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Touring lofts of LoDo for charity

by Basha Cohen

LODO - In 1976 there was no LoDo. Derelicts and occasional cars staggered over the rutted train tracks below and the “Viaduct” bridge above that hung over 15th Street like a rusty umbrella. Foot traffic was scarce. Some of the safe havens for a drink and dinner were the Wazee Lounge and Supper Club, Café Nepenthes, and El Chapultepec. By 1994 the beloved Tattered Cover brought a cozy place for loving books and gathering. Fast forward to 2012 and the world of Wewatta, Wazee and Blake Street is a bustling bastion of restaurants, bars, businesses, storefronts and downtown living. It is a testament to the heart of this “new” downtown that the Wazee Lounge, El Chapultepec and the Tattered Cover still remain now joined by the hipsters -young and old - who live to walk, bike and enjoy urban living.

Kudos goes to early pioneers like Peter Warren, Dean Emeritus at the University of Denver and founder of the Denver International Film Festival. He and other renegade cowboys at heart helped settle the area near 18th and Blake during the late 70’s into artistic living quarters, and fought to keep historic buildings from being demolished when foresight was shortsighted, and parking lots prevailed. Warren reminisces about the early years when the Spaghetti Factory was the only reason people crossed over those parking lots from Larimer Square. “In the early days there was a great sense of community among the few residents. We were experiencing the Wild West. Our friends thought we were crazy. We were trying to live the Denver of past days of glory while armies of developers were tearing away at the fabric of the former city. There was no infrastructure to speak of. Only a few gin mills and broken down hotels. The Oxford and the Barth were places to avoid at all costs. That all changed by 1995 with B7 zoning and Coors Field. Suddenly LoDo became a magnet, a fashionable place to live.”

Celebrating this growth on July 22nd, the HomeSteaders presented their 5th annual LoDo Loft Tour to benefit Family HomeStead, an organization that provides emergency and transitional housing for homeless families with children. The loft tour provides financial support to families who are working to find a job and stable housing, particularly during the summer months before children begin school in the fall. According to Kathryn Dunleavy, LoDo Loft Tour Chair, “This was the most successful Loft Tour yet! We had 249 attendees and raised over $10,000 that will directly benefit homeless children in the Metro Denver area.” If you are interested in becoming involved with this critical cause, contact Judy Mugler, Director of Volunteers and Development at [email protected]

Five lofts were on tour, plus three Kentwood Properties that were on the market giving participants a true sense (and cents) view of the burgeoning neighborhood. With the impressive developments underway at Union Station that will bring more retail, restaurants, living space and the much anticipated Light Rail to DIA, there is no doubt that this area is only going to get hotter and pricier over the years to come. Two bedroom lofts on show ranged from $669-750,000, and expect to continue their upward price swing. Beautiful rental buildings like Sugar Cube are enjoying a taste of New York pricing, with two bedroom apartments leasing for $4500 per month. If it were of any consolation, the same place in NY would be at least $10,000.

The juxtaposition of old and new is evident on the streets lined with historic buildings, now habituated by hipsters, families and wealthy professionals across from soaring glass, concrete and steel high rise structures. What is most alluring, however, is the inside peek into these dwellings that contrast, merge and blend interior design details of old with new. Exposed brick, pressed-tin, thick timber pillars, broad weathered wood stairs, iron stair rails, industrial metal nails and rivets, exposed ducting, concrete walls or floors, and pebbled “sidewalk ceilings” create multiple dimensions framed by arched or walled windows of airy, light-filled, open spaces.

Personal style fills in the blanks, and runs the gamut from ultra modern and mid century modern spare leather chaise lounges, sofas, dramatic floor lighting, colored glass kitchen tiles and lofty, fake fur white bathroom mats (really?), to traditional, elegant jacquard sofas, antique chests and china cupboards, four poster beds and wing back chairs. The perfect balance of design is the blend of old and new where antiques and modernism collide.

The most beautiful loft on the tour that exemplified this merger of old world with new was in the Wynkoop Brewery Building, built in 1899 as the J.S. Brown Mercantile Building. The Mercantile building was a flagship store for ranchers and miners seeking home goods and furnishings that fit the new frontier. Now the lofts here have germinated from the building’s early roots and have re-rooted in a new century of Denver design dwellers. Every room in the showcase two-story loft was a work of art envisioned by the owners and Laurel Quint of Quint Interiors. Although it was an “open loft” it had the intimacy of many small, secret spaces. The Zen-like en-suite bath was transfixing where Japanese floral tiles, warm woods and marble accented an organically sculptural bathtub, and purely modern glass rainforest shower for two. The main living space axis was a state of the art kitchen that balanced textural woods, old-fashioned Paris subway tiles with high tech metals. This infinity space opened into a comfortable exposed brick living area that mixed modern furnishings with exquisite antiques, and a dining table in the round accented by a dramatic, dark shell chandelier and calming blue oil painting. Admittedly, his/her flat screen televisions poised side-by-side in the living room, left many pondering.

Last, but not least, LoDo living is about those glorious decks, for dining, lounging, tomato planting and child’s play, all embracing the Colorado Rockies, blue skies above, and Old Denver streets below that so many now call “home.”

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