Introduction

Before September 2011, I’d spent time living in Colorado, but not in Denver. My older brother used to live in Indian Hills, a small mountain village near Evergreen. I fell in love with the town and with Colorado, but generally I explored the smaller mountains towns of Colorado than Denver. Living in the mountains, I totally fell in love with Colorado’s nature and this is overshadowed the city of Denver. In my mind, Denver lacked the geography that makes living in Colorado attractive for so many. After three months of exploring the Mile High City this year, I’ve begun to appreciate the city for what it does have to offer.

At home in Indian Hills.



It might not be in the mountains, but its close enough. Denver has a lot to offer its residents - new museums, trendy neighborhoods and restaurants, and parks that offer an urban oasis. The Denver Art Museum has an impressive variety of exhibitions and many concert and social activities are organized every week at other venues around the city. I’ve also been to the Denver Zoo, Museum of Nature and Science, the aquarium, the Botanic Gardens, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. When the fall quarter ends, I look forward to visiting the new Clyfford Still art museum. Denver has a variety of museums that are sure to appeal to many of the city’s residents. While tourists might become familiar with some of the city’s larger museums, I wouldn’t know about the American Mountaineering Museum in Golden or the planned Rocky Flats Cold War museum in Arvada without living in Denver.

Botanic Gardens.

Living in Indian Hills, there wasn’t much variety when it came to restaurants. In Denver though, close to campus is a huge range of ethnic restaurants. Nearby Cherry Creek mixes shopping with a large restaurant scene, and hip Highlands has even better restaurants. I still lean towards the campus dining halls for most meals, but have also been introduced to many new cuisines. Mexican food just isn’t an option in the Czech Republic, and I like enchiladas!     

I used to be able to see Mount Evans from my bedroom window. I can still sometimes see it from Denver, and sometimes Pikes Peak and Longs Peak too, although I’m never sure which mountain is which. It’d still be great to be that close the mountains, but Denver is close to some great nature too. Parks like Washington Park and City Park provide a splash of green in residential areas, and Eldorado Canyon and Mount Falcon parks are great for short day trips. Clear Creek runs through Golden and bike paths connect different suburbs. The city does have a strong recreation system for its many athletic residents. Also I love streets lined with trees and the many other green spaces throughout Denver.

Mt. Falcon.

As a European girl, I am used to old traditional historical architecture that is a part of almost every city and town. Denver´s landscape has the same appearance of other typical American cities with downtown skyscrapers and many suburbs and neighborhoods around. Denver is not a very old city and it is amazing how the city grew up during just one century. I really like parts of Denver where we can still see the remains of old western architecture and life. Downtown Denver has a great symbiosis with new modern high-rise buildings and old warehouses from the 19^th Century. Architectural styles that influenced the city through this century were Colonial, modernism, and postmodernism as did the ideas of City Beautiful and Grand Manner. The 16^th Street Mall in downtown of Denver reminds me the Prague´s Wenceslas Square. Although the 16^th Street Mall is not as big, there is a similarity in the concentration and variety of stores, restaurants and banks and a lot of people flow through this long public space.

Modern architecture in downtown Denver.

Downtown Denver architecture.

Most of Denver’s neighborhoods have the typical character of American suburbs with a limited transportation system, but with good access to highways. Some of these neighborhoods have nice little historical downtowns and try to remind to people of the area’s history, while also creating social space.

Denver also shows examples of New Urbanism with new residential projects like Belmar, Highlands, and Stapleton. This new design approach is a reaction to American city planning that for a long time merely built extensive suburbs. The suburbs were the home to most people in large American cities as this idea became a part of the American dream. No one was thinking about how this construction and life in the suburbs would continue or be effective for future life though. Suburbs are easily criticized for their impersonal design and non-effective residential construction types that are not good for society.  Step by step, growing prices for fuel resources started to crash this dream and this started to be an issue for many architects and urbanologists. Their response has been in the form of “New Urbanism” construction that is centered on well-constructed environments that strengthen the social identity of the community, provide cultural and architectural diversity, and combine “new” with “old” in the unification of streets. New Urbanism has goals to reconstruct dense housing developments, rebuild the types of houses, and to create a city center with services and easy accessibility to a variety of stores. These things all provide better living conditions and social contacts in the community. Several Denver neighborhoods achieve these goals.

In the past, I’d drive through Denver and ignore all of these things. It wasn’t until I’d lived here and been a part of the city that I was able to realize what made Denver so special. It’s a large city with everything that makes a city metropolitan, but it has a draw that few others in the U.S. do. Not New York, not Chicago, and not Houston – none of them have incredibly beautiful mountains and alpine lakes so close. Denver has its hot restaurants and an art scene, just like most other metropolitan cities, but adding the mountains to the mix is unique. I knew the mountains were there, but seeing the rest of the city, I know that Denver is a good place for life and inhabitants can still look for new interesting projects that will further improve the city.