Thursday, July 1, 2010

Central Bank Demolition

This image was taken from the Brooks Tower - Executive Inn,  looking down to the pool, looking Northwest with the Central Bank sadly looming above. Looking at beginning preparation of demolition of the Central Bank located at N.E. corner of 15th Street and Arapahoe Street.   1989

The demolition of the Central Bank Building, built in 1911 and designed by architect Jacques Benedict, was a very hard loss for Denver in 1989.  For 78 years this wonderful building stood as a proud member of Denver's architecture and community. Now, because of a tangled web of various controlling financial
entities here and abroad, part of our architectural heritage would be torn down to become a parking lot.

Scaffolding was built around the Arapahoe Street and 15th Street sides, and very slowly a large wrecking ball would crush small sections; it was a long painful event to witness.

Two men stand on the roof, one on the very corner, and the other beneath the large dumpster hoisted by the crane.

We are looking North; the 16th Street Mall is two blocks ahead running perpendicular to Arapahoe street. Drive - through section of the bank in the foreground, last 2 remaining floors of the Central Bank in the the middle and the D and F Tower (built 1910) in the background.      1989

The area at the bottom of this image is now occupied by the new Four Seasons Hotel, we might have been able to incorporate the design so that both these wonderful buildings could have stood together and complimented each other.

We will never know...

As I have previously written in other text on this site, a city and its buildings are a very complex never ending maze of cycles of owners, current community usage, past respects of our history and future visions.

Hopefully we have learned from the loss of the Central Bank Building, that controlling interests by a building's owner/owners do not necessarily insure a continued contribution to our community; it is purely an investment, part of a portfolio - plain and simple.

For additional images and commentary, please refer to the Denver section.

This image is full of dimension and texture - a "dirt floor", a large brick wall, and the building beyond, location of The Market on Larimer Street. Now part of the location of the Capital Grille on the 1400 Block of Larimer Street. 1992

I am talking to this guy I used to work with around 6 years ago. He tells me his Father is an artist that paints these great wall murals. I tell him I had worked with a guy 25 years ago and that he and his brother were mural painters, "wall doggies" they are called in the trade.

The next day I bring a small snapshot of this image to work to ask him if he knows anything about the man standing on the scaffold in preparation of painting the mural?

"That's my Dad man," he excitedly tells me, not believing it was possible I had taken this image.  "It's yours bro", I said - "I want you to have it for you and your Father."

I love this image.

I did not take many vertical images as most of my subject matter was more horizontal than not.  It helps to be more eye level with a structure or a prominent ingredient, of (if you can) as part of a photographic composition.  If I viewed an interesting visual image from below and above:   "winner-winner-Chicken Dinner", or maybe "winner-winner Steak Dinner"?

For additional images and commentary, please refer to the Denver section.

-Kim Allen