Greetings,
We will hold the first regular USA roundtable of 2009 today (1/26) from 5:30-6:30 at the Kentwood City Properties conference room (17th and Wynkoop, enter off of 17th). We will distribute an agenda for the following three months of roundtables and briefly discuss the letter of resolution that was distributed last week.
Union Station Advocates Roundtable
Monday, January 26, 2009, 5:30 - 6:30 PM
Location: Kentwood City Properties Conference Room
Hope to see you there!
Levi Reeves
Roundtable Director
Monday, January 26, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
USA January 2009 News Update
Best wishes for the New Year from the board of Union Station Advocates!
Project Status
Progress on several fronts took place in December 2008 including:
* The Denver Union Station Project Authority (DUSPA) initiated planning activities for the project. Several members of DUSPA and other project team members met with (federal) officials in Washington DC to discuss the notice to proceed for the sale of bonds in May 2009. Indications are favorable for meeting this timeframe.
* The Federal Environmental Impact Statement process appears to be proceeding on schedule.
Regarding the public realm design, no public meetings took place in December and none are scheduled for January. Our current understanding is that the Design Guideline and General Development Plan presentations will take place in late February or early March. USA is preparing a letter with our comments on the public realm design for submission to the project team in mid-January. To receive a copy of this letter, please send your request to: info@unionstationadvocates.org.
* The initial Union Station citizen organization, Friends of Union Station, was officially dissolved at a meeting on December 15, 2008 by a unanimous vote of the board. It is succeeded by Union Station Advocates and Open Space Initiative Group.
Public Realm Financing Update
Although the specific allocations for the various elements of the public realm are yet to be determined, the overall funding is set at $28,000,000 for the design treatment of the public spaces which includes Union Station Plaza (Wynkoop side of station), Kinetic Plaza (bridge and deck over the tracks), Linear Park (along 17th Street west of the station), and the Light Rail Plaza. Additionally, $17,000,000 is allocated for the station itself including infrastructure improvements and some design elements, like replacing current lighting in the train room with (replicas?) of the original chandeliers. These funds are not subject to any future budget cutbacks.
Notice of Upcoming USA and Public Meetings
The only public meetings currently scheduled for the balance of January 2009 are DUSPA meetings which are held bi-weekly on Thursdays at 1:30 P.M. at Hogan & Hartson, One Tabor Center, 1200 17th Street. The next meeting is January 22, 2009.
USA’s next board meeting is January 26, 2009 in Kentwood City Properties’ conference room at 4 P.M. Kentwood City is located at the corner of 17th and Wynkoop Streets.
Roundtable Meetings
Our next Roundtable meeting will also be held on January 26, immediately following the USA board meeting at 5:30 P.M. at the same location, the Kentwood City Properties’ conference room. This will be the new home in 2009 for all Roundtable meetings. Roundtable meetings are held every two weeks, and are open only to USA members and their invited guests. Led by USA board member and architect Levi Reeves, each Roundtable meeting provides the opportunity for attendees to discuss in-depth a topic associated with the Union Station project. A few days before each Roundtable, all USA members will receive an invitation notice for the upcoming Roundtable meeting, with an opportunity to RSVP. We hope we’ll see you at our next Roundtable meeting!
Union Station Advocates Blog
USA has now added a blog on our USA website! Now that the blog is up and running, we’ll begin to post most of our project updates, meeting notices, and other commentary about the Union Station project to the blog. Bookmark our blog at: http://unionstationadvocates.blogspot.com/ and check in often as the Union Station projects heads towards the start of construction this year.
Project Status
Progress on several fronts took place in December 2008 including:
* The Denver Union Station Project Authority (DUSPA) initiated planning activities for the project. Several members of DUSPA and other project team members met with (federal) officials in Washington DC to discuss the notice to proceed for the sale of bonds in May 2009. Indications are favorable for meeting this timeframe.
* The Federal Environmental Impact Statement process appears to be proceeding on schedule.
Regarding the public realm design, no public meetings took place in December and none are scheduled for January. Our current understanding is that the Design Guideline and General Development Plan presentations will take place in late February or early March. USA is preparing a letter with our comments on the public realm design for submission to the project team in mid-January. To receive a copy of this letter, please send your request to: info@unionstationadvocates.org.
* The initial Union Station citizen organization, Friends of Union Station, was officially dissolved at a meeting on December 15, 2008 by a unanimous vote of the board. It is succeeded by Union Station Advocates and Open Space Initiative Group.
Public Realm Financing Update
Although the specific allocations for the various elements of the public realm are yet to be determined, the overall funding is set at $28,000,000 for the design treatment of the public spaces which includes Union Station Plaza (Wynkoop side of station), Kinetic Plaza (bridge and deck over the tracks), Linear Park (along 17th Street west of the station), and the Light Rail Plaza. Additionally, $17,000,000 is allocated for the station itself including infrastructure improvements and some design elements, like replacing current lighting in the train room with (replicas?) of the original chandeliers. These funds are not subject to any future budget cutbacks.
Notice of Upcoming USA and Public Meetings
The only public meetings currently scheduled for the balance of January 2009 are DUSPA meetings which are held bi-weekly on Thursdays at 1:30 P.M. at Hogan & Hartson, One Tabor Center, 1200 17th Street. The next meeting is January 22, 2009.
USA’s next board meeting is January 26, 2009 in Kentwood City Properties’ conference room at 4 P.M. Kentwood City is located at the corner of 17th and Wynkoop Streets.
Roundtable Meetings
Our next Roundtable meeting will also be held on January 26, immediately following the USA board meeting at 5:30 P.M. at the same location, the Kentwood City Properties’ conference room. This will be the new home in 2009 for all Roundtable meetings. Roundtable meetings are held every two weeks, and are open only to USA members and their invited guests. Led by USA board member and architect Levi Reeves, each Roundtable meeting provides the opportunity for attendees to discuss in-depth a topic associated with the Union Station project. A few days before each Roundtable, all USA members will receive an invitation notice for the upcoming Roundtable meeting, with an opportunity to RSVP. We hope we’ll see you at our next Roundtable meeting!
Union Station Advocates Blog
USA has now added a blog on our USA website! Now that the blog is up and running, we’ll begin to post most of our project updates, meeting notices, and other commentary about the Union Station project to the blog. Bookmark our blog at: http://unionstationadvocates.blogspot.com/ and check in often as the Union Station projects heads towards the start of construction this year.
USA Blog is Ready to Go!
We've been tinkering around with our blog format and getting some of our USA board members signed up as contributing bloggers. Now we're ready to start using this blog as a primary means of communicating project information, news, meeting announcements, and other commentary about the Union Station project to our members and the world!
More permanent material, like maps, reports, etc. will continue to be added to the main sections of the USA website, but for most other items, check here at the blog first. We'll continue to send out our monthly newsletter and our Roundtable meeting invitations via e-mail as well.
More permanent material, like maps, reports, etc. will continue to be added to the main sections of the USA website, but for most other items, check here at the blog first. We'll continue to send out our monthly newsletter and our Roundtable meeting invitations via e-mail as well.
Friday, January 9, 2009
No Roundtable January 12, 2009
Greetings! The Union Station Advocates roundtable for Monday, January 12th will NOT be held as was previously planned. The next roundtable will be two weeks later (January 26th). More information regarding the agenda and location for the roundtables for the new year will be forthcoming.
Monday, January 5, 2009
2009
Happy New Year to all of you Union Station Advocates members and you interested citizens of our great city of Denver!
The Denver Union Station project is planned to break ground this year! This makes all of our efforts in sheltering and encouraging this project that much more important. My personal kudos and support goes out to everyone involved in the project. It is exciting to see such an important part of Denver's history both preserved and revitalized. We are now within three years from seeing this part of our history teeming with travelers and commuters once again.
As many of you know, the Advocates board is in the process of creating an official 'resolution' regarding the open space design to-date. We are planning to have this document completed and distributed within the next few weeks. When it is finished, it will be posted here and will be sent to our members.
In other news, the roundtables continue to attract numbers of our members who want to provide input on the project. The last roundtable (which was held three weeks ago) was a very interesting and open discussion of the historic train building itself. We are scheduling another roundtable on the historic building, hoping to add more specifically to the discussion from December. Our new roundtable schedule for the first quarter of 2009 will be completed soon. It will also be posted here. In the meantime, add this information to your calendar. We will be meeting every 2nd and 4th Monday from 5:30-6:30pm. Location right now is TBA. Look for a posting later this week on final location.
The Denver Union Station project is planned to break ground this year! This makes all of our efforts in sheltering and encouraging this project that much more important. My personal kudos and support goes out to everyone involved in the project. It is exciting to see such an important part of Denver's history both preserved and revitalized. We are now within three years from seeing this part of our history teeming with travelers and commuters once again.
As many of you know, the Advocates board is in the process of creating an official 'resolution' regarding the open space design to-date. We are planning to have this document completed and distributed within the next few weeks. When it is finished, it will be posted here and will be sent to our members.
In other news, the roundtables continue to attract numbers of our members who want to provide input on the project. The last roundtable (which was held three weeks ago) was a very interesting and open discussion of the historic train building itself. We are scheduling another roundtable on the historic building, hoping to add more specifically to the discussion from December. Our new roundtable schedule for the first quarter of 2009 will be completed soon. It will also be posted here. In the meantime, add this information to your calendar. We will be meeting every 2nd and 4th Monday from 5:30-6:30pm. Location right now is TBA. Look for a posting later this week on final location.
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