Tech Center
A Short Visit To the Denver Tech Center
By Daniel G. Jennings
The Denver Technology Center, known popularly as the Denver Tech Center in the Mile High City, is a collection of office, industrial and retail buildings located between fifteen to twenty miles south of Downtown Denver in Arapahoe County.
The Tech Center serves as a second downtown to the Denver Metro area, in fact it is listed as the area’s number one center for employment. Basically the Tech Center is a series of office parks, industrial parks, shopping centers and housing developments strung out along Interstate 25 the main North South artery in the Denver area between I-225 and Araphahoe Road. Although the developed area around the Tech Center is creeping South towards E-470 and even Lincoln Boulevard.
From the perspective of a person driving down I-25 or more likely stuck in traffic on I-25, the highway is one of the most congested in the country and certainly the most congested in Colorado. The Tech Center looks like a bunch of office towers sticking up in the middle of open fields.
From the perspective of somebody walking, driving or taking a bus on ground level, the Tech Center looks like a long series of strip malls and low lying office buildings separated by green lawns, and a few taller buildings. The Tech Center itself is surrounded by high density suburban development tightly packed suburban houses, apartment complexes and town homes.
Once one exits the freeway and enters the actual Tech Center itself, one becomes completely and totally confused. The streets and roads follow no logical pattern they meander around like the cul-de-sacs in suburban housing developments. Many of them dead end or go round and round in nonsensical loops. The average person trying to drive or walk to a destination in the Tech Center, quickly gets thoroughly confused. It’s impossible to find one’s way there unless you’ve visited it many times.
To make matters worse for drivers, the Tech Center has been laid out like a golf course, sculpted greens complete with water hazards in the form of ponds, creeks, fountains, trees, bushes and sand traps separate many of the buildings. This makes the area park-like and aesthetically pleasing and pleasant to walk through. There are many nice walkways like those in parks and benches. One can stroll along and enjoy the pleasant sounds of birdsong. The area is beautiful in many ways.
Not that this makes much difference to those working in the office buildings they are all carefully stored away in cubbyholes called cubicles. Walking in the Tech Center on any weekday is like walking in a ghost town. One is in the middle of a city where tens of thousands of people are working and one doesn’t meet another soul. The only other people you see are driving around in cars.
Despite the walkways the buildings at the Tech Center are built too far apart for somebody to slip over to the corner store and pick up a drink or cigarettes or walk over for lunch. The place is too separated for any driving.
All the buildings are separated from the streets and nearby structures by lawns, parking lots, ponds, fields of rock, sand pits and so on. Looking at the sculpted areas surrounding the buildings and the empty space one wonders if these features are landscaping or defenses? Are the water hazards ornamentation or moats, is all the space left clear for decoration or fields of fire to give defenders a clear shot at attackers. Many of the rolling lawns look like the earthworks soldiers of the past built in the field to protect themselves from enemy fire.
So I have to wonder is the suburban office park and the modern office building a product of fear? Were they created back in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties when corporate America feared that it would soon be under attack by roving mobs of Hippies, blacks and gang bangers? Were they afraid of civil disturbance and disobedience and crime. Its no coincidence that the migration to the office parks started in the 1960s and 70s when cities were unsafe and rocked by violent crime.
Places like the Tech Center are a product of fear, fear of the common people, fear of the cities and fear of the crowd. Fear of other people and fear that society is about to collapse. Fortunately such fears to seem have dissipated but the damage they have done remains.
Walking around one wonders how much money, time and effort has been wasted on the landscaping at the Tech Center. Vast amounts of water is pumped in from Colorado’s Western slope to irrigate the lawns and trees. Armies of workers are paid to mow and tend the lawns and trees. People are paid to pick up the garbage and to clean the gutters. The Tech Center looks immaculate and a vast amount of money is spent to make it that way.
When one walks around the Tech Center, one wonders how much money spent on the landscaping there could be better spent elsewhere. How many police officers, teachers, fire fighters, soldiers, social workers and probation officers who might actually do some good for society could be hired for that money? How many fire trucks, and buses could be purchased? Or how many textbooks? One has to ask if the landscaping money would have been better spent on a light rail system designed to connect it with Denver’s older neighborhoods. Such a system is now under construction along I-25 at a cost of over $1 billion.
Walking at the Tech Center can be pleasant if one isn’t in a hurry and knows where one is going. If you are a stranger trying to find a location you would be better off elsewhere. Taking the bus to the Tech Center isn’t that bad, the area is served by several lines, unfortunately they are slow moving street lines. Express bus service only runs in the morning and afternoon. The Center itself is also served by an excellent shuttle bus system.
Despite this the Tech Center isn’t a community or an urban unit like Downtown Denver. It’s divided deeply, in fact the Tech Center is located in three different cities Greenwood Village, Englewood and Centennial.
Englewood is an old small town located directly South of Denver in the last couple of decades it has grown into a small suburban city by annexing unincorporated suburban sprawl. Greenwood Village and Centennial are new communities created to keep suburban areas from being annexed by the larger towns around them. The Greenwood Village City Hall is in the middle of the Tech Center. Although the City Hall has a brick exterior and clock tower in imitation of a traditional structure it looks more like a strip mall than a city hall and sits in the middle of an office park.
Do places like the Tech Center and Greenwood Village have a future? Yes, but I don’t what that is. I imagine their future will be as concentrated high density urban developments built on the ruins of suburban sprawl after they have been rebuilt. My guess is that in the near future we’ll see most of the tech center bulldozed in order to make way for something more sensible.
By Daniel G. Jennings
The Denver Technology Center, known popularly as the Denver Tech Center in the Mile High City, is a collection of office, industrial and retail buildings located between fifteen to twenty miles south of Downtown Denver in Arapahoe County.
The Tech Center serves as a second downtown to the Denver Metro area, in fact it is listed as the area’s number one center for employment. Basically the Tech Center is a series of office parks, industrial parks, shopping centers and housing developments strung out along Interstate 25 the main North South artery in the Denver area between I-225 and Araphahoe Road. Although the developed area around the Tech Center is creeping South towards E-470 and even Lincoln Boulevard.
From the perspective of a person driving down I-25 or more likely stuck in traffic on I-25, the highway is one of the most congested in the country and certainly the most congested in Colorado. The Tech Center looks like a bunch of office towers sticking up in the middle of open fields.
From the perspective of somebody walking, driving or taking a bus on ground level, the Tech Center looks like a long series of strip malls and low lying office buildings separated by green lawns, and a few taller buildings. The Tech Center itself is surrounded by high density suburban development tightly packed suburban houses, apartment complexes and town homes.
Once one exits the freeway and enters the actual Tech Center itself, one becomes completely and totally confused. The streets and roads follow no logical pattern they meander around like the cul-de-sacs in suburban housing developments. Many of them dead end or go round and round in nonsensical loops. The average person trying to drive or walk to a destination in the Tech Center, quickly gets thoroughly confused. It’s impossible to find one’s way there unless you’ve visited it many times.
To make matters worse for drivers, the Tech Center has been laid out like a golf course, sculpted greens complete with water hazards in the form of ponds, creeks, fountains, trees, bushes and sand traps separate many of the buildings. This makes the area park-like and aesthetically pleasing and pleasant to walk through. There are many nice walkways like those in parks and benches. One can stroll along and enjoy the pleasant sounds of birdsong. The area is beautiful in many ways.
Not that this makes much difference to those working in the office buildings they are all carefully stored away in cubbyholes called cubicles. Walking in the Tech Center on any weekday is like walking in a ghost town. One is in the middle of a city where tens of thousands of people are working and one doesn’t meet another soul. The only other people you see are driving around in cars.
Despite the walkways the buildings at the Tech Center are built too far apart for somebody to slip over to the corner store and pick up a drink or cigarettes or walk over for lunch. The place is too separated for any driving.
All the buildings are separated from the streets and nearby structures by lawns, parking lots, ponds, fields of rock, sand pits and so on. Looking at the sculpted areas surrounding the buildings and the empty space one wonders if these features are landscaping or defenses? Are the water hazards ornamentation or moats, is all the space left clear for decoration or fields of fire to give defenders a clear shot at attackers. Many of the rolling lawns look like the earthworks soldiers of the past built in the field to protect themselves from enemy fire.
So I have to wonder is the suburban office park and the modern office building a product of fear? Were they created back in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties when corporate America feared that it would soon be under attack by roving mobs of Hippies, blacks and gang bangers? Were they afraid of civil disturbance and disobedience and crime. Its no coincidence that the migration to the office parks started in the 1960s and 70s when cities were unsafe and rocked by violent crime.
Places like the Tech Center are a product of fear, fear of the common people, fear of the cities and fear of the crowd. Fear of other people and fear that society is about to collapse. Fortunately such fears to seem have dissipated but the damage they have done remains.
Walking around one wonders how much money, time and effort has been wasted on the landscaping at the Tech Center. Vast amounts of water is pumped in from Colorado’s Western slope to irrigate the lawns and trees. Armies of workers are paid to mow and tend the lawns and trees. People are paid to pick up the garbage and to clean the gutters. The Tech Center looks immaculate and a vast amount of money is spent to make it that way.
When one walks around the Tech Center, one wonders how much money spent on the landscaping there could be better spent elsewhere. How many police officers, teachers, fire fighters, soldiers, social workers and probation officers who might actually do some good for society could be hired for that money? How many fire trucks, and buses could be purchased? Or how many textbooks? One has to ask if the landscaping money would have been better spent on a light rail system designed to connect it with Denver’s older neighborhoods. Such a system is now under construction along I-25 at a cost of over $1 billion.
Walking at the Tech Center can be pleasant if one isn’t in a hurry and knows where one is going. If you are a stranger trying to find a location you would be better off elsewhere. Taking the bus to the Tech Center isn’t that bad, the area is served by several lines, unfortunately they are slow moving street lines. Express bus service only runs in the morning and afternoon. The Center itself is also served by an excellent shuttle bus system.
Despite this the Tech Center isn’t a community or an urban unit like Downtown Denver. It’s divided deeply, in fact the Tech Center is located in three different cities Greenwood Village, Englewood and Centennial.
Englewood is an old small town located directly South of Denver in the last couple of decades it has grown into a small suburban city by annexing unincorporated suburban sprawl. Greenwood Village and Centennial are new communities created to keep suburban areas from being annexed by the larger towns around them. The Greenwood Village City Hall is in the middle of the Tech Center. Although the City Hall has a brick exterior and clock tower in imitation of a traditional structure it looks more like a strip mall than a city hall and sits in the middle of an office park.
Do places like the Tech Center and Greenwood Village have a future? Yes, but I don’t what that is. I imagine their future will be as concentrated high density urban developments built on the ruins of suburban sprawl after they have been rebuilt. My guess is that in the near future we’ll see most of the tech center bulldozed in order to make way for something more sensible.
posted by great one at 6:52 PM
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