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I grew up in the mountains of Colorado, about 45 minutes southwest of Denver in a little town with one red light and a nice size lake for skating in the winter, just a short walk across the golf course from our home.
It was a great place for kids, but I felt sorry for my Dad, who often had to shovel snow from the dirt driveway to get onto the rutted dirt road that wound down the hill to a real road (asphalt) and led to ?EUR??,,????'??downtown.?EUR??,,????'?? He?EUR??,,????'???d drive the back way into Denver down Bear Creek Rd., a tortuous, narrow, winding road without guardrails that followed the creek.
Denver wasn?EUR??,,????'???t much to look at in those days, but we kids looked forward to visit?EUR??,,????'???n?EUR??,,????'??? the big city, ?EUR??,,????'??cept when it involved teeth pullin?EUR??,,????'??? and such (mountain talk). We?EUR??,,????'???d see the buffalo out in the field off I-70 and were fascinated by the gold dome of the capitol building (24 karat gold?EUR??,,????'???plated ).
It?EUR??,,????'???s been a decade since I last visited Denver, and I know ?EUR??,,????'??it done grode up.?EUR??,,????'?? Take, for instance, the new Civic Center Plaza and its new glass and steel edifice, the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building (WMB), named for Denver?EUR??,,????'???s first black mayor. The plaza is at the northwest end of the city?EUR??,,????'???s historic Civic Center Park, in clear view of the gold dome!
The raison d?EUR??,,????'?????EUR??'??tre (French talk) for the plaza was to consolidate Denver?EUR??,,????'???s various city departments to one location. Choosing the site in close proximity to Civic Center Park, designed by Saco DeBoer, was logical, as it has been the hub of the city for nearly a century. On opposite ends of the park are the Denver City and County Building and that gold dome. Elsewhere around the park is the new Denver Public Library, the Denver Art Museum, the Voorhies Monument and the Greek Theatre. ?EUR??,,????'??Look, Ma! Denver got culture.?EUR??,,????'??
The plaza is dominated by the 12-story WMB, which includes the attached Atrium, which is connected to the ?EUR??,,????'??old?EUR??,,????'?? Annex One Bldg. Annex One, now also named Wellington Webb, was built in 1948-1949 as classrooms for the University of Denver School of Commerce. The Annex was designed in the International style of architecture by the firm of Smith, Hegner and Moore, with a little help from G. Meredith Musick, a style emphasizing ?EUR??,,????'??windows arranged in horizontal bands with cantilevered sunshades,?EUR??,,????'?? epitomized, I?EUR??,,????'???m told, by the 1925 Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany. Anyway, y?EUR??,,????'???all (southern talk), Annex One done made the Register of Historic Places in 1990, an ode (poetic speak) to the International style before the more vertical approach took over. Its 88,000 square feet have been refurbished, as have the grounds.
The new WMB building, completed in autumn 2002, has added 600,000 gross square feet and three levels of subterranean parking to the plaza. It accommodates about 40 municipal agencies, including the offices of the district attorney.
Mile High Properties is the land development firm that oversaw the development and construction project. Mile High Development, as CCOB, Inc. (lawyer talk), owns and operates the property and is leasing it (landlord talk) to the city and county of Denver for 30 years, at which time the city will own the property.
It?EUR??,,????'???s considered a ?EUR??,,????'??green?EUR??,,????'?? building (environmental talk), largely for its use of natural light to mitigate electricity use. Private offices are located in the center of the building and work stations around the exterior, allowing sun to penetrate the glass fa??? 1/4 ade to the building?EUR??,,????'???s center. Also, interior design components, including ceiling tiles and carpeting, are made from recycled materials.
The design/construction for the building and plaza was a competition sponsored by the Denver Community Planning and Development Agency, Public Works and Office of Asset Management. The city selected the team of David Owen Tryba Architects, RNL Design of Denver (the landscape architects), and general contractors Hensel Phelps and J.A. Walker Company.
I spoke with Anthony Mazzeo, MLA, and Marc Stutzman, ASLA, RLA, of RNL Design to better understand the project. Mr. Mazzeo noted that RNL has done ?EUR??,,????'??10s of civic projects over the front range,?EUR??,,????'?? so being given the commission was a logical move by the city fathers, although a challenging one, considering the firm?EUR??,,????'???s budge was only $2 million.
The design did not come easily. ?EUR??,,????'??There were 30 some plaza schemes,?EUR??,,????'?? recalls Mr. Mazzeo. One of the challenges, Mr. Mazzeo adds, was that the plaza was part of a public art program. ?EUR??,,????'??The design had to be straight forward and approachable,?EUR??,,????'?? he explained.
Denverites have adopted a city ordinance that requires capital improvement projects and bond monies with construction and design budgets over $1 million to allocate one percent of the construction budget for acquiring public art. Such was the case with the Civic Center Plaza.
RNL collaborated with artists Larry Kirkland, Robert Murase, FSLA. The ideas of the artists influenced RNL?EUR??,,????'???s site design and details. For instance, the plaza features a Janus sculpture by Larry Kirland of Washington, D.C. Janus, the Roman god of gates and doorways, is a double-faced head facing in opposing directions. Here, the double faces of Janus are of Carrara marble, sitting upon a circle of black granite and incorporating a cast bronze and gold leaf plum bob. One head faces east, the other west, symbolizing Denver?EUR??,,????'???s past and future. (Kirland?EUR??,,????'???s work is also seen in the atrium, a 20-foot tall plumb bob fabricated of gold leafed rings. Below the bob is a surveyor?EUR??,,????'???s target 25 feet in diameter in-filled with dicroic glass that transmits sunlight to colors.)
To further the symbolism of the Janus heads, the idea came to represent the city?EUR??,,????'???s geographic position in the world via bi-axial granite bands inscribed with Denver?EUR??,,????'???s longitude and latitude, along with other text and images related to the mile-high city and other places and facts that share Denver?EUR??,,????'???s latitude (40th parallel). My source says Denver?EUR??,,????'???s coordinates are 39?????45?EUR??,,????'???N 104?????52?EUR??,,????'???W, but who?EUR??,,????'???s counting seconds? Anyway, other cities on the 40 parallel are Philadelphia, New York, Beiging and Madrid.
Mr. Mazzeo explained that his team researched historic maps and images, then built collages in Photoshop. Those images were transferred to the slick granite surface by sandblasted. The challenge here was to created raised images, he notes.
The artwork of Robert Murase, FASLA, of Portland, Oregon, is also on hand. Running the length of the Annex One Bldg. is MacIntosh Park, named in honor of ?EUR??,,????'??Mr. Denver,?EUR??,,????'?? Kenneth MacKenzie MacIntosh (1910?EUR??,,????'???1980). The landscaping here is a decomposed granite path, existing oaks, some uplighting, and stone block configurations of Mr. Murase. These are conceptually the ?EUR??,,????'??building blocks?EUR??,,????'?? of the city, a ?EUR??,,????'??transition from the Romanesque and Beaux-Arts architecture of Civic Center Park and the International Style architecture of the historic Annex One Building,?EUR??,,????'?? it is said.
It?EUR??,,????'???s not just the exterior that catches the eye at the Civic Center Plaza. A fourth artist, Donald Lipski, created tools in geometric shapes from floor to ceiling for the 40?EUR??,,????'???x70?EUR??,,????'??? sandstone wall at the back of the atrium. The tools represent what built the city.
The David Owen Tryba and RNL Design team also relied on Wendy Weiskopf, Michael Simpson, Nancy Hughes-Allen, Claudia Ingraham, and Lisa Hemmeter for the interior color scheme. They adopted the colors of the four seasons (the atrium is spring), which alternate from floor to floor and whose palettes apply to the furniture, fabric, paint, window blinds and carpeting.
Francisco Uviña, University of New Mexico
Hardscape Oasis in Litchfield Park
Ash Nochian, Ph.D. Landscape Architect
November 12th, 2025
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