Thursday, March 28, 2024 -
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Downtown living with a vision behind it

An artist's rendering of Balfour at Riverside, scheduled for completion at the end of the summer.A vision stands behind every landmark.

Stones and glass and steel, angles and peaks and curves — if they are striking — do not just casually emerge on an architect’s drawing board.

And if what transpires inside that landmark — within the walls of these raw materials carefully crafted into something stunning — speaks its own language of human succor or human excitement, then it’s doubly clear that a vision stood behind it all.

Add to this a destabilizing Great Recession and an uncertain post-Great Recession business environment, and the vision becomes all the more impressive.

Decades after the moment of creation, perhaps only the physical landmark will remain imposing, all the rest lost to the vagaries of memory.

But the moment of creation for Balfour at Riverside Park — down near the Platte River — is now.

It is possible to capture the story.

And the vision.

Of many people, to be sure; of architects, of construction supervisors, of individual artisans and blue collar workers; of city planners and zoning regulators; of rental agents; of investors in Denver and Boston.

But behind it all is primarily the vision of one man: Michael K. Shonbrun.

The project is his dream: the type of place he wishes were available when his late mother needed it.

Not every building becomes a landmark, even if it houses a worthy enterprise, and not every enterprise leaves a mark, even if it is housed in a landmark. Balfour at Riverside Park is poised to become both.

To which an obvious qualification needs to be made: Balfour at Riverside Park is still a few weeks from opening, so it is, definitely speaking, premature to confer upon it the status of something that will be not only enjoyed but remembered far into the future.

That said, the signs are bountiful, and the signs are beautiful:

• An upscale, decidedly urban center for independent and assisted living — in the heart of downtown Denver, adjacent to just about any big city amenity one might desire, from the museum to the ballpark, from the concert hall to the promenade along the river.

• A modus operandi, in both the construction and planned operation of the facility, that places pride in one’s work above all else — pride in high standards.

• A part of the creation, and re-creation, of the nexus of Denver, at Union Station, with its retro look back into history, and its futuristic grasp of the most attractive in style.

Both past and future come together most poignantly at Balfour Senior Living with the restoration of the historic Moffat Depot: the Denver terminus of the Denver Northwestern and Pacific Railroad, originally the creation of Denver architect Edwin Moorman, the dream of Colorado pioneer David Moffat, 1839-1911.

Like many restoration projects, this one seemed modest. Endless surprises later, the restored train depot will cost about $1 million.

Michael Schonbrun says, “If I hadn’t been required by law to restore it, I would have done it anyway.”

And so it will be: the original exterior, with repointed brick and decorative rooftop spherical pommels.

Not to mention modern engineering whose steel girders, necessary to sustain the depot, will be hidden from view amidst beautiful period-piece appointments.

The Moffat Depot, now a Denver landmark, will become the old landmark within a new one — the larger Balfour edifice.

Moffat Depot will be integral to the idea, the neighborhood and the architecture of Balfour.

The idea is to piece together past and future.

The neighborhood is Union Station.

The architecture is the midpoint between the two major wings of Balfour Senior Living, independent living and assisted living.

Between those two wings, and a third, for memory care, residents of Balfour at Riverside Park will have at their disposal a transportation system to get around town; parking if one still prefers one’s own car; concierge service every day of the year; a fitness center, a hydrotherapy pool, a spa, a skybar, an on-site medical office, a beauty salon, a library and business center — and, a “Great Room,” the interior of the Moffat Depot.

Moffat, as it turns out, is a city in Colorado. Make that a town, maybe a village. It’s in Saguache County, with, at last count, a population of 114. It covers 1.4 square miles.

The Balfour living community won’t be 1.4 square miles, but it will be adjacent to a much larger area, including a 17-acre park, beautiful views, and many more than 114 people — altogether, something that David Moffat never could have imagined.

Watch the final stages of construction, when, as if magically, all the pieces fall into place in the last couple of months — at Little Raven St. and 15th St. — one of those places that even veteran Denverites never would have believed would be anything but a part of town too dangerous to visit in broad daylight.

My, how things have changed.

Copyright © 2014 by the Intermountain Jewish News



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IJN Executive Editor | [email protected]


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