The biggest name in the New Urbanism movement is helping shape the nation's largest New Urbanism project - the $4 billion redevelopment of Denver's former Stapleton International Airport.
Peter Calthorpe, co-founder of New Urbanism - an architectural style that calls for a return to traditional neighborhoods - has been hired by developer Forest City to create the master plan for Stapleton's redevelopment.
``A simple definition of New Urbanism - walkable and diverse,'' Calthorpe said during a telephone interview last week from Seattle, where he was visiting one of his many projects.
Calthorpe said that Stapleton is a great opportunity for New Urbanism and that Denver is on the ``cutting edge'' of the movement, with similar projects taking place at the former Elitch Gardens site and in Curtis Park. Calthorpe also is involved in those projects.
At Stapleton, Calthorpe wants to create all the benefits and charm of older, classic Denver neighborhoods, but with new homes.
``Stapleton will be laid out in its entirety in the way people want to live,'' he said. ``You will have a classic neighborhood with tree-lined streets, neighborhood parks, neighborhood schools, retail and businesses you can walk to. And, because there will be homes priced at all levels, you can move up to bigger and more expensive homes.''
Greg Vilkin, who heads the Stapleton project for Cleveland-based Forest City, first heard Calthorpe speak two years ago, when the Congress for the New Urbanism - an organization Calthorpe founded - held its annual meeting in Denver.
That was more than a year before the Stapleton Development Corp. selected Forest City as Stapleton's developer.
``I heard his talk and went up to him afterwards, and told him we were looking at Stapleton and would love to interview him,'' Vilkin said, adding that he was impressed with what he heard.
``We think Peter is terrific,'' Vilkin said. ``We interviewed a number of national firms who were on the forefront of New Urbanism and we liked him the best. He is an excellent planner with a great reputation and, although he is one of the founders of New Urbanism, he is not caught up with the dogma that everything has to look one way.
``He tempers New Urbanism with what works,'' Vilkin said. ``It's a constantly evolving art form.''
Calthorpe, who is focusing on Stapleton's 40-acre Town Center commercial development, will consult on every stage of the project.
``He's involved in a general plan for the entire 4,700 acres to very specific plans, such as the Town Center,'' Vilkin said. ``We use his vision on all aspects. His a strong advocate for what he thinks is the best urban design.''
Vilkin likes Calthorpe so much that he has hired him for several other Forest City projects across the country - two in Oakland, Calif., and a town center in Las Vegas.
Calthorpe, 50, who was born in England but who has lived in the United States since he was 5, also is the master planner for the former Elitch’s Gardens in northwest Denver, which is being turned into a housing and commercial development by Chuck Perry of Denver and Jonathan Rose of New York.
``He (Calthorpe) and Jonathan were doing a project called 2nd Street Studio in Santa Fe, and they were in constant contact,'' Perry said. ``They had done several other projects together so it was natural to really implement the New Urbanism principles into Elitch's.''
Perry said Calthorpe ``is really committed to re-weaving the fabric of urban neighborhoods.''
``The thing that I really benefited from was walking the site with Peter,'' Perry said. ``He had a sense of the old site, how to integrate it into the existing grid and how to really make it a part of the neighborhood.''
Calthorpe, who dropped out of the graduate architectural program at Yale University, quickly creates on the spot.
``It's just wonderful to watch him draw,'' Perry said. ``He can create a variety of alternatives with pencil and paper. It's amazing to watch him sketch.''
Calthorpe said the Elitch Gardens project is a miniature version of Stapleton.
``It has a civic use, you're rehabbing the big old theater-carousel, you have parking space, senior housing, retail and live-work places,'' Calthorpe said. ``Of course, you don't have the really big, expensive houses like Stapleton will. There's just not enough land.''
And although the homes are modern and energy-efficient at Elitch's, the lots are smaller than those in surrounding neighborhoods.
``People don't spend as much time in their yards as they used to back in the days when you typically had one wage-earner,'' Calthorpe said. ``You go to the gym to work out, they have after-school programs for kids, soccer, and what have you. So you spend less time in the yard and more time in your house or at a good neighborhood park or at some activity center.''
In Denver, Calthorpe also is redesigning public housing in Curtis Park under a $26 million national Hope VI program that is part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
``HUD believes we have to decentralize these pockets of poverty,'' Calthorpe said. ``These enclaves of poor people are not healthy for the surrounding area and are not healthy for the people who live there.''
It's better to have a mixture of low-income and middle-income housing, he said.
``We're working on a series of homes, some that look like duplexes, some look like the great, big homes already in the neighborhood,'' Calthorpe said. ``We've done projects like this all across the country. It's something I really believe in.''
City Councilwoman Susan Barnes Gelt said Calthorpe's strength is that he understands how an entire region can be planned to its best advantage and how buildings integrate into the larger community.
``He is a strong conceptual thinker,'' she said. ``Many architects are great at designing a building like a sculpture. To exhaust that metaphor, I see Peter as less of a sculptor and more of a landscape painter.''
Some architects complain that Calthorpe gets too much of the limelight and that there are other architects who are just as good yet overlooked.
``For those of us who have been practicing New Urbanism principles for a lot of years, we are somewhat envious he has been able to capitalize on the fame and recognition,'' said Richard von Luhrte, a principal of RNL Design, the largest architectural firm in the Rocky Mountain region. ``But you can't begrudge Peter his fame. I have a lot of respect for Peter.''
Some people also worry that with more than 15 major projects across the country, Calthorpe might not be giving Denver as much attention as another, lesser-known, firm might.
Calthorpe said that although it might seem that he has a lot of projects, his firm does only the master planning, which takes far less time than architecture.
And thanks to technology, it isn't important for Calthorpe to meet clients. For example, he holds video conferences with Forest City officials, often several times a week.
Calthorpe came up with the idea of New Urbanism in the early '90s.
``Starting in the mid-70s and right through the '80s, I was looking more and more at the environmental impact of growth,'' Calthorpe said. Instead of sprawl, he favored villages with mixed uses where residents can walk to work, schools, recreation and churches.
New Urbanism is similar to the Neo-Traditional movement, which sprung up on the East Coast about the same time. Neo-Traditionalists call for architecture that harks back to earlier times, with such things as alleys, garages on the back of homes instead of the front, and porches.
In his latest book, The Regional City; New Urbanism and the End of Sprawl (co-written by William Fulton), Calthorpe outlines many of his ideas. He said the book provides a good blueprint for what he hopes to accomplish at Stapleton.
``It is now generally accepted that a city's vitality is basically tied to its diversity, human scale and civic places,'' Calthorpe wrote. ``The notion that the auto-oriented suburb is sustainable or even universally desirable is no longer the conventional wisdom.
``Environmental groups have developed to defend the ecosystems and farmlands threatened by sprawl. Inner-city activists have mobilized to revitalize urban neighborhoods. Historic preservation groups have expanded their agenda from individual buildings to whole districts and urban economies. New Urbanism builds on all of these movements and attempts to bond them together with a common set of principles.''
Calthorpe goes on to say that New Urbanism is a movement that provides an alternative to suburban sprawl, urban decay, single-use zoning and automobile-only environments.
``Sprawl's demise is now clear, and its antidotes are already in motion,'' Calthorpe wrote. ``Many cities and older towns are experiencing a renaissance – residential populations growing for the first time in decades, jobs relocating to the center and regional retail is returning. Even the real estate investment and development industry see the end of sprawl and are advocating investments in `24-hour' mixed-use communities. We are in transition to a new paradigm of growth and community.''
Copyright © 2000, Denver Publishing Co.
John Rebchook, News Real Estate Editor, NEW URBANISM FOUNDER GUIDING STAPLETON REDEVELOPMENT: $4 BILLION PROJECT AT OLD AIRPORT IS LARGEST TO USE `WALKABLE, DIVERSE' STYLE., 03-12-2000.