Denver Modern Homes

Of all the neighborhoods in Denver that feature modern architecture, the houses up on Lookout Mountain have to be the hardest for me to photograph. The biggest problem is that they’re often hard to see from the road, and I’m not about to trespass just to get a picture of somebody’s house.

I took about a hundred pictures on the afternoon I spent on Lookout. From that only a ten were decent enough to publish here. At first, I was just going to skip it, but I figure these pictures are more than eye candy to some. Hopefully it could help someone get a feel for what sort of modern homes can found up on the hill.

Anyway here’s my Lookout Mountain Gallery

While I was taking pictures in Commons Park, much of my attention was drawn to the Glass House building. It’s really quite amazing so I thought I’d give it it’s own gallery.

When Glass House was first under construction, I thought it was weird that they were cladding the first few floors with bricks. It didn’t seem to match the rest of the building. Now, it’s obvious that the architects were envisioning how the building would interact with it’s neighbors. The brick masterfully integrates with the lower roof lines of the building surrounding it.

I imagine that living in Highlands and working Downtown would be in itself, a tremendous motivation to walk to work. My latest gallery is from some pics I took last November around Commons Park.

Almost in polar opposition to the striking new addition to the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) is like a chameleon. It’s a big, bold, black cube that hides in it’s own shadow. Pictures don’t do it justice, especially mine. But I gave it my best shot.

Hilltop is quite possibly the coolest grouping of modern homes in all of Denver. It features many modern homes from the mid-century era, but it’s also a hot bed of tear-down/new construction built in a verity of modern styles. the Hilltop neighborhood is located north east of the intersection of Alameda and Colorado Blvd.

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Modernism flourishes in a metro area’s urban core. The suburbs are usually a different story. To hear modernist across the net speak of the suburbs, you’d think there was nothing but quasi-colonial McMansions across the land. When it comes to retail, no businesses are linked more to the wasteland of suburbia then the venerable Big Box Store.

Walmart, and Home Depot being the kings of all that is Big Box, and are often blamed for the lack of architecture in the burbs. The thing is, Walmart and Home Depot just want to fit in. They can be convinced to build there stores in just about architectural style you can imagine. Here’s the proof.

No other suburb in the Denver metro area wants to promote modernism more than Lakewood. This is especially evident in the Belmar Shopping District and along the Colfax corridor. With a light rail station coming to the Colfax and Wadsworth area, construction of new retail, with modern influences abounds. And what two mega-stores are anchoring the area? That’s right. Walmart and Home Depot.

I snapped a few pics of them, along with the Whole Foods and Dick’s Sporting goods stores at Belmar to show how big box can actually look pretty cool. It’s not exactly FLW’s Fallingwater, but it’s a definite improvement. So the next time you’re lamenting big box architecture, remember that it’s not corporate America’s fault. Talk to your city planner.

Belmar is still ways of from being completed, but the core of Lakewood’s new “Down Town” already feels like a neighborhood. One cool way to celebrate the holiday season is to take a few minutes away from the shopping rush, and go for a skate at Belmar’s outdoor ice rink.

I snapped some pictures of the rink and it’s modern setting over the weekend.

I took a bunch of pictures today while I was downtown. First up, was a trip to the Denver Art Museum.

The Frederic C. Hamilton Building is finished, and the environment is fantastic. Lots of pics are attached in the gallery, including the new and old wings of the museum, the Denver Library, The Museum Residencies, and a really cool cobalt blue office building that’s been ther for years, but I guess I never took note of it before.