{"id":2448918,"date":"2019-09-19T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=313035"},"modified":"2019-09-19T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T15:00:00","slug":"are-aspens-pedestrian-malls-due-for-makeover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/are-aspens-pedestrian-malls-due-for-makeover\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Aspen\u2019s pedestrian malls due for makeover?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/p>

Two people stand on the newly-paved Hyman Avenue Mall shortly after it was created.<\/strong>
Courtesy of city of Aspen<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Aspen\u2019s pedestrian malls are beginning to show their age, and city officials are cautiously considering whether it\u2019s time for elective surgery.<\/p>\n

Plans to dig up the 1970s-era, brick-laden malls and replace aging infrastructure underneath have been dormant for nearly two years, but are now resurfacing as Aspen\u2019s elected officials face some of the most important decisions they\u2019ll make in office.<\/p>\n

As with any surgery, it\u2019s a big deal and the patient will likely never be the same again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be impactful,\u201d said Jeff Pendarvis, the city\u2019s capital asset director. \u201cWe are reevaluating what we are going to do and vetting it to make sure we are going about it the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He will update Aspen City Council later this month on the overhaul plan of 130,000 square feet on Hyman, Mill, Cooper and Galena streets covering three blocks.<\/p>\n

The landscape architecture firm Design Workshop developed a conceptual design<\/a> for the city in 2017 and 2018, which was based off of three years of planning and public feedback.<\/p>\n

It includes everything from moving the bathrooms at Wagner Park to removing the fire pit on Galena Street, to a possible reconfiguring of outdoor dining spaces and replacing the early 1900s bricks with replicas that can provide an even surface, among other changes.<\/p>\n

Those design documents, which have been shelved since last year after council approved them, are being dusted off for consideration by the newly elected, Mayor Torre-led council.<\/p>\n

The impetus<\/a> for the \u201cbig dig\u201d is what\u2019s lurking beneath the malls, which were built in 1976. Not only is the brick surface more than 40 years old, much of the malls\u2019 underground infrastructure predates that by a couple of decades.<\/p>\n

Utility lines for water, gas, telephone, electric and storm water are due to be replaced or upgraded<\/a>. Simultaneously, city officials say the uneven surface needs to be redone so it meets Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is to make Aspen inclusive and accessible,\u201d said City Manager Sara Ott, acknowledging that the bricks are not ideal for walkers and wheelchairs. \u201cIt\u2019s not the experience we want for our urban park.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ott also recognizes that such an endeavor is a \u201chuge project\u201d and will impact hundreds of businesses and thousands of citizens and visitors.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why city officials have slowed their roll on taking the plan to the next step, which is creating schematic design and then construction drawings.<\/p>\n

The entire project will be reframed for council during a work session scheduled for Sept. 24, said Darla Callaway, a principal landscape architect with Design Workshop.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been sitting on this for a while,\u201d she said. \u201cThe next phase of design will be crucial for options. \u2026 (The conceptual design) is a toolkit for decision makers and we\u2019ll be there to help the city and community make the right decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just under $4 million had been budgeted this year for schematic design and construction drawings, but it hasn\u2019t been spent.<\/p>\n

Ott said some money may be allocated for the 2020 budget, but it will be contingent upon what council decides.<\/p>\n

As Design Workshop refines its scope of work, one aspect of the plan that Pendarvis plans to highlight is developing design standards for underground infrastructure and utilities and criteria for future development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need those so developers know what to expect and what the design standards are,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a project yet, it\u2019s about design.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very likely that some buildings on the pedestrian malls get redeveloped before the bricks get ripped up.<\/p>\n

Landlord Mark Hunt has plans to raze and replace the two restaurant spaces at 305 and 307 S. Mill St. next year, as well as transform the two buildings next to the Red Onion on the Cooper Avenue Mall into a performing arts center for Jazz Aspen Snowmass.<\/p>\n

Pendarvis said upon further investigation, underground infrastructure might not be as bad as officials once thought.<\/p>\n

Mayor Torre, who has previously served on council and has seen the conceptual design, said it\u2019s inevitable that changes will be made.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, we\u2019ve got to do some work on this stuff and I don\u2019t want to wait so long that we have problems,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m supportive of what I\u2019ve seen, but I want to make positive changes, not broad changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

AN EXPERIMENT IN URBAN DESIGN<\/p>\n

When they were first developed, the now-iconic malls<\/a> were a hotly debated and controversial topic. This redevelopment may be headed in the same direction.<\/p>\n

The community was split in the 1970s over the appropriateness and legality of blocking off public streets and eliminating parking, along with potentially discouraging drive-up businesses.<\/p>\n

The idea first came up in the mid-1950s, when Aspen\u2019s elected officials were planning for the town\u2019s future growth.<\/p>\n

In June of 1956, an architectural design class from the University of Utah made a presentation on how Aspen might develop in the coming years, according to a state cultural resources survey.<\/p>\n

The students got involved after the previous year\u2019s Design Conference at the Aspen Institute, which was headed up by Los Angeles-based architects Edgardo Contini and Victor Gruen.<\/p>\n

Gruen had designed the first outdoor pedestrian shopping mall in the U.S. in Kalamazoo, Michigan.<\/p>\n

The idea of closing one or more of Aspen\u2019s unpaved downtown streets and turning them into a pedestrian mall emerged in 1961.<\/p>\n

\u201cClearing the way for the construction of a permanent mall proved to be more complicated and would take another fifteen years,\u201d reads the state document. \u201cMajor issues had to be addressed, including community approval, financing, master planning, and clearing legal hurdles to this type of development.\u201d<\/p>\n

During that time, several temporary pedestrian malls around downtown Aspen were tested out for days at a time, with the first one introduced by a citizen\u2019s committee led by young architect Richard Lai and nonprofit arts director Geraldine Price.<\/p>\n

Construction crews landscaped different blocks with graveled walkways, shrubs, trees, benches, a bandstand and works of art.<\/p>\n

After many stops and starts, the first bricks for the permanent mall were laid in the summer of 1976 by a skilled team of masons from New York. They worked six days a week, 10 hours a day.<\/p>\n

With most of the construction complete in October of that year, the mall was officially dedicated.<\/p>\n

\u201cA total of 315,000 bricks were acquired to pave the three blocks that would form the mall,\u201d according to the cultural resources survey. \u201cAll of them came from St. Louis, which was in the process of tearing up and replacing streets that had been paved in the early twentieth century.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purchased for $.40 each, the bricks cost the city of Aspen a total of $126,000.<\/p>\n

Two manufacturers were chosen \u2014 Murphysboro Paving Brick Co. of Murphysboro, Illinois, which manufactured the ones stamped \u201cEGYPTIAN\u201d and the other, Wabash Clay Co. of Veedersburg, Indiana, which stamped their bricks \u201cCULVER BLOCK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly $1.2 million was budgeted for the mall\u2019s construction, most of which was secured from a bond issue.<\/p>\n

A few years later, computer expert Nick DeWolf and sculptor Travis Fulton added a major addition. Built in 1979, the Dancing Fountain on Mill Street is arguably the mall\u2019s biggest attraction.<\/p>\n

The mall has largely remained unchanged except for the maturation of landscaping and installation of minor features such as public artwork and additional benches for seating, according to the cultural resources survey.<\/p>\n

However, in 2002 the Mill Street section of the mall along Wagner Park got an upgrade. The 1976-built restroom building and playground were replaced with upgraded facilities.<\/p>\n

Two walls of the building were added to pay homage to Aspen\u2019s history, as well as a clock tower and a ground circle called the Sister Cities Plaza.<\/p>\n

ASPEN PEDESTRIAN MALL 2.0<\/p>\n

So does this mean we\u2019re headed for a shutdown of the downtown core during the mall\u2019s facelift?<\/p>\n

No, although it will likely have a years-long impact. If council were to follow Design Workshop\u2019s conceptual design, construction would be done in phases, over the course of years.<\/p>\n

Under the conceptual design, trees now reaching their maturity would be replaced, and the connections to Wagner Park and Durant Street from the Mill Street Mall would be improved.<\/p>\n

The bathrooms in front of the park would move to the south and a new playground relocated to the north end.<\/p>\n

An extension of the brick walkway next to Rubey Park and across Durant would help with connectivity from the mall, according to planners.<\/p>\n

At Galena and Hyman, where the Ki Davis Fountain is, the mall would extend 5 feet longer into the street to create more space for pedestrians, according to the conceptual plan.<\/p>\n

Mayor Torre, who lives less than a block from the Hyman Avenue Mall, acknowledged that the work will impact businesses and downtown life, and it\u2019s the city\u2019s job to minimize it as much as it can.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe overall experience of the downtown is something we have to keep in mind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

csackariason@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two people stand on the newly-paved Hyman Avenue Mall shortly after it was created.Courtesy of city of Aspen Aspen\u2019s pedestrian malls are beginning to show their age, and city officials are cautiously considering whether it\u2019s time for elective surgery. Plans to dig up the 1970s-era, brick-laden malls and replace aging infrastructure underneath have been dormant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2448918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-20 07:58:46","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}