Report sees a bustling rebirth of Union plaza

Rocky Mountain News   Report sees a bustling rebirth of Union plaza By Daniel J. Chacón, Rocky Mountain News October 27, 2005 The plaza on the east side of Denver Union Station has the potential to be more than just an entrance to the regional transportation center. It could be a cultural destination teeming with a wide range of people attracted year-round by a dynamic cavalcade of events and activities. Such is part of the vision for the plaza as seen by about 200 downtown residents, business owners, elected officials and other shareholders at a workshop in April. Their visions were compiled into a 67-page report made public Wednesday. "There's no major transportation center that I know of in the world - and I travel 150,000 miles a year - that uses a great square in front of the transportation center as a major destination," said Fred Kent of Project for Public Spaces Inc., which developed the report. "With the vision completed . . . it'll be as good or better as Grand Central Station (in New York City), and Grand Central Station is the best in the world," he said. The historic train station, which once served as a gateway to Denver and the Rocky Mountains but fell into a decades-long period of stagnation, is poised for a $1 billion redevelopment. The station, in the heart of lower downtown, is expected to be a regional transportation hub for commuter trains, buses and light rail. "It'll raise the bar and other places will have to come to that level," Kent said. The vision for the plaza is both a front door to the city and the region and a social gathering spot for the community, the report said. "Denver already has many great places," the report said. "Union Station Plaza should join the ranks as one of the 10 great." Jason Longsdorf, the city's project manager for Union Station, said the vision statement for the plaza along Wynkoop Street gives government agencies and other partners in the project "great direction." "It gives us a lot of guidance to understand what those public stakeholders want to see there and for us to be able to work toward that," he said. The plaza has to serve everyone from commuters and tourists to kids and neighbors, said Dana Crawford, a spokeswoman for Friends of Union Station. "Because there's this interface with the transit facility and the big open plaza, we can really have a world-class facility," she said . Copyright 2005, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.