Guest photographer Gregory Ego weighs in on The Eye with a photo of three unusual underground music artists from present day Denver: Little Fyodor, Boyd Rice and Ralph Gean, taken recently at the Lion’s Lair on Colfax.
The 2011 Boyd Rice biography film, Iconoclast (directed by Larry Wessel), is being shown in it’s entirety at the Denver Underground Film Festival this Sunday, November 13th at the Unitarian Society of Denver (1400 Lafayette).
(Be sure to view Gregory Egos photo website (http://gregoryegophotos.blogspot.com/), a who’s who of underground music, literary and political figures.
The Sugar Building is a grand Denver example of a Sullivanesque Chicago-style commercial building. The style’s name comes from the father of modern architecture, Louis Sullivan and the commercial style that came about from the reconstruction of Chicago following the fire of 1871.
Designed 1906 by Aaron Gove and Thomas Walsh. Walsh had worked in Chicago and Gove had studied near there.
The terra cotta and brick geometrical ornaments shown above on the upper two floors are one of the most notable Sullivanesque features. Ornament was far less prominent in the styles that followed, like the Prairie style.
The Sugar Building Annex was also designed by Gove and Walsh, this time in this newer Prairie style in 1912. It is a style heavily associated with Frank Lloyd Wright and house design.
Surviving examples of Prarie style are uncommon in Denver, but the use of this style in commercial buildings is very rare.
One last shot of the SullivanesqueSugar Building ornament.
As for Prairie style, this became the precursor to Frank Lloyd Wright’sUsonian style.
(Though these days the Prairie-style appellation is often loosely applied to new homes. It seems like any new construction with a gable roof and deep eaves reminds the owner of Wright’s Robie House and gives them the license to invoke this important historical style. ;<)
The Republic Plaza, designed 1983 by Donald Smith for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. The late-modern design now
stands out from decorative, contemporary styles.
Before the Republic Plaza, the Republic Building stood on
this site, designed in 1928 by G. Merideth Musick.
Looks like Santiagos left this location in Arvada, an old folded-plate roof restaurant building.
I assume it a Tastee-Freeze ice cream place from the early-1960s.
Tastee-Freeze and Der Weinershnitzel all have seemed to merge into today’s Hamburger Stand.
Without preservation, houses crumble and fall, leaving us little architectural history to appreciate.
While the last ranch house at Addenbrooke Brooke park was torn down in 1997, the City of Lakewood did leave this solemn fireplace, made of stones gathered from around the world and some native American artifacts discovered on the property* to remind us of the history of the site, originally homesteaded by the Everitt family in 1876.
(* you can spot a stone bowl about halfway up, two or three stones from the left)
I am happy to note that this iconic Usonian building, the First Christian Church, located
where the 36 Hwy becomes 28th St at the entranceway to Boulder, is still standing despite
having been for sale for years now. There was concern that it would be torn down and
replaced with student housing.
Designed 1960 by architects Thomas Nixon & Lincoln Jones.
With it’s prominent Boulder location, it is nice way for residents to regularly view a historic
example of the direct influence of Frank Lloyd Wright.
A postcard of the International-style Broadway Plaza Hotel with a photo taken when it
was first completed in 1959. This building is still standing, of course!
Go here to see a 1959 ad featuring the same photo.
If you are driving in Denver’s Hilltop neighborhood, you might have difficulty spotting this
beautiful International-style house through the landscaping.
It is the Joshel House, designed in 1951 by local architecture/design team, Joseph and Louise Marlow, with some interior elements by Victor Hornbein. This couple designed many great mid-century International-style houses in the Denver area. (You can locate these using the Historic Denver guidebook, The Mid-Century Modern House in Denver, by Michael Paglia and Diane Wray Tomasso.)
Despite its local and national landmark status, the Joshel House was in danger of becoming a mere memory after Suzanne Joshel passed away in 2009. The estate attorney felt the property had more value as a building site and worked to undo the protective measures her own client, Suzanne Joshel, had worked so diligently to put in place. Thankfully, Historic Denver refused to vacate its preservation easements and many preservation-minded buyers expressed interest in buying the home.
My wife, Shannon Stanbro of 5280mod.com, represented one set of those buyers and spent many hours trying to educate the attorney and neighbors about the importance of preserving Hilltop’s historic modern architecture. It seems fitting that her new listing, The Eight-Foot House,
is a 2011 International-style home influenced by the Marlows’Joshel House design.
The Eight Foot House derives its name from a passive approach to sustainable design. Created and constructed by architect Bill Buyers, a no-waste approach embraced the use of 8-foot materials, including floor to ceiling doors and windows, while paying homage to the Marlows’ elegant historic design.
I just wanted to visually compare the front of the two houses, you can find a better read and complete set of photos of the Eight-Foot House here on Shannon’s site: www.5280mod.com. And you can see interior shots of the original Joshel House here on Lesley’sMidModRedo site.
Poet’s Row is a concentrated, Capitol Hill, historic district of apartment buildings built with elements of Art Deco, Streamline Modern & International Style, all on one short block. Most of the buildings were designed by an architect responsible for much of Denver’s modernist character, Charles Strong.
Charles Strong’s buildings are abundant throughout Denver. His most prominent local building is the 1957 Miesian-style glass and aluminum skyscraper, the Petroleum Club Building.
We’ll start at 11th & Sherman, heading east in the opposite order of when these were built.
The International StyleSherman Arms Apartments building was built in 1950 and is just assumed to have been by Charles Strong, as the style of the building and use of Art Deco glass brick match the rest of the structures he built on this street…
…as you can see in this next building, the 1942 World War II-era Panama Apartments. It is also a mixture of Art Deco and International Style and is definitely designed by Charles Strong.
You can see the distinctive use of glass brick by Strong.
The Eugene Field Apartments were designed by Charles Strong in 1939. Another feature that many of these buildings share is the Art Deco stepped-brick spire.
Eugene Field is a famous St. Louis poet and essay writer. He also worked for the Denver Tribune for two years!
Next we reach the Nathaniel Hawthorne Apartments building, which resembles a film theater with it’s vertical Art Deco movie-marquee entranceway. Named after the famous author of The Scarlet Letter, the building was designed 1938 by Charles Strong.
Strong gave this building Streamline Modern-style radial corners.
Strong had used Moderne radial corners and a similar use of Art Deco glass brick the year before in the design of the Mark Twain Apartments in 1937. Here again is the stepped-brick spire.
Twain, arguably America’s most famous writer, also had a streamline modern Burlington Zephyr route named after him that traveled from Burlington, Iowa down to St. Louis. Here is a borrowed photo of that Zephyr:
The entranceway is notable for it’s high glaze ceramic brick.
The Robert Frost Apartments were not by Charles Strong. They were designed by Andrew B. Wilson in a 1929 version of Spanish-Colonial style and the building was original called the Casa Bonita! The name was changed to Robert Frost in the ’30s.
The 1956 Emily Dickinson Apartments building was originally called The Constellation and was designed in a hip, yet spare ’50s version of the International Style, making this the most contemporary member of Poet’s Row.
And as we reach the corner of 10th and Sherman we come upon the twin of the Robert Frost, the Louisa May Alcott apartments. It was built 2 years later in 1931 and is almost exactly the same Spanish-Colonial design by Andrew B. Wilson. It was originally called Casa La Vista.
Crossing the street we reach the Robert Browning Apartments, named after the Victorian-era English poet. It was designed 1937 in the Art Deco style by Charles Strong.
The Art Deco buildings built on this east side of the street by Charles Strong have a different look than the ones on the west and do not make use of glass brick.
The Thomas Caryll Apartments were named after a Scottish satirist. They were designed in 1936 by Charles Strong.
And finally the James Russell Lowell Apartments, named after a famous Fireside Poet and anti-slavery activist. They were built 1936 by the great modernist and poetry-lover Charles Strong.
Boulder’s mighty ’60s-era contribution to rock & roll, The Astronauts,
tearing it up on their cover of Them’s cover of Big Joe William’s Baby,
Please Don’t Go. From the beach party film Out of Sight from 1966.
Princess Moonbeam was a mummy kept on display at the Garden of the Gods
Totem Pole Trading Post from the 1930s through at least the 1950s. Exploitation of
Native American remains formally ended with the Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act in 1990.
In 1959, Safeway Stores built their classic modern Marina Blvd. store with the arched
roofline over a glass wall. One of the more interesting variations was the roofline on this
storefront shown above, referred to as Marina with wings, which allowed for a larger
store model. They complimented this with stone facing.
In the 1960s Safeway buildings with variations on these two designs peppered the
Denver area, but this location in Wheatridge is the most intact.
September 30th, 2011 / 2 Comments » / by Tom Lundin
Guitar great Mike Bloomfield spent the Summer of 1962 in the Denver/Boulder area. He put together an RnB band with Happy Logan’s son. The instruments were supplied by Happy Logan’s. The band played at the Sink in Boulder and apparently stole the crowd from Tulagi. I know this is a long shot. Does anyone remember the band or hearing about this? Thanks, John Ivey
From the editor: I would be interested in that too! The only acts I know from 1962 in Boulder were Stormy Patterson’s Stormtroupers (later became the Astronauts) and their rivals The Spartans. Anyone?
September 28th, 2011 / No Comments » / by Tom Lundin
The Federal Theater at Federal & 38th stopped showing films in the 1970s. Built in 1923,
the building had an Art Deco makeover in 1948 by architect Charles Strong, who also
designed the Art Deco apartments of Poet’s Row on Capitol Hill around the same time
period.
You can that the original 1920s theater is recessed behind the update. Not only was the
marquee added, but the storefronts were extended out.
You can see the original terra cotta theater name and year behind the Art Deco marquee.
September 27th, 2011 / 1 Comment » / by Tom Lundin
Esteemed Greeley musician Doug Kershaw narrowly avoided tragedy last Friday when
just after he finished his set at the Berkeley Oriental Theater, a 15′x20′ section of the
ceiling fell onto the stage.
Hopefully, it will not take them long to repair the roof of this historical theater, designed
in 1927 by Leo Desjardins.
Doug Kershaw has been a long time Colorado resident. Before living in
Greeley he lived up in Evergeen where he was a revered family friend of
my wife’s Stanbro Real Estate family (see Shannon Stanbro’s site: 5280mod.)
Kershaw was born and raised in Louisiana surrounded by Cajun music and
has been playing music himself since he was five years old. He had his first
records out in the ’50s (with his brother under the name Rusty & Doug)
and is most famous for his song Louisiana Man, which was once even
broadcast back from outer space to earth by Apollo 12!
September 26th, 2011 / 2 Comments » / by Tom Lundin
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
