Denver Urban Renewal Authority's Skyline Project Era

RyanD · #1 Posted **Oct 2, 2013, 1:33 AM**

Let's rewind back to 1967 when something voter approved happened and we lost a lot of Denver's soul. With the support of Mayor Currigan, the Denver Urban Renewal Authority's Skyline Project received the okay to execute a plan: demolish 27 contiguous blocks of downtown. The reason for this project was exactly what 'Urban Renewal' meant and it seemed like the right thing to do at the time: push the poor and 'rundown' out of Downtown Denver, and grow it into a 'real city'. There was a time when Downtown Denver had a tight knit urban fabric full of historic buildings, and streetcars. Now most of that is gone, replaced by parking lots, and modern skyscrapers. It really is a beautiful sight to see, as much as it's a painful one. Without further ado, let's take a look at this beautiful massacre, shall we?

The 1950's. Pre-Skyline renewal when everything was still there:

[Source Unknown]

Here are some great aerial shots from 1976. Look at all that parking! It's sad to think every single one of those lots had a building standing on it.

reel #86 - aspen & newport, 1976 by Nick DeWolf, on Flickr

reel #86 - aspen & newport, 1976 by Nick DeWolf, on Flickr

Next up.. Remember Dynasty? That took place in Denver right smack in the middle of DURA's project.. Here's a good look at Denver in one of their intros:

• Video Link

These next photos are from either the Digital Collection at the Denver Public Library or an unknown source where these pictures have been in circulation around the internet with no known source. (To keep consistent with resolution I'm re-hosting these of Flickr with the collection reference / source link at the bottom of each picture)

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...id/31395/rec/1

[Source Unknown]

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...d/36188/rec/25

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...d/36189/rec/26

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...d/36198/rec/27

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...d/64198/rec/45

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...d/64201/rec/48

16th Street right before it was a pedestrian mall..

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...d/82255/rec/55

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm.../id/592/rec/28

I cringe everytime I see this.. Energy Plaza..

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm.../83319/rec/104

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm.../83320/rec/105

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm.../83461/rec/114

100% automobile oriented.. Lower Downtown was not what it is today. It was a bunch of warehouses.

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...2/id/4/rec/169

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm.../id/61/rec/178

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...id/109/rec/190

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...id/110/rec/191

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...id/116/rec/196

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...id/142/rec/213

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm.../id/592/rec/28

Viaducts and Wynkoop Street.. Wow..

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...id/129/rec/208

This building was torn down to build our 714' tallest building.. Republic Plaza.

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...d/83558/rec/30

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...d/17414/rec/18

Besides all of the destruction, the construction was probably breathtaking..

[Source Unknown]

[Source Unknown]

My goal in all of this is to see what the street level looked like when most of the DURA blocks were just fields of parking.. Here are two that are kind of close. These are taken right in the middle of the DURA field.

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...id/121/rec/201

http://digital.denverlibrary.org/cdm...id/121/rec/201

That's all I have for now.. If you have any photos please contribute, I know I'll try to keep this as active as possible! This hardly ever gets talked about, probably because it's so horrid, but it's a huge part of Denver's history and a great lesson of what not to do going forward.