Recap: The City Transformed: LoDo Walking Tour

About the tour: This two-hour walking tour explored Denver’s Lower Downtown Historic District from an urban design and development perspective. We learned about LoDo as the city’s birthplace near the confluence of the 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 Assistant Professor CTT in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at CU Denver where he lectures on the historical growth and development of cities, Denver’s urban design heritage and contemporary issues, and other topics. Ken is very active in Denver’s planning and design communities, having served on numerous boards and committees over the years for organizations including the Denver Architecture Foundation, Downtown Denver Partnership, Denver Streets Partnership, Urban Land Institute, American Planning Association, Union Station Advocates, and YIMBY Denver. Ken is possibly best known as the founder and chief editor of the popular DenverInfill and DenverUrbanism blogs, which offer news, ideas and commentary on infill development and other aspects of sustainable urbanism in the Mile High City.