the temple. And they've taken a sensible, sensitive approach to that, too: They've already hired local architect David Owen Tryba to design the tower and supervise the restoration of the old building.

Best New Radio Morning Team

Greg Thunder and Bo Reynolds
KALC-FM/105.9

The Greg Thunder and Bo Reynolds tandem, formerly heard on Alice during the afternoon shift, is a significant improvement over Jamie White and Danny Bonaduce, who are slated to return to Denver airwaves later this year on KTCL. Thunder and Reynolds offer up jokey, relationship-oriented talk and comedy à la White and Bonaduce, but they do so in a more accessible, less insulting way. A major upgrade, and a boost to a market desperately in need of new radio stars.

Best Of Denver®

Best Of

Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our terms of use, our cookies policy, and our privacy policy Westword may earn a portion of sales from products & services purchased through links on our site from our affiliate partners. ©2024 Denver Westword, LLC. All rights reserved.
Do Not Sell or Share My Information
Powered By Foundation