Search Results for "pei"
1959 Denver ads
This is the first of a big batch of new Denver ad scans we are working on
here at The Eye. For this post, all scans are from 1959. (You may have
seen some of these here before, but now in better quality)
The Colorado Visitor’s Bureau. This building still stands in that traffic island
behind the Wellington Webb Building.
Lou Coffee’s in the Colorado Hotel on 17th (hotel now gone).
The Senate Lounge in the Argonaut Hotel, where jazz vocalist Effie The Blond Tigress
held court. The Argonaut is still there across the street from the state capitol, of course.
Click on this and you can compare the original Albany Hotel with the modern facade created
by Red Rocks Amphitheater architect Burnham Hoyt in 1936. (The Albany is gone now)
Ad for the Cosmopolitan Hotel, torn down in 1984, as can be seen here:
An ad for Empire Savings at 1654 California St, now a parking lot.
Ad for William Zeckendorf’s Webb & Knapp firm. These were both I. M. Pei & Associates projects. As the ad says, the Mile-High Complex on top, the Denver-Hilton on the left and the Court-House Complex bottom right. (Click ad to enlarge)
The Mile-High Center
Another ad of the Mile-High Center, this one showing the Matchless restaurant
in the barrel-roofed Transportion Center building.
A photo of the Denver United States National Bank (part of Mile-High Center)
that shows the United States map artwork on the side.
The modern expressionist drive-through addition to the Central Bank of Denver at 15th
and Arapahoe. Designed by Charles Deaton, most famous for the Sculptured House
of Gennessee (the flying saucer house). You can see the D&F Tower behind the older
bank building.
First Federal Savings & Loan. The building is still there at 38th & Lowell. I believe this
is William Muchow Architects.
National City Bank at 99 S. Broadway. The bank is still here, the footprint is about the
same, but it seems to have been altered quite a bit. Still a nice building.
First National Bank on 17th, Denver’s tallest building in 1959. Designed in 1958 by
Raymond Harry Ervin. Still there, though modified a bit. It still retains it’s ’50s charm.
The Sky Deck on top of the First National Bank (click to enlarge ad). Not open to the
public anymore, this would have been a beautiful rooftop vantage point of downtown Denver.
Jefferson County Bank at Colfax and Wadsworth in Lakewood. This modernist building
has been replaced.
The ‘fabulous’ Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. Do yourself a favor and
take your relatives here for an epic brunch sometime. (click to embiginate)
The Harvest House Hotel in Boulder at 28th & Arapahoe. Part of a larger project that included the Arapahoe Village Shopping Center and the Harvest Manor Apartments in back. Designed by Ralph Peterson in 1958, he also designed Denver’s incredible Usonian Calvary Temple.
A more accurate view of Boulder’s Harvest House
Great ad for Gates Rubber Company. Still a great big company, the ruins of
the old factory still reside at Broadway & I-25.
Ad for the Old Navarre, a bordello built in 1880.
(still there across the street from the Brown Palace, of course)
The Melody Lounge, ‘Denver’s Birdland’. Look at the lineup of top shelf jazz who played here in 1959: Cal Tjader, Johnny Smith, Terry Gibbs, Georgia Auld, Slam Stewart, Johnny Griffin, Phineas Newborn, Horace Silver, Conte Condoli, Art Pepper, Ben Webster, Charlie Ventura, Buddy DeFranco, Sonny Stitt, Herbie Mann and Anita O’Day! I think this is now the Alpine Motel, but I am not certain.
The Chez Paree burlesque club/clip joint. Dinner for $2.00! Hmm…
I thought this place was supposed to have burned down in the ’70s,
but there seems to be an old building still standing there today.
The Patio on S. Sante Fe. Notable not just for Buzzie serving cocktails, but you could see
the Billy Wilson Trio here before he opened his own place on W. Alameda, the Tally-Ho.
The Profile Room in the Stanley Plaza Hotel, a building standing today in all it’s original glory.
Furr’s Supermarkets, a Texas company that spread to Colorado. Some of the former Furr’s buildings in this ad still survive like the building at 38th & Harlan and the huge thrift store at Sheridan and Jewell. Furr Food!
Taylor’s Supper Club, a Las Vegas style club on West Colfax in Lakewood that
ran from the 1940s through the 1970s. It was run by Sammy Toole and starred
The Taylors, The Lawmen and many other local favorites.
Beacon Supper Club, another club similar to Taylors, but much more short-lived.
They had a singing cashier!
The Tiffin Inn at Writer’s Manor of S. Colorado Blvd and I-25. This has all been replaced by various office buildings.
There is still a Luigi’s Italian restaurant in Centennial, I assume they may be related.
This 1959 Luigi’s was over by Gate’s Rubber. I just like to marvel at the drink prices.
The Chicken Box! Your last stop on W. Colfax/Highway 40 as you head into the mountains.
This is not a great ad, but I included it because this drive-in restaurant building is still there.
It has changed hands a few times in the last few years, you may know it as the green building
that housed Wuthering Heights and various biker bars.
Andy’s Smorgasbord was a popular place. Before it was Andy’s it was the El Morocco
Supper Club. After it was Andy’s it became the longtime home of Shotgun Willies!
The park in the Top of the Park name refers to the fact that this building sat on the north end of Washington Park. The Park Lane Hotel was replaced with multiple apartment buildings.
The Keyboard Lounge was in the Mesa Motor Inn on west Colfax.
The lounge was run by Morey Bernstein who also ran Denver’s
Finer Arts record label. The Mesa Motor Inn is still there.
You used to be able to see the ghost signage of the King Cole Show Bar on the upper north wall of The Broadway night club. But after it became Club Vinyl, the roof collapsed under a snowstorm and the signage was gone after the rebuild. Bob & Sylvia did comedy & music at the King Cole from 1959 to 1964. Someday I will post their crazy LP on this site.
The old Tropics building on West Mississippi is still hanging in there. It’s currently housing The Stone night club and the neighborhood has been dubbed BuCu, ‘Where business meets community’.
Usually, nationally-famous stripper-attraction Tempest Storm was the star here, but on this night, Tura Satana, later star of Russ Meyer’s ‘Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!‘ film, topped the bill.
A close up of The Tropics ad so you can further appreciate the drawing of The Tropics
and, of course, Tura Satana.
A night at the Venus Lounge with rock & roller Don May in Aurora.
Dig these prices to see the Denver Bears!
This Englewood Speedway ad is confusing me with the Safety With Speed slogan, followed
by a drawing of an exciting racing accident.
Midget racing right next door!
Ad for the Mile High Kennel Club dog track in Commerce City, with Rusty the Rabbit mascot.
Ad for horse races at the Centennial Race Track in Littleton.
Fun ad for Chuck-O-Luck’s Sporting Goods, with snelled hooks and mustad sliced shank.
Wolfberg ran the downtown Paramount Theatre and most of the drive-in theaters scattered around Denver. The West Drive-In lot at 6th & Kipling has been vacant for decades, too bad they haven’t been showing films all these years. The North Drive-In lot in Broomfield and the East Drive-In lot in Aurora have also been vacant and unused about just as long.
In 1959, Fox ran all of the coolest theaters in Denver. The Mayan, The Aladdin,
The Bluebird, The Ogden…
Ad for the Denham Theatre, located at 18th & California. Now gone, of course.
Denver had an incredible theater district downtown filled with movie palaces,
but the only theater that survived in downtown Denver was The Paramount.
Atoz Theaters.. many of these buildings survive, The Gothic, The Oriental, The Golden,
The Santa Fe (Atzlan), The Federal… OK, that’s enough for now.
October 14th, 2012 / 5 Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Postcards
I was visiting Lee Alex Vintage Modern to see photographer Dan Beahm’s newly mounted works and I spotted these postcards of two of my favorite downtown-Denver buildings.
This first postcard is from 1956 and is a shot of Mile High Center designed by I. M. Pei & Associates. The barrel-roof building in the front is the Transportation Center which is gone now, but much of Mile High Tower is still there.
Daniel Beahm and his wife Erika are Colorado filmmakers whose feature film Leading Ladies is available on Netflix. Lee Alex Vintage Modern just celebrated their one year anniversary in their new location at 24 Broadway.
The second postcard is the First National Bank building on 17th, designed in 1958 by Raymond Harry Ervin. This photo is especially interesting for me to see the roof pattern that you could view looking down from the Sky Deck observation area atop this mostly still intact skyscraper.
August 28th, 2012 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Cherry Creek Towers
Cherry Creek Towers, a 1962 apartment building designed
by Carl Groos. It has a plural name as it was intended to
be part of a three building development, but only one of these
beautiful Miesian-style buildings was completed. Groos worked
with I.M. Pei and had has own firm as well. You may have
seen the Morris House which he designed near Cheesman Park.
Learn more about this apartment building and Carl Groos at this
Cherry Creek Towers website.
April 2nd, 2012 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Seasons Greetings from Zeckendorf Plaza
Photos © 2011 Alan Golin Gass, FAIA
A seasonal late-60s-era holiday shot of Zeckendorf Plaza, with lights displayed under the hyperbolic-paraboloid roof and out in the plaza over the ice skating rink.
A famous “lost” I. M. Pei & Associates design, the plaza was built in 1959 and sadly torn
down in 1996.
December 23rd, 2011 / 1 Comment » / by Alan G. Gass
Mile High Center
Photos © 2011 Alan Golin Gass, FAIA
Today we have guest photographer Alan G. Gass (esteemed architect, historian and in my view, city hero) with some 1950s-era shots of I. M. Pei & Associates’ Mile High Center.
If you look closely at this first shot of the entranceway canopy on Broadway, you can see Mr. Gass himself in the reflection of the front door, taking this photo.
Many of the features shown in the photos, of this early important work of I. M. Pei, no longer exist, as many of the spaces were absorbed into the design of One United Bank Center (now Wells Fargo Center, the “Cash Register Building”).
In this shot you can see the canopy as it crosses through the fountains to connect to the restaurant and shops of the Transportation Building. Behind the plaza you can view some of the details of the remodeled bank building, which is the third building of Mile High Center design.
Viewing east toward the fountains, past the row of lights on the bank, this photo nicely depicts the interrelationship of all three buildings with the plaza.
And lastly, a shot of the concrete barrel-shaped roof of the Transportation Building. You can also see additional details of the bank building. This is the intersection of 17th and Lincoln, compare how different this looks today.
November 22nd, 2011 / 4 Comments » / by Alan G. Gass
Mile High Center model
Photos © 2011 Alan Golin Gass, FAIA
The original model for Denver’s first skyscraper, the Miesian-style
Mile High Center, completed by I. M. Pei & Associates in 1956.
In this model you can see the tapestry-like interplay of the white enamel
panels with the dark aluminum bands on the Mile High Tower. To the
left of the model is a four-story renovated bank and on the right is the
two-story, barrel-roofed Transportation Building.
September 25th, 2011 / 2 Comments » / by Alan G. Gass
The Modern Architecture of Sleeper
Charles Deaton’s Sculptered House of Genesee
Woody Allen chose Colorado in 1973 to film his famous science-fiction comedy, Sleeper,
because of the abundance of futuristic modern architecture along the front range to
feature as backdrops in his film. Here is a rundown of locations in order of appearance
in the movie.
This house at the beginning of the film is actually the back of the Church of the Risen Christ, designed 1969 by James Sudler.
Next, this shot is the Boettcher Memorial Conservatory designed 1966 by Victor
Hornbein and Ed White, Jr. at the Denver Botanic Gardens. The movie has a little
model futuristic car riding on a track in front.
Some locations I could not identify such as this interesting interior above. I am hoping
readers can write in and enlighten us.
These underground parking shots are another unknown. One reader suggests these are
from Cinderella City, but I can’t find shots of this to verify. Anyone?
The amazing Sculptured House of Genesee, built by Charles Deaton in 1966 and not
actually lived in until John Huggins completed it after purchasing the home in 1999.
After watching the film, it is clear that the circular elevator is not used as the famous,
ahem, Orgasmatron in the film as rumored, it is really just a cheap small prop.
This odd, yet beautiful building is the Varner House, designed 1969 by James Ream.
Another interesting concrete shell structure, I am hoping someone can write in and tell
me where it is.
Next we are off to Boulder to see Charles Haertling’s impressive Brenton House,
a 1969 design that resembles barnacles or possibly mushrooms.
More shot’s of Deaton’s Sculptured House. Charles Deaton also designed this similar
bank on South Broadway.
No visit to Boulder is complete without a visit to the I. M. Pei masterpiece, the National
Center for Atmospheric Research, N.C.A.R. (more shots of this coming up)
Of the locations in the film that I could not identify, this is the one I would really like to
track down. Anyone? I am guessing it is a church. Note: Reader Eric identified this as
Culver City High School in California. It is still there!
This is the Mile Hi Church in Lakewood with a McDonalds sign over the eye. It is now
accompanied by two other larger structures, the newest one is an enormous concrete shell.
N.C.A.R. in Boulder, one of the most beautifully sited structures ever. Of all the I. M. Pei
projects in Colorado, this is the one that has remained the most-intact. Planning started
in 1961, the building was completed in 1967.
And, finally, the late, great Currigan Exhibition Hall, designed by Jim Ream in 1969
for William Muchow Associates. It was built with the world’s largest use of the space
frame. It was torn down in 2002 to make room for the expansion of the Denver
Convention Center.
(Brutalist structures are the most under-appreciated, most misunderstood and most
endangered modern architecture.)
June 24th, 2011 / 9 Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Court House Square
Photo © 2011 Alan Golin Gass, FAIA
Looking at I. M. Pei & Associates’ Court House Square from Mile High Tower
(another I. M. Pei & Associates building). Photo taken 1959.
Construction fences still surround the site and the Hilton Hotel has not yet been completed.
You can see the May D & F building with it’s original aluminum panels, the hyperbolic
parabaloid and the skating rink.
The tall building to the right is the original Republic Building, designed 1927 by
G. Meredith Musick.
June 10th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Alan G. Gass
Hilton Hotel window
Photo © 2011 Alan Golin Gass, FAIA
Looking out of the Mo-Sai grillwork of the Hilton Hotel window at the hyperbolic
paraboloid and May D & F building of Court House Square.
Court House Square designed by I. M. Pei & Associates, completed 1960.
(Note from the editor: This is the first, of hopefully many photos to be posted on
the Denver Eye by esteemed architect and photographer, Alan G. Gass, FAIA)
June 6th, 2011 / 2 Comments » / by Alan G. Gass
