Dana Crawford, who died last week at 93, was the pioneer of urban renewal with a special focus on LoDo. Her legacy is mixed.
She refashioned old buildings into wonderful retro office and living spaces. She turned Larimer Street from Denver’s slum into Larimer Square. She resuscitated the Oxford Hotel into a thing of beauty. She took a rusty, pedestrian Union Station and turned it into a dazzling tourist destination and a focus of entertainment, business and fun. She showed that preservation can enhance a city beyond specific preservation and restoration projects. In this she served as a role model for many others who have revitalized downtown Denver and other Denver neighborhoods.
She solved the real estate problem — but not the human problem. It is hard for Denverites today to imagine that one of Denver’s really upscale, classy neighborhoods used to be East Colfax Ave. It was — before urban renewal. “Urban” renewal worked its magic in one urban area while simply pushing the human slum to another urban area. Skid row was pushed from Larimer to Colfax. Urban renewal neither solved nor addressed the human problem; it was transferred from one Denver location to another. It is easier to imagine and to finance restored real estate than to restore human lives. The human problem remains with us, awaiting its own visionary.
© IJN 2025
