The Denver Civic Center is a

civic center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...

area that includes two parks surrounded by government and cultural buildings and spaces. Civic Center is located in central

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...

, on the south side of

Downtown Denver Downtown Denver is the main financial, commercial, business, and entertainment district in Denver, Colorado. There is over of office space in downtown Denver, with 132,000 workers. The downtown area consists mostly of the neighborhoods of Uni ...

. Much of the area is a

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from cer ...

which was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1974 (boundaries clarified 1988). A somewhat smaller area was designated a U.S.

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places liste ...

in 2012 as one of the nation's finest examples of the

City Beautiful The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy of North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of introducing beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. It was a part of the ...

movement of civic design. Denver Civic Center lies partially within the north end of an official Denver neighborhood also named

Civic Center A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...

. It includes the Colorado State Capitol building, in the west end of Denver's official

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

neighborhood, and it includes a few buildings in the south end of Denver's

Central Business District A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

. The Civic Center area is known as the center of the civic life in the city, with numerous institutions of arts, government, and culture as well as festivals, parades, and protests throughout the year.

Parks

Civic Center Park is part of the City and County of Denver park system, located at the intersection of

Colfax Avenue Colfax Avenue is the main street that runs east–west through the Denver metropolitan area in Colorado. As U.S. Highway 40, it was one of two principal highways serving Denver before the Interstate Highway System was constructed. In the local ...

and Broadway, perhaps the best-known and most important streets in Denver. The park is bordered by Bannock Street on the west, Broadway on the east, Colfax Avenue on the north, and 14th Avenue on the south. The park is home to a fountain, several statues, and formal gardens, and includes a Greek

amphitheater An amphitheatre (British English) or amphitheater (American English; both ) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ...

, a war memorial, and the Voorhies Memorial Seal Pond. It is well known for its symmetrical Neoclassical design. Lincoln Park, immediately east of Civic Center Park, is operated by the State of Colorado. It holds a replica of the

Liberty Bell The Liberty Bell, previously called the State House Bell or Old State House Bell, is an iconic symbol of American independence, located in Philadelphia. Originally placed in the steeple of the Pennsylvania State House (now renamed Independen ...

and several memorials.

History

Civic Center was an idea that originated with former Denver mayor

Robert W. Speer Robert Walter Speer (December 1, 1855 – May 14, 1918) was elected mayor of Denver, Colorado three times. He served two four-year terms in office from 1904 to 1912. He died from Influenza, early on in the worldwide epidemic of that year on M ...

. In 1904, Speer proposed a series of civic improvements based on the

Ideas shown to him at the 1893

World Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

. Speer hired

Charles Mulford Robinson Charles Mulford Robinson (1869–1917) was a journalist and a writer who became famous as a pioneering urban planning theorist. He has the greatest influence as a missionary for urban beautification. He was the first Professor for Civic Design at U ...

among others to develop plans for the area. Robinson proposed extending 16th Street to the

Colorado State Capitol The Colorado State Capitol Building, located at 200 East Colfax Avenue in Denver, Colorado, United States, is the home of the Colorado General Assembly and the offices of the Governor of Colorado and Lieutenant Governor of Colorado. Histor ...

and to group other municipal buildings around a central park area. Such a plan was expensive however. Voter approval was necessary to acquire the funds, but the measure was defeated in a 1906 election. Undaunted, Speer gathered business leaders who brought in new ideas for the Civic Center including the creation of an east-west axial between the

, and swinging the north and south borders of the park into the city grid system. These plans were stalled when in 1912, Speer was replaced as mayor. The new mayor brought in

Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (July 24, 1870 – December 25, 1957) was an American landscape architect and city planner known for his wildlife conservation efforts. He had a lifetime commitment to national parks, and worked on projects in Acadia, th ...

who was developing plans for Denver's mountain parks. His ideas included an informal grove of trees on the eastern edge of the park, and a lighted concert area. When Speer was reelected in 1916, he went against Olmsted's designs. Speer instead hired Chicago planner and architect Edward H. Bennett, a protégé of

Daniel Burnham Daniel Hudson Burnham (September 4, 1846 – June 1, 1912) was an American architect and urban designer. A proponent of the '' Beaux-Arts'' movement, he may have been, "the most successful power broker the American architectural profession has ...

. Bennett combined the ideas of all of the previous plans, adding the Greek amphitheater, the

Colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or cur ...

, the seal pond, and the realignment of Colfax Avenue and 14th Ave., around the park. The park officially opened in 1919. The City and County Building was finished in 1932.

Institutions and development

Civic Center has long been the government, arts, history, and learning nexus of both the state of

and the

Denver Metropolitan Area Denver is the central city of a conurbation region in the U.S. state of Colorado. The conurbation includes one continuous region consisting of the six central counties of Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Denver, Douglas, and Jefferson. The Denver r ...

. Among the institutions in the Civic Center are

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With encyclopedic collections of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums between ...

and the Denver Central Library along the park's south side, the

and the

City and County Building of Denver Denver's City and County Building is a historic building in the Denver Civic Center, in the Civic Center Historic District, built to house Denver government bureaus. It was built in 1932, facing the Colorado State Capitol, at the west end of C ...

along the east and west axis of the park, the Wellington E. Webb Municipal Office Building on the park's north side, and the

History Colorado Center The History Colorado Center is a museum in Denver, Colorado, USA dedicated to the history of the state of Colorado. Construction on the $111 million building started on 19 August 2009. The museum opened on 28 April 2012 at 1200 Broadway, one block ...

and the Colorado State Judicial Building to the southeast of the park. The

Denver Mint The Denver Mint is a branch of the United States Mint that struck its first coins on February 1, 1906. The mint is still operating and producing coins for circulation, as well as mint sets and commemorative coins. Coins produced at the Denver Min ...

lies immediately west of the Civic Center Park across the street from the City and County Building. The area has seen a new civic development, including the

Denver Newspaper Agency The Denver Newspaper Agency was a publishing company in Denver, Colorado, which published the ''Denver Post'', a daily newspaper owned by the MediaNews Group. From its inception in 2001 until Friday, February 27, 2009, the DNA was responsible fo ...

(northeast of the park), the home of ''

The Denver Post ''The Denver Post'' is a daily newspaper and website published in Denver, Colorado. As of June 2022, it has an average print circulation of 57,265. In 2016, its website received roughly six million monthly unique visitors generating more than 13 ...

''. Voters in 2004 approved a new Denver Justice Center, two blocks away from Civic Center Park. This project was completed in 2010.

Events

Civic Center is known throughout the state as the rendezvous for the largest and most important cultural and civic events. Being at the center of the state and local government institutions, Civic Center has become the place for political statement for various groups and individuals representing a variety of causes. In 1990 and 1991, the Civic Center was the location of the

CART A cart or dray (Australia and New Zealand) is a vehicle designed for transport, using two wheels and normally pulled by one or a pair of draught animals. A handcart is pulled or pushed by one or more people. It is different from the flatbed ...

Grand Prix of Denver The Grand Prix of Denver was a Champ Car race last held on a street circuit in Denver, Colorado, United States. A Champ Car race was first held in Denver in 1909 on a 14.5-mile (23.3-km) road circuit in nearby Brighton. Racing returned to the Ce ...

. It was Civic Center where the public held a vigil for the victims of

Columbine High School massacre On April 20, 1999, a school shooting and attempted bombing occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado, United States. The perpetrators, 12th grade students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, murdered 12 students and one teacher. ...

, and

9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

. Former presidential candidate and Denver native

John Kerry John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is an American attorney, politician and diplomat who currently serves as the first United States special presidential envoy for climate. A member of the Forbes family and the Democratic Party, he ...

made a 2004 campaign stop at Civic Center, and 2008 Democratic nominee

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...

gave a speech there on October 26, 2008 to an estimated 100,000 supporters. Greta Thunberg (48882848248)

On October 11, 2019, a

School strike for climate School Strike for Climate ( sv, Skolstrejk för klimatet), also known variously as Fridays for Future (FFF), Youth for Climate, Climate Strike or Youth Strike for Climate, is an international movement of school students who skip Friday ...

protest was held in Civic Center Park with

Greta Thunberg Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3 January 2003) is a Swedish environmental activist who is known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for climate change mitigation. Thunberg's activism began when she persuaded ...

. Civic Center is also the location for many annual events. These include: * January - The City and County Building has a

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

lights display up until the

National Western Stock Show The National Western Stock Show is an annual livestock show and festival held every January at the National Western Complex in Denver, Colorado since 1906. The show’s original purpose was advertised as showings to demonstrate better breeding ...

ends in mid January. * March – Civic Center is at the end of one of the longest St. Patrick's Day parades in the nation. * April - Flyhi 420 Festival an annual pro-

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...

rally/ cannabis culture gathering is held in Civic Center every year on April 20, otherwise known as 420. * May - Denver has a large

Cinco de Mayo Cinco de Mayo ( in Mexico, Spanish for "Fifth of May") is a yearly celebration held on May 5, which commemorates the anniversary of Mexico's victory over the Second French Empire at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, led by General Ignacio Zarago ...

festival, held at Civic Center. * June - Civic Center is host to the

People's Fair The People's Fair is an annual event, held in early June, in Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado, United States It is sponsored by Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods (CHUN). The People's Fair is one of several free events held annually in Denv ...

, a bohemian festival with various music, art, political booths, and other happenings; PrideFest, the annual

gay pride LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to s ...

festival is held at Civic Center, which is also the endpoint of the parade. * Summer - There are various theatre and music events held throughout the summer at the Greek

. * Summer - Each Wednesday night, the Denver Cruiser Ride stops at the Greek amphitheater, which riders refer to as the "Circle of Death." * September - A Taste of Colorado is a food and music festival held during

Labor Day Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday in September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers to the development and achievements of the United St ...

weekend at the park. * October - The park is the end point for a

Columbus Day Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas on October 12, 1492. ...

parade that often brings protests from American Indian groups. * December - The Parade of Lights ends at the City and County Building which has holiday lights from the beginning of the parade until the

References

External links