Recap: City Transformed – Lower Downtown

About the tour: This walking tour explored Denver’s Lower Downtown Historic District from an urban design and development perspective. Attendees learned about LoDo as the city’s birthplace near the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek and the development of its streets, blocks and buildings; the area’s transformation into a warehouse district with the addition of Denver Union Station in 1881; the district’s decline in the post-WWII era and threat of demolition through urban renewal; LoDo’s remarkable revitalization through historic preservation and adaptive reuse into the thriving mixed-use district of today; and what the future holds as new developments replace surface parking lots.

About the tour guide: Ken Schroeppel is the Director of Urban Design and a professor at CU Denver’s College of Architecture and Planning where he teaches urban planning and urban design. Ken is very active in Denver’s planning and design communities, having served on numerous boards and committees over the years. Ken is possibly best known as the founder and editor of the popular DenverInfill and DenverUrbanism blogs, which offer news, ideas and commentary on infill development and sustainable urbanism in the Mile High City.