Finding Meow Wolf: Improving Access and Mobility through Community-Led Creative Placemaking

FINDING Improving Access and Mobility through Community-Led Creative Placemaking in West Denver

Annelies van Vonno 2020 Capstone

THIS CAPSTONE PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL SATISFACTION OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF URBAN AND REGIONAL PLANNING, COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER. AUTHOR: ANNELIES VAN VONNO CLIENTS: RYAN MEEKS SENIOR ASSOCIATE SA+R ARCHITECTS DANIKA PADILLA SENIOR DIRECTOR OF SOCIAL IMPACT MEOW WOLF CAPSTONE ADVISOR: CARRIE MAKAREWICZ, PH.D. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE & PLANNING UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

TA B L E O F CO N T E N T S EXECUT IVE S U M M A RY

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INT R O DUCT I O N

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PROJECT O B J ECT IVE S

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MET HO DO LO G Y

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EXISTI NG CO N D IT IO N S

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BAC KGR O U N D RE S E A R C H

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VISI O N & G OA LS

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RECO M M E N DAT IO N S

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IMPL EM ENTAT IO N

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BIBLI O G R A PH Y & IM AG E CREDI TS

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APPEND I X A 1 47 GET TI NG TO M EOW WO L F DENVER: S UG G EST ED DI RECTIONS APPEND I X B STR EET AS S E S S M E N T TO OL

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APPEND I X C STAK EHO L D E R A N A LYS IS

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TABLE OF EXHI B ITS Figure 1. Primary Walking and Biking Routes to Meow Wolf

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Figure 2. Pedestrian Environment and Intersection Quality on Key Paths to Meow Wolf from Nearby Light Rail Stations

11 Figure 3. Planned Development Projects in Sun Valley and Surrounding Neighborhoods

Figure 16. Average Monthly Boardings for Line Rail Lines Providing Meow Wolf Access

60 Figure 17. RTD Rail System Map Highlighting Lines that Provide Access to Meow Wolf 61

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Figure 18. RTD Park-n-ride Facilities along Light Rail Lines that Provide Access to Meow Wolf 65

Figure 4. Sun Valley Vulnerability to Displacement

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Figure 19. Creative Placemaking’s Focus on Community 80

Figure 5. Primary Walking and Biking Routes to Meow Wolf

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Figure 20: Passive Placemaking Strategies 83

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Figure 21: Interactive Placemaking Strategies

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Figure 22: Temporal Placemaking Strategies

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Figure 6. Highest and Lowest Ranked Streets in Study Area

Figure 7. Neighborhood Context Map 44

Figure 8. Land Use

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Figure 9. Quality of the Pedestrian Environment on Key Routes to Meow Wolf 49

Figure 10. Intersection Quality on Key Pedestrian Routes to Meow Wolf

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Figure 11. Existing Bicycle Facilities

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Figure 12. Population with Bike Trail Access to Meow Wolf 56 Figure 13. Potential Daily Cyclists to Meow Wolf 56 Figure 14. Existing Transit Routes and Rail Lines 59 Figure 15. Average Monthly Boardings for Bus Routes Providing Meow Wolf Access

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Figure 23: Map of Suggested Wayfinding 108 Sign Locations Figure 24: Pedestrian Priority Intersections 115 and Streets Figure 25. Recommendations Phasing and 128 Suggested Partners Figure 26. Grant Opportunities for Creative Placemaking and Alternative Transportation

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Figure 27. Stakeholder Power/Interest Grid

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IN TR OD U CTI ON & PR OJ ECT O B J ECT IVE S Meow Wolf, a world-renowned arts and entertainment company based in Santa Fe, is set to open their newest and largest exhibition space in the Sun Valley neighborhood in Denver in late 2021.

The 90,000-sf building, located at 1338 1st Street just outside of Downtown Denver, will house an immersive, interactive art exhibition and is expected to draw between 7,000 and 7,500 visitors per day, or roughly 2.5 – 2.7 million per year.

Meow Wolf’s challenge is two-fold. First, how to accommodate the traffic flow and parking requirements of their visitors; and two, how to mitigate impacts on the surrounding community.

While Meow Wolf will have some on-site parking, their parking lot is not big enough to accommodate the expected number of visitors. As such, they will need to rely on transportation demand management strategies and to heavily encourage the use of transit, walking, and biking to reduce traffic impacts and parking overflow into the neighboring community.

In addition to traffic impacts on the neighboring communities, Meow Wolf is also concerned about its potential to cause gentrification. When considering where to build their new Denver exhibition, they specifically chose their current site because they believed it to be far from vulnerable neighborhoods.

However, they were not aware at the time of the Sun Valley and La Alma/Lincoln Park neighborhoods, both of which are home to 6

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Rendering by SA+R of Meow Wolf Denver, currently under construction.

large low-income housing developments owned by Denver Housing Authority.

In addressing these two issues, Meow Wolf Denver is guided by its Corporate Social Responsibility Plan, first published in 2018.

The plan lays out four key commitments that inform this report’s approach to addressing these issues: ▶ Strengthening RESPECT FOR COMMUNITIES by supporting and creating social impact ▶ Creating pathways and employment opportunities to increase RESPECT FOR ARTISTS ▶ Operating an eco-friendly business model that has RESPECT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT ▶ RESPECT AN INCLUSIVE ECONOMY through responsible and local hiring practices

The goal of this project is to understand how Meow Wolf Denver can reduce traffic and parking impacts on the neighborhood while improving accessibility and connectivity through community-led creative placemaking, wayfinding, and other first/ last mile mobility solutions.

To prevent the gentrification that often accompanies investment in the public realm, this project focuses specifically on recommendations that partner with, benefit, and engage the local community.

FI G U R E 5. PR IMA RY WA L KING AND BI KING ROUTES TO M EOW WOLF FR O M N EA R BY TR A N SIT

Mile High Stadium W Cir

Federal Blvd

Au Empower Field at Mile High Station

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ia ar

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7t h St

Auraria West Station

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W Colfax Ave

W 13th Ave Zuni St

Decatur-Federal Station

Decatur St

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Light Rail

Light Rail Station

Pedestrian Routes

Freight Rail

Bus Stop

Major Multi-use/Bike Paths

Pedestrian areas underneath highway viaducts

This report looks specifically at pedestrian and bicycle routes to Meow Wolf Denver, with a specific focus on pedestrian routes between Meow Wolf and the nearest light rail stations and bus stops. All of the light rail stations and transit stations listed on the map above are within 0.6 miles of Meow Wolf Denver, or within a 10-15 minute walk.

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MEE T I NG T H E N E E D FO R ACT IVE T R A N S PO RTAT IO N Meow Wolf Denver is well-positioned to take advantage of public transit. The site is within walking distance of three light rail stations - the Empower Field at Mile High Station (0.3 mi), the Auraria West Station (0.3 mi), and the Decatur-Federal Station (0.6 mi). Eleven bus routes also provide access to Meow Wolf, with the closest bus stops located about 0.6 mi away.

Yet proximity to transit does not necessarily make transit a convenient or appealing option for Meow Wolf’s employees and visitors. Urban form and the quality of the pedestrian environment are key factors.

An aerial view of Meow Wolf Denver, with the building shown in pink.

Meow Wolf Denver is located within a web of highway infrastructure, situated between the Colfax viaduct, I-25, and Auraria Parkway. These man-made barriers, as well as the natural barrier of the S Platte River, make the area difficult to navigate.

A lack of wayfinding signage, poor streetscaping, and auto-centric development make walking and biking in the area challenging. Since it is necessary to walk or bike from the nearby transit stations to Meow Wolf Denver’s site, these factors significantly deter transit use in the area.

To make walking, biking, and taking public transit a viable option for their employees and visitors, Meow Wolf should look at transit-oriented creative placemaking strategies, including streetscaping improvements, wayfinding, and public art that will improve the area’s functional mobility, safety, comfort, and appeal.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

To access Meow Wolf without a car, you must walk along Walnut St under the Colfax Viaduct.

MEOW WOLF I N T H E CONTEXT O F T H E C H AN G I N G S UN VALLEY N EI G H BO RH OOD Sun Valley is a West Denver neighborhood that has long been dominated by transportation infrastructure, industrial uses, public housing developments, and the Mile High Stadium. While largely cut off from Downtown Denver by the S Platte River and I-25, the opening of the West Line in 2013 provides the neighborhood with a direct connection to Union Station.

ME T H O D O LO G Y Today, the neighborhood is one of the areas the City is focused on for additional development to accommodate the city’s growing population and demand for housing.

The existing public housing development, Sun Valley Homes, is undergoing a redevelopment that will replace all its existing low-income units, while also adding hundreds more units priced for both moderate-incomes and market rate.

Several other major developments are planned for the neighborhood over the coming decades, including the 62-acre River Mile Project, which is set to replace Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park with a mixed-use neighborhood housing up to 15,000 residents.

With new development and hundreds of millions of dollars in both public and private investment pouring into the community, many in the neighborhood fear gentrification and displacement as well as other disruptions, such as high levels of pass-through traffic that could endanger the large number of children in the neighborhood.

As one of the first of the many new developments to open, Meow Wolf has the power to set an example for how new development can work with the existing community to improve the neighborhood for all.

The methodology for this study includes four primary methods: ▶ Background research on transit-oriented development, transportation demand management strategies, community-led creative placemaking, relevant case studies, and related Denver area plans ▶ A primary route analysis to determine the extent of the study area and determine the most important streets and trails for walking and biking to Meow Wolf Denver ▶ An existing conditions review and analysis conducted through a combination of street and intersection assessments conducted in the field and online/digital analysis with maps and other GIS data. For the street and intersection assessments, I developed a street assessment tool based on the work of urban planning and transportation systems researcher Reid Ewing, PhD, who has identified five key urban design qualities (imageability, visual/spatial definition, human scale, transparency, and complexity) and their correlated physical features that impact walkability. ▶ Over 20 interviews with community stakeholders and subject matter experts, including Meow Wolf executives, members of the Meow Wolf Community Advisory Committee, Denver city planners, transportation specialists, local developers, Sun Valley residents and employees, representatives of local community groups, pedestrian advocates, and Denver artists

By working respectfully with the community to manage Meow Wolf’s traffic impacts and encourage the use of transit, walking, and biking, Meow Wolf can serve as a vital partner in the neighborhood’s ongoing 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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EXIST IN G COND I TI O N S My existing conditions analysis involved a combination of site visits, field work, and GIS analysis, and looks closely at physical streetscape features and urban design characteristics impacting pedestrian, bicyclist, and transit rider travel behavior.

The results of the analysis are summarized below.

L A ND US E Existing land use in the study area is quite varied with industrial, education, recreation, and stadium uses being the most common. Meow Wolf Denver’s immediate neighbors are large institutions and entertainment complexes: the Auraria Higher Education Center, Pepsi Center, Elitch Gardens, and Empower Field – all of which are surrounded with vast quantities of surface parking lots. These parking lots are a primary factor contributing to the lack of walkability in the area.

STR EETS AN D S ID EWA L KS I assessed the quality of the pedestrian environment by looking at physical streetscape features and specific urban design characteristics found to have an impact on walkability. According to my analysis, the streets with the worst pedestrian environment at Walnut Street, Zuni Street, Decatur Street, Old W Colfax Ave, and 7th Street.

The main factor contributing to low walkability in the study area was poor urban design quality. The area has few buildings or destinations, no cohesive street wall, no pedestrian amenities and very little shade or greenery. A lack of adequate lighting also contributes to the area’s lack of perceived safety at night.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

I N T ERS ECT I ON S Many of the intersections in the study area, especially those along Decatur Street, are safe and well-designed. However, there are several key intersections that are confusing and downright dangerous. Several of these are particularly close to Meow Wolf, which could discourage people to walk there.

The worst intersections in the study area are Old W Colfax Avenue / Zuni Street / I-25, Federal Blvd & W Howard Place, and Old W Colfax Avenue & Mile High Stadium Circle.

BI CYCLE FACI LI T I ES Meow Wolf is in a prime location to take advantage of Denver’s extensive off-street trail system. Meow Wolf is located directly along the South Platte River Trail and very close to the Lakewood Gulch Trail, two major regional bike trails. Two other major trails, Weir Gulch Trail and the Cherry Creek Trail, connect to the South Platte River Trail.

Together, these off-road trails provide easy bike access to Meow Wolf to nearly 95,000 people. Depending on what percent of Meow Wolf visitors decide to bike, Meow Wolf could see hundreds of bicyclists per day.

The percentage of daily bike visitor to Meow Wolf will depend heavily on factors such as the availability of secure bike parking, time of year, weather, availability of Meow Wolf promotional materials highlighting bicycling as a convenient way to access the site, and the presence of wayfinding and navigational tools.

FI G U R E 2 . PEDE STR IA N E NVIRONM ENT AND INTERSECTI ON QUAL I TY ON K EY PATH S TO MEOW WO L F FROM NEARBY LI GHT RAIL STATI ONS

Federal Blvd

Pepsi Center/Elitch Gardens Station

Mile High Stadium W Cir

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Empower Field at Mile High Station 7t h St

Auraria West Station

W Colfax Ave

W 13th Ave Zuni St

Decatur-Federal Station

Decatur St

10th/Osage Station

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PEDESTRIAN ENVIRONMENT QUALITY

INTERSECTION QUALITY

Worst Pedestrian Environment

Worst Intersection Quality

Poor Pedestrian Environment

Poor Intersection Quality

Average Pedestrian Environment

Average Intersection Quality

Fair Pedestrian Environment

Fair Intersection Quality

Good Pedestrian Environment

Good Intersection Quality

Light Rail

Light Rail Station

Freight Rail 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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TRANSI T & R A IL

WAYFI N DI N G & PUBLI C ART

BUS SERVICE:

The lack of wayfinding signage – directional and informational signage that helps guide people through a physical environment and enhances their understanding and experience of the space – is a major barrier to walking and biking in the study area. Few wayfinding signs exist, and many existing signs are faded or hard to read, leaving users with little information to find their way from the station to their destination.

Meow Wolf is served by eleven bus routes with a combined pre-COVID annual ridership of 10,534,444 (RTD Service Performance 2019). However, access to these bus routes is made difficult by the distance from the nearest bus stops to Meow Wolf’s site. The closest bus stops are 0.6 miles away, or approximately a 10-15minute walk.

LIGHT RAIL SERVICE:

Three light rail lines provide access to Meow Wolf via three nearby light rail stations. Each of the light rail stations has its own advantages and disadvantages. ▶ The Auraria West Station is by far the busiest station and is served by the C, E, and W lines. It is only a 7-minute walk to Meow Wolf but the connection to Walnut Street is somewhat confusing. ▶ The Federal-Decatur Station, which is also a major bus hub, is the furthest away from Meow Wolf, but the surrounding pedestrian environment makes the walk more pleasant than the other options.

Public art is a key amenity that improves the pedestrian environment by adding visual interest, color, appeal, and strengthening one’s sense of place. My street assessments found that public art in the study area is rare. Most of the public art is located either at one of the three transit stations or at the stadium. The Sun Valley neighborhood is an exception and contains a handful of community-based murals and other art installations.

Both wayfinding and public art were mentioned repeatedly in interviews with numerous stakeholders as crucial solutions to the area’s connectivity problems.

▶ The Empower Field at Mile High Station, which is served by the C, E, and W lines, is the closest to Meow Wolf, but is currently the least used and faces a very unappealing surrounding pedestrian environment.

Since every transit rider must also walk or bike from the transit station or stop to their destination, the quality of the urban environment can also have a huge impact on transit use. Without major improvements to the pedestrian environment, many people who might have been able to use transit could choose to drive instead.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Mural created by JOLT and Guerrilla Garden under the Federal Blvd Bridge at Decatur-Federal Station

BAC KGR OU ND R ES EAR C H RE-I M AGI N I N G T RA N S PO RTAT I O N & ACC E S S I B I L I TY For most of the past century, transportation planning has been focused on improving the accessibility and ease of automobile use. However, by designing cities to make driving easier, American transportation planners have made walking, biking, and transit use difficult, inconvenient, and dangerous.

Auto-oriented development not only makes traffic inevitable, it also places a severe burden on those without the means or ability to own and operate a vehicle, creating major equity implications for vulnerable and marginalized populations such as populations with low-incomes; people of color; youth, older adults; and people with disabilities.

Auto-oriented development also has negative consequences for the environment, creating urban sprawl, eating up open space, and producing greenhouse gases that contribute to both air pollution and climate change.

Meow Wolf, as a certified B Corporation, has a responsibility to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy, and work towards reduced inequality, a healthier environment, and a stronger community (About B Corps | Certified B Corporation, 2020). Improving access and mobility through non-automobile-oriented modes is crucial to reducing Meow Wolf’s traffic impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods, meeting their environmental and carbon-reduction goals, and making Meow Wolf accessible to all people regardless of age, income, vehicle ownership, or ability.

Walnut St, which passes under I-25, has a sidewalk, but is not comfortable for pedestrians.

T RAN S I T- ORI EN T ED DEVELOPM EN T & WALKAB IL ITY As Meow Wolf looks to increase access and discourage automobile use, it would be helpful for them to understand two interrelated transportation planning concepts: transit-oriented development and community-based creative placemaking.

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is an integrated land use and transportation development strategy aimed at encouraging public transit use through the creation of dense, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods in proximity and with easy access to transit stations. However, while Denver’s own plans recognize the importance of walkability to the success of transit, most of Denver’s transit stations , including those closest to Meow Wolf Denver, are not located in walkable areas.

Meow Wolf Denver, despite being within a 15-minute walk of three light rail stations and several bus stops, is nearly inaccessible to those without a car due to extreme barriers to walkability including multiple 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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highways and high-traffic arterials, railroads, and the S Platte River, and a hostile and unappealing pedestrian environment.

▶ They encourage social interaction and often serve as a meeting point or gathering place for friends, families, and neighbors.

Studies have shown that a poor aesthetic environment can negatively impact a pedestrian’s concept of time, making short trips through unappealing and uncomfortable environments feel longer (Appleyard, 2009).

When streets are treated as places for people instead of for cars, people are far more inclined to walk, bike, and spend time in the area.

To truly take advantage of their location within a transit-rich area, Meow Wolf must use transit-oriented development principles to bridge the natural and manmade barriers that have kept the Sun Valley neighborhood isolated and disconnected for so long.

DES I G NI NG ST R E E TS A S PL AC E S The first step to increasing accessibility and encouraging walking, biking and transit is to re-imagine our public streets not just as sewers for cars, but as vital public spaces for people.

According to the Project for Public Spaces, streets should be venues that celebrate culture, connectivity, and community and they argue that streets have the potential to become thriving destinations.

Great places have several key features in common. ▶ They are easy to get to and are physically and visually well-connected to their surroundings. ▶ They are safe, clean, memorable, and leave people with a good first impression. ▶ They have a variety of activities and destinations that give people a reason to visit and linger.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

COMMUN I TY- LED CREAT IVE PL AC EMAKI NG In their quest to transform their immediate surroundings into an inviting place to walk and bike, Meow Wolf should employ creative placemaking strategies.

In contrast to the traditional top-down approach of transportation planning and development, which has historically marginalized communities of color and other already disadvantaged communities, creative placemaking is a collaborative, people-centered approach to the planning and design of public space that uses arts and cultural activities to enhance the physical and social character of an area.

Community-led creative placemaking can have many social, economic, and mobility benefits. The collaborative creative placemaking process helps to build social networks, increasing a community’s collective sense of identity and pride. Creative placemaking efforts can help attract both locals and visitors to an area, creating more foot traffic and benefiting local businesses, which can attract greater business investment in the area.

Placemaking activities can also encourage more walking and biking by slowing down traffic, creating a more comfortable and aesthetically pleasing pedestrian environment, and giving people reasons to get outside and explore.

Creative placemaking is distinct from other community development approaches is its focus on process, partnerships, and public engagement.

Community-led placemaking is focused on what makes each community unique and strives for authentic community engagement so that the resulting urban design reflects and celebrates the culture, history, and values of the community.

There are a wide variety of creative placemaking strategies for Meow Wolf and its community partners to consider. Passive interventions include permanent changes to the built environment such as streetscaping features, pedestrian amenities, and public art. Interactive interventions such as interactive art, motion activated lights, or fountains can encourage social interaction and play. Temporal creative placemaking strategies such as pop-up public spaces, events, and seasonal decorations can keep the area activated year-round.

A key benefit of community-led creative placemaking is the use of small-scale and low-cost strategic interventions (also known as “tactical urbanism”) that can be used to expand, remake, and improve public space quickly and more cheaply while calling attention to the need for larger changes and investments.

The “lighter, quicker, cheaper” philosophy of tactical urbanism projects enables creative placemakers to design, implement, and test projects immediately with community involvement while building momentum and community support for long-term changes.

The biggest challenges to the community-led creative placemaking approach is assembling and maintaining community partnerships, overcoming community skepticism, assembling adequate financing, overcoming regulatory hurdles, providing for long-term maintenance, and avoiding the unintended consequences of gentrification.

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CA SE STUD IE S Several case studies featured in this report highlight a variety of creative placemaking interventions, including wayfinding, underpass and viaduct restoration and revitalization, traffic calming, and pedestrian safety interventions. In each, public outreach and community partnerships were integral to the project’s design and success.

The projects highlighted in this report include: ▶ 40 WEST ART LINE - a 4 mile long inter-

active biking and pedestrian arts experience located in the 40 West Arts District in Lakewood, CO (top left).

▶ UNDER.OVER.PASS - an interactive art

installation that has transformed a dangerous underpass into a safe and appealing route into downtown in Greensboro, NC (top right).

Colorado Department of Transportation could take to improve wayfinding, pedestrian and bicycle access, safety, and public space in the areas between Meow Wolf’s location and the nearby transit stations.

DENVER PL AN S The creative placemaking and active transportation goals proposed in this report align with and support the broader city and community goals for the area.

The Sun Valley neighborhood has been the subject of over a decade of planning documents, each seeking to revitalize the neighborhood through mixed-use, mixed-income, walkable, transit-oriented development.

▶ CHICANO PARK - a world-renowned park

The various plans show strong support for increasing pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, improving first/last mile connections to transit, and enhancing public space through art, wayfinding, and creative placemaking.

▶ INTERSECTION REPAIR - a grass-roots

The recommendations in this plan were informed by the following existing Denver planning documents:

built underneath a highway containing over 80 intensely colorful murals celebrating Chicano and Mexican history in San Diego, CA (center).

initiative that encourages communities to work together to reclaim streets and transform ordinary intersections into vibrant community spaces in Portland, OR (bottom right).

▶ LAKEVIEW LINCOLN HUB - a temporary

creative placemaking and traffic calming project that transformed four blocks of Lincoln Street in Chicago, IL (bottom left) These projects showcase a variety of approaches that Meow Wolf, in collaboration with their community partners, the City and County of Denver, and the

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

▶ Sun Valley Neighborhood DecaturFederal Station Area Plan (2013) ▶ Stadium District Master Plan (2019) ▶ Denver Downtown Area Plan Amendment (2018) ▶ Auraria West Station Area Plan (2009) ▶ Denver Housing Authority Sun Valley Master Plan (2015)

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VISIO N & G OA LS Through engaged community-led creative placemaking, Meow Wolf and its community partners will transform the functional infrastructure of the street to prioritize pedestrian and bicycle mobility, creating street-level experiences that invite and stimulate visitors and passersby.

Meow Wolf Denver will be a truly connected and accessible place that allows people the choice to walk, bike, scoot, pedicab, ride transit, carpool, taxi, rideshare, or drive.

The recommendations in this report are informed by four key goals:

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

▶ SAFE & ACCESSIBLE - All people

regardless of age, ability, or means of transportation should feel safe and comfortable

▶ UNIQUE & COMMUNITY-BASED

- Existing culture, character, and other

distinctive community assets should be respected and celebrated.

▶ ACTIVE & INVITING - An attractive,

high-quality urban environment filled with interesting art and activities invites people to play and explore

▶ ENGAGING & IMMERSIVE - Colorful,

interactive, narrative art experiences create an enticing and memorable journey for Meow Wolf visitors and community members alike.

RECO M M ENDATIONS 1. NAVI GAT I O N I M PROVE MEN TS Wayfinding and signage are crucial to help visitors find their way to Meow Wolf and other nearby destinations. In addition to a utilitarian use, pedestrian-scaled wayfinding helps bicyclists and pedestrians feel safe and welcome.

1A. Implement a wayfinding & signage program 1B. Create a high-visibility neighborhood arts trail 1C. Wayfinding app & digital communications

2 . TAR G ETE D IN T E RS ECT IO N & ST REETS CAPI N G I MPROVEMENTS Targeted intersection and streetscaping improvements can help to slow traffic, increase pedestrian visibility to drivers, and create a safer, more comfortable, and more attractive environment for all users.

1A. Support design enhancements at priority Intersections 1B. Implement an intersection repair program 1C. Provide enhanced pedestrian and wheelchair amenities on priority streets

3. PUBLI C A RT & B E AUT I FI CAT I O N Community-based art that is well-designed and integrated into the public realm can create a more attractive and inviting pedestrian environment and entice people to get out of their cars and explore.

1A. Support the creation of community-led public art.

1B. Establish an Under the Viaduct Arts program.

4 . BI CYC L E & M I C R O M O B I LI TY ACCOMMO DAT I ON S Encouraging the use of bicycles and shared micromobility options will help Meow Wolf reduce its carbon footprint, reduce vehicular traffic impacts on the neighborhood, and increase accessibility for those without access to a car.

1A. Provide ample and secure on-site bike parking 1B. Provide dedicated space for shared micromobility options 1C. Support efforts to improve and expand Denver's bicycle facilities

5. SAF E TY & M A IN T E N A N C E Additional lighting, reduced litter, improved maintenance, and the addition of public safety amenities will make pedestrians feel safer and more comfortable walking around this area, especially at night.

1A. Add additional pedestrian-scaled lighting 1B. Add emergency phone towers along key pedestrian paths 1C. Work to reduce littering & remove trash from pedestrian paths 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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IM PLEMENTATI ON The goals and recommendations in this report, some of which overlap, will work together to improve the quality of the pedestrian environment, and make the streets around Meow Wolf feel safer and more accessible for all users.

If implemented, the recommendations will result in an attractive, high-quality urban environment filled with interesting art inspired and created by the local community.

The recommendations in this report are complex and interconnected, and implementation will take place in phases over several years.

Achieving the vision for the plan area will take concerted, sustained effort among all stakeholders to tackle the initiatives in this plan and set the course for success.

PA RT NER SH IPS & CO M M U N I TY COL L ABO R AT IO N Implementation of the plan will be a collaborative effort and will rely heavily on partnerships and coordination between Meow Wolf, community and neighborhood groups, non-profits, local artists and arts organizations, public agencies, and the private sector.

The implementation of the recommendations in this plan must start with authentic and respectful community outreach.

Before making any improvements to the neighborhood, Meow Wolf must reach out to the local community and form partnerships with existing community-based organizations.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

The recommendations in this plan cannot be accomplished without active and sustained involvement of the community – the people who call Sun Valley and West Denver home, the employees who work in the neighborhood businesses, the students, faculty, and staff that live, work, and study on Auraria Campus.

FU ND I NG ST R AT EG Y The implementation of the recommendations included in this report should be championed by Meow Wolf, community leaders, registered neighborhood organizations, property owners, and developers.

▶ Use and activity

Implementation will require coordinated involvement of many different organizations pursuing a variety of funding sources and strategies.

▶ Community engagement and social capital

Funding sources that could be used for the recommendations in this plan include: ▶ Meow Wolf Sponsorship ▶ Grants ▶ Parking Benefit District ▶ Other Special Districts

▶ Economic impacts on the local community ▶ Public health and safety outcomes

Prior to initiating a creative placemaking project, Meow Wolf should carefully consider their project goals and establish a set of metrics for measuring the project’s outcome, with particular emphasis on how the project will impact the existing local community.

CON C LUS I O N

MO NI TO R I N G PRO G R E S S

Meow Wolf, as one of the first of many new developments to open in the Sun Valley neighborhood, is uniquely positioned to set an example for how new development can work with the existing community to improve the neighborhood for all.

Measuring a project’s impact is a crucial step in the implementation process. In a restricted fiscal environment, funders, taxpayers, and community partners want to see a return on their investment for wayfinding, placemaking, and mobility projects.

In their 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility Plan, Meow Wolf Denver laid the groundwork for how they would work with the existing community to improving the quality of life for local community members while being an environmental steward.

Being able to effectively communicate project outcomes and community benefits can help with securing additional funding and building broader community support for placemaking projects.

This plan sets forth a vision for a more interconnected, vibrant, and pedestrianfriendly neighborhood that encourages people to ride transit, walk, and bike, through the addition of fun, stimulating, community-created art, wayfinding, and placemaking elements. Achieving this vision will take concerted, sustained effort from not only Meow Wolf, but a wide range of community partners and stakeholders.

▶ Denver’s 6-Year Capital Improvement Program

A variety of metrics can be used to measure the success of community-led creative placemaking efforts, including metrics measuring:

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INTRODUCTION

PROJECT OBJECTIVES This project explores the relationship between public space, mobility, and access along the Lower Colfax Avenue and Walnut Street corridors between Federal Boulevard on the west and 7th Street on the east. The project looks specifically at connectivity issues between the three transit stations in the area, regional trails, and the location of Meow Wolf Denver.

The goal of the project is to understand how Meow Wolf Denver can reduce traffic impacts on the neighborhood while improving accessibility and connectivity through community-led creative placemaking, wayfinding, and other first/last mile mobility solutions.

Individual objectives for each section of the report are listed below.

EXI ST I N G CONDITION S A N A LYSI S This section reviews existing conditions in the study area, looking specifically at the quality of public space and the pedestrian and bicycling environment, making specific note of the physical and psychological factors that dissuade people from using the existing facilities.

This section will also document existing routes to and from the Meow Wolf Denver site, including the nearby transit stations, regional trails, and nearby neighborhoods.

It will also identify gaps in the pedestrian and bicycling networks.

BAC KG R O U ND R E SE A R C H This section examines research and case studies related to transit-oriented development and the use of community-based 24

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

creative placemaking and public art to reimagine streetscapes, improve the public realm, and encourage the use of public transit and active transportation modes.

It also examines the existing plans s for the neighborhoods immediately surrounding the Meow Wolf Denver site.

VI SION AND GOALS This section lays out an overarching vision and sets implementation goals for the project. These are influenced based over twenty interviews with Meow Wolf’s employees and contractors, members of the Meow Wolf Denver Community Advisory Committee, community stakeholders and experts, and my own research and professional recommendations.

CREATIVE PL ACEM AKING AND M OBI LI TY IM PROVEM ENT RECOM M ENDATIONS This section provides specific recommendations on mobility projects and art/placemaking interventions that Meow Wolf can pursue in order to improve the streetscape and create a safe, walkable, and transit-friendly neighborhood, which will make their site more accessible to all.

I M PLEM ENTATI ON PL AN This section provides recommendations and action steps on how to implement the proposed projects, including suggestions for potential partners and funding sources.

A stakeholder analysis and engagement strategy is included in Appendix C.

EXAM PLES OF C R E AT IVE PL AC E MAK I N G IN MOBILI TY S PAC ES

A crosswalk designed by Camille Walala in the Bankside neighborhood, London, England.

Murals in Underpass Park, Toronto, Cananda.

Pavement mural on Coxe Avenue in Asheville, North Carolina.

Light art installation by Jeff Zischke during the Georgetown Glow festival in Washington, DC. Interactive public art installation designed by HQ Architects in Vallero Square, Jerusalem, Israel.

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THE CHALLENGE M EOW WOL F IS COM I N G TO TOWN Meow Wolf, a world-renowned arts and entertainment company, is poised to open their newest and largest exhibition space in the Sun Valley neighborhood in Denver.

Originally a small artist collective based in Santa Fe, Meow Wolf has grown rapidly since the 2016 opening of their first exhibit, The House of Eternal Return, built in an old bowling alley bought and leased to them by famed Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin.

Now a multi million-dollar company and registered Public Benefit Corporation (or B Corp), Meow Wolf has made it its mission to foster community and support emerging artists while creating “immersive, inter-

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

active experiences that transport audiences of all ages into fantastic realms of story and exploration” (About | Meow Wolf, 2019).

Meow Wolf Denver’s exhibition will be a five-story, 90,000 sf building with three stories of space for their new exhibition, as well as space for a lobby, gift store, café and bar, music and event venue, offices, educational programming, workshop facilities, and community areas.

The site, located at 1338 1st Street, is nearly complete with an anticipated opening date in fall 2021. Once open, Meow Wolf Denver is expected to draw 7,000 to 7,500 visitors per day, or roughly 2.5 to 2.7 million visitors annually.

THE CHALLENGE is how to accommodate the traffic flow and parking requirements of Meow Wolf's visitors while mitigating potential traffic and gentrification impacts on the surrounding community.

While Meow Wolf will have on-site parking, the 240 parking spaces currently planned will not be enough to accommodate the estimated number of visitors. According to Meow Wolf’s former Community Engagement Coordinator Merhia Weise, residents have already expressed concern about traffic impacts and spillover parking.

While Meow Wolf is currently exploring options including shared parking, shuttles to off-site parking lots, and ride-share opportunities, these are not very environmentally friendly and conflict with the company’s stated goals to reduce their carbon footprint.

The community is also concerned about the potential for gentrification sparked by the opening of a major new arts attraction and the accompanying investment in new infrastructure. While Meow Wolf specifically chose their current site over a site in RiNo in order to avoid contributing to gentrification, they did not account for the Sun Valley and La Alma/Lincoln Park neighborhoods, both of which are home to large low-income housing developments owned by Denver Housing Authority.

This report will explore how Meow Wolf Denver can reduce traffic and parking impacts on the neighborhood while improving accessibility and connectivity.

To prevent the gentrification that often accompanies investment in the public realm, this project focuses specifically on recommendations that partner with, benefit, and engage the local community.

MEOW WO L F D E NVE R CO RP ORAT E S OCI AL RES P ON S I BIL ITY This report is heavily informed by Meow Wolf Denver's Corporate Social Responsibility plan.

Shortly after Meow Wolf announced the location for their Denver exhibition, community activists approached the company asking what exactly Meow Wolf was going to do to help the people of Sun Valley.

That conversation led to the creation of a 15-member COMMUNITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE comprised of Sun Valley community leaders, artists, residents, and business owners. Together with the Meow Wolf Denver team, the CAC worked to develop Meow Wolf’s first-ever Corporate Social Responsibility plan.

The plan, first published in 2018, lays out four key commitments that will serve as a guide for Meow Wolf Denver’s business practices:

▶ Strengthening RESPECT FOR COMMUNITIES by supporting and creating social impact ▶ Creating pathways and employment opportunities to increase RESPECT FOR ARTISTS ▶ Operating an eco-friendly business model that has RESPECT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT ▶ RESPECT AN INCLUSIVE ECONOMY through responsible and local hiring practices The CSR is a pledge that Meow Wolf will be a supportive force for the community – building partnerships, providing opportunities for Sun Valley and West Denver residents, advocating for community priorities, serving as an environmental steward, and investing a percentage of profits back into the local community.

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MEE T I NG T H E N E E D FO R ACT IVE TRANSP O RTAT I O N At first glance, it would seem the Meow Wolf site is well positioned to take advantage of nearby public transit options. The site is within walking distance of three light rail stations - the Empower Field at Mile High Station (0.3 mi), the Auraria West Station (0.3 mi), and the DecaturFederal Station (0.6 mi).

Numerous bus stops are also nearby, including Bus Routes 1, 15L, 16, 16L, 30, 30L, 31, 36L, and the Platte Valley FlexRide.

All of these bus routes stop at or adjacent to the DecaturFederal Station. Routes 10, 30, and 31 stop at the Colfax & Federal Transfer Center and an additional bus, Route 20, stops on Auraria Parkway at 7th Street. Each of these bus stops is approximately 0.6 miles from the Meow Wolf Denver site (see Figure X for the map of these routes).

Yet proximity to transit does not necessarily make transit a convenient or appealing option for Meow Wolf’s employees and visitors. Urban form and the quality of the pedestrian environment are key factors.

The site’s location sits within a web of interlacing highway infrastructure, nestled between the Colfax viaduct, I-25, and Auraria Parkway. Though located within reasonable walking distance of several neighborhoods, the Auraria Higher Education Campus, and the proposed River Mile Development, the area is extremely difficult to navigate.

A lack of infrastructure and wayfinding signage, poor streetscaping, and auto-centric development make walking and the use of other active transportation modes challenging. Walking to the site from the nearest light rail station involves walking along a road which weaves underneath a maze of highway viaducts, adjacent to high-speed automobile traffic. During the day, this walk already feels intimidating. At night, only the most daring and dedicated pedestrians would risk it.

Bicyclists also face difficulties accessing the site. Though adjacent to the South Platte River Trail and in close proximity to the Lakewood Gulch Trail, a lack of bike infrastructure in the surrounding street system, poor wayfinding signage, and a lack of secure bike parking present a challenge for bicyclists seeking to visit Meow Wolf.

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BY T H E N UMB ERS

2 3

Multi-use Trails

Light Rail Stations Lines Served: C, E, W

11

Bus Routes

Routes Served: 1, 10, 15L, 16, 16L, 20, 30, 30L, 31, 36L, Platte Valley FlexRide

47 Walk Score

Indicates a car-dependent location where most errands require a car

In order to make walking, biking, and taking public transit a viable option for their employees and visitors, Meow Wolf should look at transit-oriented creative placemaking strategies, including streetscaping improvements, wayfinding, and public art that will improve the area’s functional mobility, safety, comfort, and appeal.

This will benefit not only Meow Wolf, but will provide major benefits to the larger community, providing vital neighborhood connections while transforming a grey, concrete corridor into an interesting, walkable, and engaging streetscape.

WOULD YOU FEEL SAFE WA L K I N G O R B I K I N G H E R E ?

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MEOW WO L F I N T H E CO N TEXT O F T H E CHANG I NG S U N VA L L EY NEI G H BORH OO D Once home to many Eastern European Jewish immigrants who settled there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the West Colfax and Sun Valley neighborhoods have changed dramatically over the years.

Previously filled with small homes, businesses, markets, factories, farms, a school, and a synagogue, Sun Valley has become increasingly industrial, especially after the designation of areas near the South Platte River as industrial zones in Denver’s first zoning code in the 1920s (Jackson, 2018).

Since then, the area has long been dominated by transportation infrastructure, with the Colfax viaduct opening in 1917 and 1-25 completed in 1958.

The construction of the Colfax viaduct in the early 20th century drastically changed the neighborhood, c. 1915.

Midwest Steel & Ironworks at what is now Walnut and Colfax Ave, c. 1920.

Public housing developments and their residents have also been a central part of the neighborhood for close to 80 years. The area’s first public-housing development, Las Casitas, opened in 1942 and Sun Valley Homes was added in the 1950s.

Businesses and storefronts lining Old West Colfax Ave, c. 1950.

Since 2001, the northern part of the neighborhood has been defined by the Empower Field at Mile High stadium and the sea of parking lots that surround it.

The Sun Valley Neighborhood Decatur Federal Station Area Plan, adopted in 2013, noted that over the years, Sun Valley has “accumulated split personalities” and that these diverse uses have often worked against each other and hampered the area’s overall success.

However, the neighborhood is one of the areas the City is focused on for additional development in order to accommodate the city’s growing population and demand for housing.

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Denver Housing Authority opened Sun Valley Homes in 1951.

Empower Field at Mile High opened in 2001 adjacent to the 50-year old Mile High Stadium, which was subsequently demolished and converted to parking lots.

D EVELO PM ENT IN SU N VA L L EY Sun Valley is well-suited for development given its proximity to downtown Denver, the light rail, and regionally connected bike paths.

Several major developments are planned for the neighborhood in the coming years, including: ▶ A 55-acre mixed use neighborhood hub and entertainment district on what is now surface parking lots south of the Mile High Stadium;

Rendering by SA+R of the future Stadium District redevelopment

▶ The redevelopment of Sun Valley Homes with 750 low-income, attainable, and market-rate units and ground-floor retail; ▶ Streetscaping and mobility improvements along Federal Boulevard and W Colfax Avenue, including the potential redesign of the 29-acre Colfax-Federal cloverleaf interchange to an at-grade boulevard; ▶ A new Latino Cultural Arts Center along Lower Colfax; and

Phase 1 of Denver Housing Authority's redevelopment of Sun Valley under construction

▶ The ongoing redevelopment of the STEAM on the Platte multi-use site, which recently opened a new Latinoowned brewery and has plans to build an eight-story building which could house offices, restaurants, retail, and housing.

Meow Wolf itself is the first phase of the 62-acre River Mile development, described as “the most ambitious private urban redevelopment plan attempted in Denver” (Sanchez, 2020).

Rendering by SA+R of the future River Mile development 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

31

The multi-phased twenty-year plan will eventually replace Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park with an entirely new neighborhood, complete with new parks, commercial space, and the potential to house up to 15,000 residents. This infill neighborhood would form a contiguous connection between Sun Valley, the Central Platte Valley, and Downtown Denver.

CO MMU N I TY VU L N E R A BIL ITY With a median income of only $9,586 and an unemployment rate at nearly 70%, Sun Valley has the highest rate of poverty in Denver. Its residents need more economic opportunities and other investments to support their well-being, but not at the expense of their community safety and quality of life.

With new development and hundreds of millions of dollars in both public and private investment pouring into the community, many in the neighborhood fear gentrification and displacement, like what has happened in other Denver neighborhoods, such as RiNo and Five Points.

Residents are also worried about other disruptions, such as high levels of passthrough traffic that is insensitive and dangerous for the large number of children that play and walk in the neighborhood.

The Sun Valley neighborhood has the highest percentage of children in Denver.

New developments in the neighborhood must strive to empower and benefit the existing community.

FI G U R E 3 . PL A N N E D DEVE LOPM ENT PROJECTS IN SUN VALLEY AND SUR R O U N D I NG NE IGHBO R H O OD S

Denver Housing Authority Sun Valley Redevelopment

Federal Blvd

Stadium District Development

River Mile Development

Au

Future Latino Cultural Arts Center STEAM on the Platte Redevelopment

W Colfax Ave

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W 13th Ave Decatur St

City and County of Denver Colfax and Federal Interchange Transformation Project

ra

ria

Pw

y

As one of the first of the many new developments to open, Meow Wolf has the power to set an example for how new development can work with the existing community to improve the neighborhood for all.

By working respectfully with the community to manage Meow Wolf’s traffic impacts and encourage the use of transit, walking, and biking, Meow Wolf can serve as a vital partner in the neighborhood’s ongoing development into a vibrant mixed-use, walkable destination that provides connections between Sun Valley, Downtown, and other surrounding neighborhoods.

Residents of Sun Valley at the Sun Valley Youth Center

FI G U R E 4 . S U N VA L L EY VU L NERABI LI TY TO D ISPL ACEM ENT RENTERS

INCOME <$25,000

SEVERE COST BURDEN

92%

83%

27%

PEOPLE OF COLOR

BLACK

88%

HISPANIC ASIAN 7% OTHER 2%

32% 48%

SUN VALLEY IS CLASSIFIED AS “VULNERABLE” TO GENTRIFICATION BY DENVER ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT & OPPORTUNITY

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METHODOLOGY

METHODOLOGY OVERVIEW The methodology for this study includes four primary methods: ▶ Background research on transit-oriented development and creative placemaking principles, relevant case studies, and related Denver area plans ▶ A primary route analysis to determine the extent of the study area ▶ An existing conditions review and analysis conducted through a combination of field work and online/digital analysis with maps and other data ▶ Stakeholder interviews along with limited community outreach Each method is described in detail below.

BAC KGR OU ND RESEAR C H

highway underpasses and underground pedestrian tunnels, transit stations, and other transportation infrastructure. Case studies were found through reference in academic sources, planning and public art blogs and websites, general internet research, and through discussions with Denver planners and community stakeholders.

Finally, as part of the initial background research, I reviewed both citywide and area-specific plans which provided vital information on the planning context, existing vision, and guiding principles for development in the study area.

PR I MARY R O UT E AN ALYS I S In order to determine the exact corridors the study should focus on, I first mapped out over 40 pedestrian routes to Meow Wolf from common nearby destinations.

My background research focused on creative placemaking, with a special emphasis on how creative placemaking principles can be used to improve streetscapes and transportation while involving the community. I also conducted research on best practices for transit-oriented development, transportation demand management strategies, and the development of public art. I read and evaluated academic literature as well as professional books and articles to inform the approach, vision, and recommendations of this report.

Destinations included transit stations, parks and recreation centers, major attractions (i.e. Elitch Gardens, the Colorado Convention Center), nearby neighborhoods (Sun Valley, Mariposa/La Alma/Lincoln Park, Highlands, Sloan’s Lake), and youth services. Destinations to the north, west, south, and east of Meow Wolf were included, though the analysis included more destinations east of Meow Wolf than for other directions since Downtown Denver has a wealth of destinations.

In addition to this initial research, I examined numerous case studies and placemaking precedents, focusing on projects that transformed underutilized streets,

I used Google Maps’ Directions feature to determine the recommended pedestrian routes, augmenting this information with my own first-hand knowledge of the area.

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FI G U R E 5. PR IMA RY WA L KING AND BI KING ROUTES TO M EOW WOLF FR O M N EA R BY TR A NSIT

Mile High Stadium W Cir

Federal Blvd

Au Empower Field at Mile High Station

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ria

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y

!!

7t h St

Auraria West Station

!!

W Colfax Ave

W 13th Ave Zuni St

Decatur-Federal Station

Decatur St

!! ! ! ! ! ! !

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Light Rail

Light Rail Station

Pedestrian Routes

Freight Rail

Bus Stop

Major Multi-use/Bike Paths

I then counted the number of times each street or trail appeared in the directions, making note of which cardinal direction the route was originating. This highlighted the most important streets and trails for pedestrians seeking to access Meow Wolf.

Finally, I prioritized the streets by their proximity to Meow Wolf, focusing on those within a ¼ mile radius of the site, as well as streets and trails which were crucial

Pedestrian areas underneath highway viaducts

for traveling to either the Decatur Federal Station or the Route 20 Bus Stop at 7th Street and Auraria Parkway.

Using this methodology, I have determined the top ten streets and trails that are used for walking and biking to and from Meow Wolf.

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PRI M ARY ST RE E TS & T RA I LS FOR PED EST R IA N & B ICYCLE ACC ES S TO M EOW WO L F

EXI ST I N G CO N D I T I O NS R EVI EW & F I E LD WO RK

The following street and trail sections are the most important for pedestrian and bicycle access to Meow Wolf and form the basis for my study area:

Building on the initial research of existing area plans and my route analysis, I conducted an analysis of existing conditions, involving a combination of site visits, field work, and GIS analysis.

1. WALNUT STREET (from 7th St west to

Old West Colfax Avenue/Zuni Street)

2. ZUNI STREET (from 13th Avenue north

to Old West Colfax Avenue)

3. OLD WEST COLFAX AVENUE (from

Mile High Station Circle/Decatur Street west to Zuni Street)

4. SOUTH PLATTE RIVER TRAIL (from Gates Crescent Park south to 13th Avenue) 5. WEST COLFAX AVENUE (intersections

of Colfax & Irving and Colfax & 7th)

6. WEST HOWARD PLACE (from Federal

Boulevard to Decatur Street)

7. DECATUR STREET (from West 11th

Avenue to Old West Colfax Avenue

8. MILE HIGH STADIUM CIRCLE/BRYANT STREET (areas south of stadium) 9. 7TH STREET (from Auraria Parkway to

Walnut Street)

10. LAKEWOOD GULCH TRAIL (from

Federal Blvd to the South Platte River Trail)

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The existing conditions review looks closely at physical streetscape features and urban design characteristics impacting pedestrian, bicyclist, and transit rider travel behavior.

ST REET AS S ES S MEN T TOOL To evaluate the quality of the pedestrian environment, I developed a street assessment tool based on the work of urban planning and transportation systems researcher Reid Ewing, PhD, who has identified five key urban design qualities (imageability, visual/spatial definition, human scale, transparency, and complexity) and their correlated physical features that impact walkability (see Ewing & Handy, 2009, and Ameli et al., 2015).

My street assessment tool measured the following metrics related to each of these urban design qualities: I M AGEABILI TY The quality of a place that makes it distinct, memorable, and immediately recognizable. This urban design quality is impacted by the number of historic and distinct buildings, the number of courtyards, plazas, and parks, the presence of outdoor dining, significant landscape or natural features, and noise levels.

VI SUA L /S PATIA L DE FINITIO N This quality, often referred to as “enclosure” refers to the degree to which outdoor space is defined and shaped by vertical elements, such as trees, buildings, fences, and other elements that block the viewer’s line of sight and create the feeling of being in an outdoor room. Contributing factors include the presence of a defined street wall, the number of trees, and the location of visual termination points.

H UM A N S CA LE This quality refers to the degree to which physical elements of the built environment match the size, speed, and proportions of humans. Contributing factors include the height of surrounding buildings and the number of pieces of street furniture, planters, pedestrian-scaled signage, and other pedestrian amenities.

T RA N S PA R ENCY This quality refers to the degree to which people can discern human activity beyond the edges of the street. Contributing factors include the presence of ground-floor windows and active uses.

such as the presence, type, width, and quality of sidewalks and bike lanes, the number of traffic lanes and traffic volumes, the availability and quality of crosswalks and pedestrian signals, and existing public art and wayfinding features.

Finally, the street assessment tool also looks at factors impacting the perception of safety and comfort such as the presence and type of lighting fixtures, overall cleanliness, traffic speeds, and recent pedestrian and bicycle crashes.

The full street assessment tool can be seen at the end of this report in Appendix B.

ST REET AS S ES S MEN T TOOL AN ALYS I S & PRI ORI T I ZATION I analyzed the data collected in the existing conditions phase of the project with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a structured technique developed by Thomas L. Saaty in 1975 as a way to reflect the relative strength of preferences, especially those not easily quantified or monetized, by using ratio scales from paired comparisons.

COM PL EXI TY This quality refers to the visual richness and variety of the physical environment as evidence by the number of different types of buildings, uses, colors, street furnishings, public art, and people.

Each of the factors analyzed in the street assessment tool described above was weighted according to its importance to safety and walkability. Then, each street segment and intersection assessed during the existing conditions review was given a score of -2 to 2 for each factor.

PHYS I CA L STR E E T C H A R ACT E R ISTICS

Scores were then averaged and weighted for each street segment and intersection, with the lowest scores indicating areas with the poorest quality urban environment and pedestrian experience.

In addition to cataloging the urban design qualities listed above, my street assessment tool looks at physical characteristics

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While subjective, the AHP analysis allowed me to identify and prioritize the street segments and intersections most in need of safety improvements as well as wayfinding, public art, and creative placemaking interventions.

The photos below show the difference between a highly ranked street segment and a poorly ranked street segment using my method of evaluation and analysis.

FI G U R E 6 . H I GH E ST A N D LOWEST R AN K ED STR E E TS IN STU DY A REA

The existing conditions analysis was primarily conducted through field surveys and observations documented through the street assessment tool described above.

These in-person methods were augmented through digital analysis with Google Maps, Google Earth, and GIS data drawn from the Denver Open Data Catalogue and the CDOT Online Transportation Information System.

My existing conditions review also included analysis of land use, bicycle facilities, and transit facilities.

STAK E H O LD E R I N T E R VI EWS & CO MMUN I TY O UT R E AC H

Decatur Street between 11th and 13th Avenue was one of the highest ranked streets.

Walnut Street from the rail road tracks to Meow Wolf was the lowest ranked street.

To gain a greater perspective on the community's needs and desires, I conducted a series of stakeholder interviews. Stakeholders include Meow Wolf executives and employees, members of the Meow Wolf Community Advisory Committee, Denver city planners, transportation specialists, local developers, Sun Valley residents and employees, representatives of local community groups, pedestrian advocates, and Denver artists.

Interviews were conducted both in-person and over the phone. While I prepared a set of questions for each interview, the interviews were relatively unstructured, allowing for a free-flowing exchange of ideas.

Following the interviews, I transcribed my notes and coded them for themes.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Due to the importance of involving the community in the planning of infrastructure near their homes, I initially considered hosting a community engagement event which would have invited Sun Valley residents, employees, and community stakeholders to share their thoughts on potential active transportation improvements and placemaking strategies.

After consulting with a community engagement expert already working in Sun Valley, I chose not to pursue a public

engagement event, due to the project’s short timeline, limited funds, and the COVID pandemic.

Community outreach instead focused on stakeholder interviews, as well as a thorough stakeholder analysis (see Appendix C) which identifies avenues for further outreach, recommendations on stakeholder engagement strategy, and a list of key stakeholders and potential community partners.

LIST O F I ND IVID UA LS I N T ERVI EWED JORDAN BLOCK, AICP Urban Design Lead, HDR ANN BOWERS, PE, PTOE, PTP Transportation Planning Specialist | Principle, Fehr & Peers SARA GEBRE Sun Valley Resident & Owner, Sun Valley International Food Market | Meow Wolf Denver Community Advisory Committee Member ANNIE GEIMER Denver Artist Liaison, Meow Wolf JOHN HERSEY Senior Associate for Transit-Oriented Development, Regional Transportation District JENNIFER HILLHOUSE Director of Transportation and Mobility Planning, Department of Transportation & Infrastructure, City and County of Denver EUGENE HOWARD Senior City Planner, City and County of Denver

Coalition | Meow Wolf Denver Community Advisory Committee Member HEIDI NEWHART West Denver Resident & Community Activist DANIKA PADILLA Senior Director of Social Impact, Meow Wolf CHRISTOPHER PARR Director, Sun Valley EcoDistrict Trust SUSAN POWERS President, Urban Ventures, LLC DAN SHAH Executive Director, West Colfax Business Improvement District KELLY SHINN Associate Director, Groundwork Denver | Meow Wolf Denver Community Advisory Committee Member

MIKE HUGHES Executive Director, West Corridor Transportation Management Association

ELIZABETH WALSH Community Engagement Expert | Scholar in Residence, University of Colorado Denver

DAVID KENNEDY Artist and Disability Rights Advocate

JENNY WEINBLOOM Former Executive Producer, Meow Wolf

ANNE KUECHENMEISTER Planner II, Michael Baker International

MERHIA WEISE Former Denver Community Engagement Coordinator, Meow Wolf

JILL LOCANTORE Executive Director, Denver Streets Partnership

REBECCA WHITE Division Director, Division of Transportation Development, Colorado Department of Transportation

BRENDA MOSBY Co-chair, Colorado Cross-Disability

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EXISTING CONDITIONS

NEIGHBORHOOD CONTEXT

Empower Field at Mile High

Lakewood Gulch

Children’s of De

The Meow Wolf site is located on a triangle of land nestled between I-25, the Colfax Viaduct, and Auraria Parkway, and adjacent to the South Platte River. It sits just to the west of Downtown Denver, at the extreme southwest corner of the Auraria neighborhood.

Federal Blvd

To the south lie the neighborhoods of Sun Valley and La Alma/Lincoln Park, both of which are home to housing developments owned by Denver Housing Authority. To the north, Meow Wolf is separated from the Jefferson Park neighborhood by the river, as well as the Empower Field at Mile High stadium and Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park. To the west lie the primarily residential neighborhoods of Sloan Lake and West Colfax.

Meow Wolf’s immediate neighbors are large institutions and entertainment complexes: the Auraria Higher Education Center, Pepsi Center, Elitch Gardens, and Empower Field – all of which are surrounded with vast quantities of surface parking lots. Transportation infrastructure dominates the site, which is surrounded by large elevated highways and close to both light rail and freight rail (discussed further on pages 62-63).

W Colfax Ave

Deca

The primary study area – circled in red – focuses on pedestrian and bicycle routes within a 0.6-mile radius of the Meow Wolf site, with a focus on routes leading to and from the closest three light rail stations.

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FI G U R E 7. N EIGH BO R H O OD CON TEXT MA P (at right) Light Rail Station 44

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Rude Recreation Center and Park

Denver Department of Human Services

Denver Hou Sun Val

s Museum enver

Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park

Pepsi Center

Auraria Higher Education Center

Downtown Denver

Pepsi Center/Elitch Gardens Station

ay w rk

Empower Field at Mile High Station

a ri

Pa

a ur A

Auraria West Station

rB

ee lvd

atur-Federal Station

using Authority’s lley Homes

Sp

Colfax at Auraria Station

10th/Osage Station

Fairview Elementary School

Denver Housing Authority’s Mariposa Development

Arts District on Santa Fe

Colorado Convention Center

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FI GURE 8 . L AND USE

Existing land use in the study area is quite varied with industrial, education, recreation, and stadium uses being the most common. Industrial uses dominate to the southeast, while education is concentrated to the east in the Auraria Higher Education Center (AHEC). Pepsi Center and Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park, the largest recreational uses in the area are located directly northeast of Meow Wolf, while parks and other recreational uses are concentrated along the waterways.

The Bronco’s Stadium is located just to the northwest of Meow Wolf. Commercial uses are primarily located to the west, along the Federal Boulevard corridor, but are also found scattered throughout the area.

Residential areas are mainly located to the northwest and south.

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Single Family Residential

Civic and Educational

Multi-family Residential

Parks and Recreation

Mixed Use

Vacant Land

Commercial

Other/ Miscellaneous

Stadium

Surface Parking Lots

Industrial and Warehouse

Parking Garages

Empower Field at Mile High

W Colfax Ave

L

u dG o o ew ak

lch

Decatur St

The most striking feature of this land use analysis is the amount of land dedicated to surface parking lots. Empower Field at Mile High, Elitch Gardens, Pepsi Center, and AHEC, as well as the industrial areas of Sun Valley and Lincoln Park all include huge areas of surface parking. While this may bode well for Meow Wolf in terms of securing off-site parking arrangements, these parking lots are a primary factor contributing to the lack of walkability in the area.

Federal Blvd

EXISTING LAND USE

Sun Valle Homes

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER 1/4 MI

Elitch Gardens

S Platte R iver

Pepsi Center

ra

Pa

ay

Auraria Higher Education Center

7t

Au

ria

w rk

h St

Osage St

Zuni St

W 13th Ave Lincoln Park

ey s

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FI GURE 9. QUALITY OF THE PE DE ST R I AN Federal Blvd

STREETS

Mile High Stadium W Cir

As described in the methodology section, I evaluated the primary pedestrian routes in the study area by looking at both physical streetscape features as well as urban design characteristics considered to have an impact on walkability: imageability, visual/spatial definition, human scale, transparency, and complexity.

I then ranked streets using the Analytic Hierarchy Process to identify and prioritize the street segments most in need of safety improvements as well as wayfinding, public art, and creative placemaking interventions.

A key finding of this analysis is that it takes a lot more than wide sidewalks to make an area pedestrian friendly. While most of streets analyzed in this study have wide, well-maintained sidewalks, none scored highly on walkability due to the surrounding urban design features.

According to my analysis, the worst streets in terms of the quality of the pedestrian environment were:

W Colfax Ave

W Howard Pl

1. WALNUT STREET from Zuni Street to the railroad tracks (in red) 2. ZUNI STREET from 13th Avenue to Old West Colfax Avenue (in orange) 3. DECATUR STREET from 13th Avenue to Morrison Road (in orange)

Decatur St

Other streets that scored low include OLD W COLFAX AVE, 7TH ST, and other sections of WALNUT ST (in yellow).

Worst Pedestrian Environment Poor Pedestrian Environment Average Pedestrian Environment Fair Pedestrian Environment Good Pedestrian Environment 48

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER 1/4 MI

N E NVI RON M EN T ON KEY R O UTE S TO M EOW WOLF

M ile H ig h St ad iu

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Old W Colfax Ave Osage St

W 13th Ave Zuni St 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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STREETS

WALN UT ST REET

The main factor contributing to low walkability in the study area was poor urban design quality. Throughout most of the area studied, there is no cohesive street wall. Buildings are few and far between and the area is dominated by large parking lots and highway infrastructure.

There are few things to do or look at, and few “eyes on the street” to make people feel safe. There are virtually no pedestrian amenities and very little shade or greenery.

A lack of adequate lighting also contributes to the area’s lack of perceived safety at night.

While the pedestrian infrastructure itself is adequate in most areas, the pedestrian environment is altogether unappealing.

The photos at right show the current state of the lowest-ranked streets in terms of their pedestrian environment.

Z UN I ST REET

DECATUR ST REET

While most streets have sidewalks, there are a few notable exceptions where the sidewalk ends or becomes asphalt. Zuni Street (see left-most Zuni photo) and Old W Colfax Ave (see second from the left Colfax photo) are prime examples of this.

To improve non-vehicular accessibility, Meow Wolf must collaborate with other public, private, and nonprofit partners to improve the pedestrian experience through the addition of seating, lighting, bike racks, trash cans, public art, increased vegetation, and a comprehensive wayfinding program.

Where sidewalks are missing or in poor repair, Meow Wolf and its partners must pressure the city and local developers to improve them.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

O LD W COLFAX AVEN U E

7T H ST R E E T

2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

51

Mile High Stadium W Cir

Irving St

Intersections were evaluated based on their basic physical features such as the presence and type of sidewalks, curb ramps, pedestrian signals, width of street, etc. I also looked at the number of traffic accidents causing major injuries or fatalities to bicyclists and pedestrians in the past five years. Like the streets, the intersections were then ranked using the Analytic Hierarchy Process to determine the intersections most in need of improvements.

FI GURE 10. INTERSECTION QUALI TY ON K Federal Blvd

INTERSECTIONS

While many of the intersections in the study area, especially those along Decatur Street, are safe and well-designed, there are several intersections that are confusing and downright dangerous. Several of these are particularly close to Meow Wolf, which could discourage people to walk there.

The worst ranked intersections in the study area are: 1. OLD W COLFAX AVE / ZUNI ST / I-25 2. FEDERAL BLVD & W HOWARD PL 3. OLD W COLFAX AVE & MILE HIGH STADIUM CIR 4. W COLFAX AVE & 7TH ST 5. WALNUT ST & WALNUT ST (Elitch Gardens South Gate Entrance) 6. WALNUT ST & 4TH ST 7. OLD W COLFAX AVE & MORRISON RD 8. DECATUR ST & W 12TH AVE 9. WALNUT ST & WALNUT ST (Meow Wolf Entrance) 10. W HOWARD PL & DECATUR ST

"

W Colfax Ave

W

14

th

Av e

"

W Howard Pl

Worst Intersection Quality Poor Intersection Quality Average Intersection Quality Fair Intersection Quality Good Intersection Quality 52

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER 1/4 MI

KEY PE D E ST R I A N R O UTE S TO MEOW WOLF

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" W 12th " W 11th Ave Decatur St 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

53

FI GURE 11. EXISTI NG BI CYCLE FAC I LI T I E S Federal Blvd

BIKE ROUTES TO MEOW WOLF

In addition to the on-street bike network, Meow Wolf is in a prime location to take advantage of Denver’s extensive off-street trail system. Meow Wolf is located directly along the South Platte River Trail, a 20-mile cycling thoroughfare which carries cyclists from Thornton in the north to Englewood in the south, where it connects to the Mary Carter Greenway and Bear Creek Trails.

Mile High Stadium W Cir

Meow Wolf is in an area with excellent access to Denver’s bike network. While only small portions of Walnut Street and W 13th Avenue have on-street bike lanes, several of the nearby streets are marked as shared roadways with painted “sharrows”, including W 17th Ave, Mile High Stadium W Circle, parts of W 13th Avenue, W 11th Avenue, W 10th Avenue, parts of Walnut Street, 5th Street, and parts of 7th Street.

W 17th Ave

W Colfax Ave

Old

Meow Wolf is also located close to the Lakewood Gulch Trail, a 4.1-mile trail that extends west from the South Platte River through the Sun Valley and Villa Park neighborhoods and connects to the Dry Gulch Trail.

Two other major trails connect to the South Platte River Trail to provide access to Meow Wolf: the Cherry Creek Trail, a 40-mile trail that connects to the South Platte River Trail at Confluence Park and extends southeast to the Cherry Creek Reservoir and south to Franktown; and Weir Gulch Trail, a

L

Tr a h lc Gu d o wo e ak

il

W 11 Decatur St

W 10th Ave Bike Lane Protected Bike Lane Shared Roadway Off Street Trail or Multiuse Path

54

Weir

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER 1/4 MI

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Pl

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W 13th Ave Zuni St

1th Ave

r Gulch Trail 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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BIKE ROUTES TO MEOW WOLF nearly 8-mile trail that extends southwest from the South Platte River through the Barnum, Barnum West, and Westwood neighborhoods.

ESTIMATI NG M EOW WOLF ’ S B IK E VIS I TO R S Meow Wolf’s proximity to major bicycle facilities makes it more likely that employees and visitors could choose to ride their bikes instead of driving if encouraged.

Especially for those who live close to one of the off-street bike trails mentioned above, biking could be the easiest and most convenient way to travel to Meow Wolf.

Using 2014-2018 American Community Survey Data, I have estimated how many residents live within a quarter mile of the major off-street bicycle trails that provide easy access to Meow Wolf. I have limited my count to Census block groups within three miles of Meow Wolf since these would be within a easy 10-20 minute bike ride.

FI G U R E 1 2 . P OPU L ATIO N W/ B IKE T RA I L ACC E S S TO MEOW WO LF ESTIMATED POPUL ATION LIVING WITHIN 1/4 MILE OF MA JOR OFF -ROAD BIKE TRAIL

South Platte River Trail

32,306

Lakewood and Dry Gulch Trails

23,102

Cherry Creek Trail

32,959

Weir Gulch Trail

26,414

Total

94,551*

* The total is less than the sum of all the trails because some people live within a quarter mile of more than one trail. Only Census block groups within 3 miles of Meow Wolf were included.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Another key indicator to consider in estimating Meow Wolf’s potential to generate bicyclists is the existing percentages of Denver residents who commute by bike. According to the 2018 Downtown Denver Partnership Commuter Survey, approximately 9% of Downtown Denver’s commuters bike to work. Citywide, biking is much less popular, with only 2.2% of all Denver commuters opting to bike (U.S. Census Bureau).

The following chart shows the estimated number of daily Meow Wolf visitors should Meow Wolf’s mode share more closely resemble the Downtown or citywide average.

FI GURE 13. POTENTI AL DAILY CYCLI STS TO M EOW WOLF PE RC E N TAGE OF B IKE COMMUTE RS

Downtown Citywide

E ST. DAILY CYCLISTS TO MEOW WOLF *

9%

630-675

2.2%

161-173

* Based on Meow Wolf’s pre-COVID estimate of 7,000 – 7,500 visitors per day.

Since Meow Wolf is located on the edge of Downtown and is easily accessible via several major off-street bicycle trails, I would anticipate Meow Wolf’s share of bicycle commuters and visitors would be closer to Downtown Denver’s share than to Denver overall.

However, employee and visitor bicycle use will depend heavily on factors such as availability of secure bike parking, time of year, weather, availability of Meow Wolf promotional materials highlighting bicycling as a convenient way to access the site, and the presence of wayfinding and navigational tools.

SOUTH PL AT T E R IVE R T RAI L

L A KEWO O D G U LC H T R A IL

CHER RY C R E E K T RA I L

WEI R G ULC H T R A IL

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FI GURE 14 . EXISTI NG TRANS I T R OUT E S A Federal Blvd

TRANSIT & RAIL

! !

BU S SER VIC E Meow Wolf Denver is served by eleven bus routes with a combined pre-COVID annual ridership of 10,534,444 (RTD Service Performance 2019). However, access to these bus routes is made difficult by the distance from the nearest bus stops to Meow Wolf’s site.

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W 17th Ave

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Each of these stops is 0.6 miles, or about a 10-15-minute walk from Meow Wolf’s site.

Of these bus routes, the most popular is the 15L, which provides service from Decatur Federal Station east to Aurora through Downtown and along E Colfax Avenue, with over 280,000 monthly boardings. The second most popular bus route is the 16, which provides service from Denver’s Civic Center Park west to Golden primarily along W Colfax Avenue, with an average of just under 144,000 monthly boardings.

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W 10th Ave Light Rail Station

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The table on the following page provides the average monthly boardings for all of the bus routes that serve Meow Wolf Denver.

Light Rail

Mile High Stadium W Cir

The nearest bus stops are located at Decatur Federal Station (Bus Routes 1, 15L, 16, 16L, 30, 30L, 31, 36L, and the Platte Valley FlexRide), the Colfax & Federal Transfer Center (Bus Routes 10, 30, 31), and Auraria Parkway at 7th Street (Bus Route 20).

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Freight Rail 58

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

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W 13th Ave

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Zuni St

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1th Ave

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!!

10th & Osage Station

2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

!!

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TRANSIT & RAIL FI G U R E 1 5. AVE R AGE MO NTH LY BOA R D I N G S FO R BU S R OUTE S PROVI D I N G MEOW WO L F ACC ESS BUS R OUT E

AVE RAG E M O N TH LY B OA RDIN GS

1

46,721

10

75,680

15L

283,144

16

143,747

16L

49,699

20

70,309

30

29,578

30L

7,628

31

15,548

36L

15,678

Platte Valley FlexRide Total

204 737,936

LI G H T R AI L S E R VI CE Three light rail lines provide access to Meow Wolf via three nearby light rail stations. The C line, which stops at Auraria West and Empower Field at Mile High Stations, provides service from Union Station to the Littleton/Mineral Station.

The E line, which also stops at Auraria West and Empower Field at Mile High Station, provides service from Union Station south to Lone Tree. The W line stops at Decatur Federal Station, Auraria West Station, and Empower Field at Mile High Station, and provides service from Union Station west to Golden.

The table below shows the pre-COVID monthly average ridership for 2017-2019.

Together, the three lines average over 900,000 trips per month.

Source: RTD Service Performance 2019

With a combined total of nearly 738,000 average boardings per month, these bus lines may be a convenient option for many Meow Wolf employees and visitors.

However, for the bus to be an appealing option, care should be taken to improve the pedestrian experience between Meow Wolf and the nearest bus stops.

FI GURE 16 . AVERAGE M ONT HLY BOARD INGS FOR LINE RAIL LI NE S PROVID ING M EOW WOLF ACC E S S L IN E

AVE RAGE MON TH LY RIDERS HIP

C

174,788

E

382,240

W

356,334

Total

913,362

Sources: RTD Ridership Report 2017-2019 and RTD Service Performance 2019

Overall, this data suggests that light rail is a commonly used method of transportation that many Denver metro residents are already familiar with. Certainly for employees and visitors that live near these lines, traveling to Meow Wolf via light rail could be a very appealing option.

Buses at Decatur-Federal Station 60

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

FI G U R E 1 7. RTD R A IL SYSTE M MAP HIGHLI GHTING LI NES T HAT PR OVI DE ACC E SS TO MEOW WOLF

2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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TRANSIT & RAIL L IGH T R A I L STATI ON S AU R AR I A WE ST STAT I O N DISTANCE FROM MEOW WOLF: 0. 3 Miles WALKING TIME TO MEOW WOLF: 7 Min. LINES SERVED: C , E , W DAILY RIDERSHIP*: 6 ,559 * Total ridership average for all revenue trips Monday-Thursday, not including special trains for events. Covers automatic passenger counts from August 25, 2019 to January 12, 2020. Source: RTD August 2019 Rail Station Activity.

Auraria West Station

ADVANTAGES

Of the three light rail stations that serve Meow Wolf’s Denver site, the Auraria West Station is by far the most heavily used.

DISADVANTAGES

The connection to Walnut Street is a little confusing. Visitors must either walk through the adjacent parking lot to reach 5th Street or cross the tracks to take the alternate exit towards the Campus Village Apartments on 4th Street.

The route to Meow Wolf takes Walnut St, which has the worst pedestrian environment in the study area.

OPPORTUNITIE S

Since the station is within Auraria Campus, most of the riders are likely students or campus employees. There could be opportunities to partner with one of the three colleges or universities to improve this station with public art.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Entrance to Auraria West Station from 5th Street

DECATUR FEDERAL STATION DISTANCE FROM MEOW WOLF: 0.6 Miles WALKING TIME TO MEOW WOLF: 13 Min. LINES SERVED: W DAILY RIDERSHIP*: 2 ,117 * Total ridership average for all revenue trips Monday-Thursday, not including special trains for events. Covers automatic passenger counts from August 25, 2019 to January 12, 2020. Source: RTD August 2019 Rail Station Activity.

ADVANTAGES

The light rail station is the second-busiest of the three in the study, with an average of over 2,100 riders per day. It is also a stopping point for numerous bus routes, including routes 1, 15L, 16, 16L, 30, 30L, 31, 36L, and the Platte Valley FlexRide, making it a major transportation hub for Sun Valley.

The quality of the pedestrian environment surrounding the station is better than that near Auraria West or Empower Field at Mile High. From the station, visitors can choose to walk to Meow Wolf either along the Lakewood Gulch Trail or take Morrison Road to Old West Colfax. Either way, they mostly avoid Walnut Street, ranked the lowest of all streets in the study area in terms of the pedestrian experience. At the same time, pedestrians making their way from Decatur Federal Station to Meow Wolf are treated to beautiful views of the Downtown Denver skyline.

Decatur Federal Station

DISADVANTAGES

This station is the furthest from Meow Wolf, making the walk twice as long as from the other two stations. The length of the walk could be a deterrent to people taking this route.

OPPORTUNITIE S

The station itself is quite large, with an expansive – albeit mostly empty plaza.

There is ample room for the addition of public art and creative placemaking interventions that could make the station more appealing as a destination.

EMPOWE R F I E L D AT M I L E HIGH STATIO N DISTANCE FROM MEOW WOLF: 0. 3 Miles WALKING TIME TO MEOW WOLF: 6 Min. LINES SERVED: C , E , W DAILY RIDERSHIP*: 1,436 * Total ridership average for all revenue trips Monday-Thursday, not including special trains for events. Covers automatic passenger counts from August 25, 2019 to January 12, 2020. Source: RTD August 2019 Rail Station Activity.

View of the Decatur Federal Station plaza, looking east towards Downtown Denver ADVANTAGES

Of the three light rail stations that serve Meow Wolf’s Denver site, the Auraria West Station is by far the most heavily used.

DISADVANTAGES

This station is the least used of the three light rail stations studied in this report.

On a typical day, the station sees less than 1,500 riders. The route from the station to Meow Wolf goes along Walnut St, which has the worst pedestrian environment in the study area.

OPPORTUNITIES

The station includes a moderately sized plaza which features an art installation consisting of a series of football sculptures.

2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

63 63

TRANSIT & RAIL Additional amenities and public art could enhance the station’s sense of place.

STAT I O N AN A LYS IS In determining which station to recommend visitors use to travel to Meow Wolf, there are two main considerations - the length of the walk from the station to Meow Wolf, and the quality of pedestrian environment on that walk.

Empower Field at Mile High Station

Empower Field at Mile High Station has the shortest and most direct route. However, since the route goes along the stretch of Walnut St that has the worst pedestrian environment, it is still not a very appealing option.

Decatur-Federal Station has a much more pleasant walk, with views of Downtown Denver, Lakewood Gulch, and the S Platte River. However, the walk is nearly twice as long and at over half a mile, is a big deterrent in itself.

My suggestion would be to direct visitors to use the Empower Field at Mile High Station, and focus on making improvements to the pedestrian environment along this route first. Making this walk pleasant will be quite a creative challenge but Meow Wolf is certainly up to it!

RT D PAR K- N- R ID E To make it easier for people to take transit, RTD has invested heavily in their Park-nRide network, building huge parking lots and structured parking at many of their more suburban rail stations. These Parkn-Rides are a tremendous asset and vital gateway to the transit system.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

View of the plaza at Empower Field at Mile High Station

As Meow Wolf seeks to provide alternatives to driving and parking on-site, they should take advantage of RTD’s extensive Park-n-Ride network and encourage employees and visitors to park for free or at low cost in one of RTD’s many parking lots and take the light rail the rest of the way.

Combined, the three light rail lines that serve Meow Wolf have Park-n-Ride facilities that can hold almost 13,700 cars – far more than enough to accommodate Meow Wolf’s estimated 7,000-7,500 visitors per day.

RTD Park-n-Rides are typically free for vehicles that are registered to an address within the District for the first 24 hours,

after which they cost $2 per day. Out-ofdistrict vehicles cost $4 per day. Some RTD Park-n-Rides are free for all.

As of 2018, RTD’s Park-n-Ride system had plenty of capacity, with an average parking utilization rate of 69%.

However, a few of the smaller RTD Park-nRide facilities have utilization rates of over 85%, a recognized operational threshold above which parking availability becomes increasingly problematic (Hilliard, 2019).

When considering their advice to employees and visitors about using transit, Meow Wolf should be careful not to direct people to already over-crowded facilities.

The following table lists the Park-n-Ride facilities along the three light rail lines providing access to Meow Wolf and the number of available parking spaces at each. Stations marked with an asterisk are stations that are typically over 85% capacity.

FI GURE 18 . RTD PARK-N-RI DE FACILI TIES ALONG LIGHT RAI L LI NES THAT PROVI D E ACCE S S TO M EOW WOLF L IN E

FAC IL ITY N AME

C, E

I-25/Broadway Station

C

Evans Station*

C

Englewood Station**

910

C

Littleton/Downtown Station

361

C

Littleton/Mineral Station

1227

E

University of Denver Station

540

E

Colorado Station

363

E

Yale Station

129

E

Southmoor Station

E

Belleview Station*

59

E

Orchard Station*

48

E

Arapahoe at Village Center Station

817

E

Dry Creek Station*

235

E

County Line Station

388

E

Lincoln Station

1734

E

RidgeGate Parkway Station

1300

W

Sheridan Station

800

W

Lakewood/Wadsworth Station

W

Oak Station

W

Federal Center Station

W

JeffCo Gov’t Center Golden**

Total

S PACES

988 99

788

1000 200 1000 705 13,691

* Park-n-Ride facility is typically over 85% capacity. ** Park-n-Ride facility is free to use for all vehicles.

Sources: RTD Facilities Map and RTD Park-N-Ride Analysis, Hilliard, 2018.

Picture of RTD Park-n-Ride facility at the Lakewood/Wadsworth Station 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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WAY F I N D I N G One of the biggest barriers to walking and biking in the study area is a lack of helpful wayfinding signage – directional and informational signage that helps guide people through a physical environment and enhances their understanding and experience of the space. Over and over again in my stakeholder interviews, I heard that the area was confusing and difficult to navigate.

S P O RTS WALK & STADI UM

A Sports Walk sign on Walnut St

Field surveys confirm this assessment.

Wayfinding signs in the study area are few and far between. The majority of existing wayfinding signs are part of MSFD’s Sports Walk, which directs pedestrians from the Decatur-Federal and Empower Field at Mile High Stations to the stadium.

There are also some wayfinding signs along the S Platte River and Lakewood Gulch Trails, as well as at the RTD stations themselves.

A Sports Walk sign at Decatur-Federal Station

However, many wayfinding signs in the area are faded or hard to read, and none of them give pedestrians useful information such as how long their walk will be.

Some of the station area signs have even been left blank - leaving users with little information to find their way from the station to their destination.

While the existing wayfinding signage does not do much to encourage walking and biking, other signs in the area actively discourage it. Throughout the area, particularly under the Colfax Viaduct and along the S Platte River, there are numerous CDOT “No Trespassing” signs, which contribute to an atmosphere that is unwelcoming to pedestrians and bicyclists.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

A Taxi Stand sign along Mile High Stadium Circle

A stadium sign along Old W Colfax Ave

PA R KS & T R A ILS

T RAN S I T

Faded multi-lingual neighborhood wayfinding signs along Lakewood Gulch

Wayfinding signs, one of which is blank, at the Auraria West Station

Wayfinding signs along the S Platte River Trail

A light rail sign along Walnut St

Wayfinding sign at the intersection of the S Platte River and Lakewood Gulch Trails

OTH ER

A CDOT No Trespassing sign along Walnut St

A pillar sign at the Decatur-Federal Station

A CDOT No Trespassing sign along the S Platte River Trail 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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PUBLIC ART Many of the stakeholders I talked to over the course of my research mentioned the need for public art to add to visual interest, color, and appeal to the study area. During my street assessments, public art was one of the many urban design characteristics I studied in order to determine the overall walkability and pedestrian appeal of a street.

Through my street assessments, I found that public art in the study area is rare.

Most of the public art is located either at one of the three transit stations or at the stadium. The Sun Valley neighborhood is an exception and contains a variety of community-based murals and other art installations.

Some of the most striking artworks are the murals at Raices Brewing Company

by Puerto Rican artist Luis Fernando, and the murals at Fairview Elementary School, painted by a variety of artists as part of the RAW (Re-Imagining the Arts Worldwide) Project which seeks to bring creativity and art to underfunded schools.

Much of the area, however, is devoid of art.

Other than one installation at the Auraria West Station, there is no art on the western side of Auraria’s campus. There is no art along Walnut Street, the most important access road for Meow Wolf, or under the Colfax Viaduct. While some parts of the S Platte River Trail have art, there is none near the Meow Wolf site. Neither is there art along the Lakewood Gulch Trail.

ART I N T RAN S I T STAT I ONS

Interdependence by Michael Clapper at the Decatur-Federal Station

Mural created by JOLT and Guerrilla Garden under the Federal Blvd Bridge at Decatur-Federal Station

Pigskins by Troy Corliss at the Mile High Station

The few artworks that do exist in the study area – some of which are shared here – are bright spots in a sea of dull gray asphalt.

Destinations by Donna Billick at the Auraria West Station 68

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

COMM UNI TY- D R IVE N A RT

A mural by Luis Fernando (a.k.a. Guillo) at Raices Brewing Company

Mural at the Sun Valley Youth Center

Mural by Santiago Rubino at Fairview Elementary

Painted Vision Zero silhouettes installed at the corner of Federal Blvd and W Howard Pl

An installation by artist Anuar Maauad along Old W Colfax Ave 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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BACKGROUND RESEARCH

R E - I M AG I N I N G T R A N S P O RTAT I O N AND ACCESSIBILITY TH E CO NSEQ U E N C E S O F DES I G NI NG FO R CA R S For most of the past century, transportation planning has been focused on improving the accessibility and ease of automobile use. Starting in the early 20th century, cities that had once been designed around the pedestrian and 19th-century streetcar systems began to be redesigned to make driving easier. Highways were pushed through inner-city neighborhoods and entire blocks were demolished to accommodate the increased demand for parking.

While these transformations provided added convenience for those individuals with the ability and means necessary to purchase and drive an automobile, they had the consequence of making alternative forms of transportation that had long dominated American cities – walking, biking, and transit use – far more difficult, inconvenient, and dangerous.

Aerial image of Denver, looking at the crossroads of Colfax Ave and I-25.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

In Denver, as in many cities around the country, the dense urban fabric of downtown was destroyed and replaced with the automobile-oriented infrastructure we see today – large, overly wide urban arterials, elevated highways, and gray seas of surface parking lots. These features create huge barriers to non-motorized traffic, sap walkability, and drain opportunities for more social interaction and street life from surrounding neighborhoods.

The consequences of this style of auto-oriented development is a city where it is difficult to get around without a car and where auto congestion is unavoidable.

EQ UI TY AN D ENVI RO N MENT In most American cities, those without the means or ability to own and operate a vehicle are limited in their mobility options and often forced into life-imperiling situations simply to accomplish daily tasks such as going to school or work, grocery shopping, or going to the doctor. These groups often include vulnerable and marginalized populations such as populations with low-incomes; people of color; youth, older adults; and people with disabilities.

In addition to the equity implications, auto-oriented urban design has drastic environmental consequences as well.

Auto-oriented development, by virtue of being less compact, contributes to urban sprawl and the decimation of open space.

It is also the single largest producer of climate-change inducing greenhouse gas emissions, and a significant contributor to air pollution.

CORP O R AT E S O C IA L RESP O NS I B I L I T IE S Meow Wolf, as a certified B Corporation, has a responsibility to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy, and work towards reduced inequality, a healthier environment, and a stronger community (About B Corps | Certified B Corporation, 2020). Improving access and mobility through non-automobile-oriented modes is crucial to reducing Meow Wolf’s traffic impacts on the surrounding neighborhoods, meeting their environmental and carbon-reduction goals, and making Meow Wolf accessible to all people regardless of age, income, vehicle ownership, or ability.

In recent decades, urban planning has tried to shift the prevailing patterns of auto-oriented development in favor of more equitable and sustainable modes of transportation.

Huge, mostly empty parking lots sap walkability and degrade the pedestrian environment.

As Meow Wolf looks to increase access and discourage automobile use, it would be helpful for them to understand two interrelated transportation planning concepts: transit-oriented development and community-based creative placemaking.

These two concepts can help to frame the challenges that Meow Wolf faces, as well as provide guidance for some potential solutions.

Humans without cars - like this elderly man trying to cross the Colfax viaduct - are often endangered by our auto-oriented urban design.

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TRANSIT-ORIENTED D EVE LO PM E N T & WA L KA B I L I TY PRI NC I PLE S O F TO D Transit-oriented development (TOD) is an integrated land use and transportation development strategy aimed at encouraging public transit use through the creation of dense, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods in proximity and with easy access to transit stations.

TOD principles, as espoused by architect and urbanist Peter Calthorpe, are focused on development and urban design within a half mile radius of transit stations, and strongly advocate for mixed-use and infill development, pedestrian-friendly street networks, high-quality public space, and the preservation of public open space and sensitive environmental habitats (Dittmar & Ohland, eds., 2004).

Denver’s 2014 transit oriented strategic plan, Transit Oriented Denver, lays out six core principles for TOD: CO N NECT TOD areas should achieve a high level of connectivity and offer high levels of walkability and high-ease-of-use bicycle facilities I N N OVATE TOD areas should be innovative and offer high levels of sustainability and equity to help residents connect to the global economy

EFFI CIENT TOD areas should be efficient and dense, allowing the community to share resources and reduce the per household cost of infrastructure PL ACE TOD areas should feature great public places that encourage people to stop and linger instead of merely passing through the area MIX TOD areas should have a mix of uses, destinations, and activities to keep streets active and safe SHI F T TOD areas should contribute to an overall shift in the way people think about personal mobility

REALI TY OF TOD I N DENVER However, while Transit Oriented Denver clearly understands that TOD is intricately tied to the idea of walkable places, the plan readily admits that most of Denver’s transit stations are not located in existing walkable neighborhoods, but instead are located in areas with extreme barriers to walkability such as man-made highways, arterials, railroads and other transportation infrastructure, as well as natural barriers such as rivers and gulches.

This description fits the Meow Wolf Denver site perfectly: despite being located within easy walking distance to three light rail stations and a major bus hub, Meow Wolf

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Denver - located within an interweaving web of highways and viaducts and bordered on one side by a river that remains largely industrial in character and difficult to access – is nearly inaccessible to those without a car.

MAK I NG M EOW WO L F TRANSI T- O RI E N T E D Though the walk from Meow Wolf’s site to the nearest light rail station is a mere 0.3 miles, or approximately a seven-minute walk, the hostility of the pedestrian environment makes it an unpleasant experience. Studies have shown that a poor aesthetic environment can negatively impact a pedestrian’s concept of time, making short trips through unappealing and uncomfortable environments actually feel longer (Appleyard, 2009).

Conversely, improvements to the pedestrian environment can encourage walking by shortening a person’s perception of time, extending the distance they are willing to walk, and generally making their walk a more pleasant and comfortable experience.

To truly take advantage of their location within a transit-rich area and reduce automobile use to their site, Meow Wolf must become a transitoriented development and not merely “transit-adjacent.”

Using TOD principles to integrate themselves within the larger neighborhood will prevent Meow Wolf from becoming an

Walking towards Meow Wolf from the Mile High light rail station along Walnut Street

island and help to bridge the natural and man-made barriers that have kept the Sun Valley neighborhood isolated and disconnected for so long.

Most importantly, Meow Wolf should focus on improving the pedestrian and bicycling environment both on their site and within the larger community through the strategic use of creative placemaking strategies.

Placemaking has been largely overlooked by most TOD projects, however this factor is just as if not even more important to a TOD project’s success than access to transit (Dittmar & Ohland, 2004).

Thus, the most important thing that Meow Wolf can do to encourage the use of alternative transportation modes, increase accessibility, and reduce their environmental and traffic impacts on the neighborhood is create a safe, clean, comfortable, attractive, inviting, and fun pedestrian environment.

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DESIGNING STREETS AS PLACES WH AT M A K ES A GR E AT PUB LI C S PAC E? The first step to making streets that are inviting to pedestrians and bicyclists is to re-imagine our public streets not just as sewers for cars, but as vital public spaces for people. The Project for Public Spaces has created a growing movement called Streets as Places that recognizes streets as a powerful symbol of the public realm with social, commercial, and political significance (MacKenzie, 2015).

According to the Project for Public Spaces, streets should be venues that celebrate culture, connectivity, and community and they argue that streets have the potential to become thriving destinations. To do this, planners, designers, and managers must take an integrative approach that looks at streets from the perspective of place. Yet what makes a successful place?

The Project for Public Spaces describes great places as “those places where celebrations are held, social and economic exchanges occur, friends run into each other, and cultures mix” (What Makes a Successful Place?, n.d.). As part of their mission to support the creation of great public spaces, PPS has evaluated thousands of public spaces around the world and found that they share the following four qualities:

ACC ES S & L I N KAG E S A successful place is easy to get to and get through. It is visually and physically connected to its surroundings, it supports a variety of transportation options, and it is accessible to people regardless of age, ability, or income.

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COMFO RT & I MAG E Great places are safe, clean, well maintained, and have ample places to sit. They make a good first impression that encourages people to stay and linger. They are memorable, photogenic, and put people at ease.

US ES & ACT IVI T I ES Activities and destinations give people a reason to visit a place, and encourage them to linger in and return to great places. A successful public place will have a variety of activities that people can engage in throughout the day and year-round.

S OCI ABI LI TY Great places inspire people to socialize – they attract friends, families, and neighbors to gather and become a meeting point, often inspiring a strong sense of attachment to the place.

Streets designed primarily to move traffic destroy any possibility for people to use the street as a public place. Re-imagined as places, streets have the potential to fill the “town square” role often missing from cities today (Streets as Places, 2014).

In addition, when streets are treated as places for people instead of for cars, people are far more inclined to walk, bike, and spend time in the area.

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C R E AT I VE PL AC E M A K I N G In their quest to transform their immediate dismal surroundings into an inviting place to walk and bike, Meow Wolf should employ creative placemaking strategies.

In contrast to the traditional top-down approach of transportation planning and development, which has historically marginalized communities of color and other already disadvantaged communities, creative placemaking is a collaborative, people-centered approach to the planning and design of public space that uses arts and cultural activities to enhance the physical and social character of an area.

According to the National Endowment for the Art’s 2010 white paper which coined the term, “In creative placemaking, partners from public, private, non-profit, and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, city, or region around arts and cultural activities.

Creative placemaking animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes, improves local business viability and public safety, and brings diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired.”

(Markusen & Gadwa, 2010) Though arts and culture have always played a big role in urban planning, modern placemaking practices began in the 1960s as a reaction to the auto-oriented development and destruction of human-centered community-driven public spaces of the mid-20th century.

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of arts and culture to create more meaningful public engagement, especially in marginalized communities, so that the resulting urban design better reflects and celebrates the culture, history, and values of the community.

B E N E F I TS O F C R E AT IVE PL AC E MAK I N G While at its most basic, creative placemaking aims to improve the quality of public urban space while strengthening the community as a whole, creative placemaking advocates claim a wide range of benefits for communities.

S OCI AL BEN EFI TS Engagement with the arts has tremendous benefits for individuals, reducing stress and allowing for creative expression. Art also has the power to bring together diverse groups of people over shared human emotion. The collaborative creative placemaking process helps to build social networks, increasing a community’s collective sense of identity and pride, and can build community capacity for larger initiatives.

ECON OMI C BEN EFI TS Creative placemaking efforts can help attract both locals and visitors to an area, creating more foot traffic and benefiting local businesses, which can attract greater business investment in the area.

Investments in arts and culture can provide jobs to local creatives, as well as attract new businesses. Improvements to the public realm can also generate additional property and sales tax revenue.

MOBI LI TY B E N E F I TS Creative placemaking can improve the pedestrian experience by slowing automobile speeds and creating a more comfortable and aesthetically pleasing environment. Strategically placed art can help create paths and provide directional guidance for pedestrians. Art can also encourage people to get outside and explore, which puts more eyes on the street and enhances public safety. Creative placemaking can encourage people to use transit more often by transforming previously dull and utilitarian transit stations, and by improving often-ignored areas between transit stations and the surrounding residences and businesses.

H OW TO D O C R E AT IVE PL AC E MAK I N G On principle, creative placemaking is grounded in the particulars of place, fosters authentic and ongoing community engagement, embraces existing community development systems, and uses arts and cultural organizations as catalytic partners for positive change (Borrup, 2016).

What makes creative placemaking distinct from other community development approaches is its emphasis on process rather than product. Creative placemaking does not just focus on getting more art in public space (though that is typically the

“ D O N E R I G H T, C R E ATIVE PL ACEM AKING CAN LEAD TO BOTH A B E T T E R PROC ES S A N D A BE T TE R PR O DUCT. THE END RESULTS ARE STRE E TS , SI D EWA L KS A N D PU BL IC SPACES THAT WELCOM E US , I NSPI RE U S AND MOVE U S I N EVE RY SE N SE O F THAT WORD.” - T R A N S P O RTATION FO R A ME RI CA

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FI G U R E 1 9. C R E ATIVE PL AC E M AKI NG’ S FOCUS ON COM M UNI TY

Source: American Planning Association’s Creative Placemaking PAS Memo (2016).

result), it focuses on who is involved and how they are involved. Community stakeholders are not just passive audiences, but active participants who often help design and co-create the art (Vazquez, 2016).

D ISTI NCTIVE D ESI GN The best projects build on unique qualities of place and existing expertise. They celebrate local history and culture and focus on what makes an area special.

Placemaking can and does occur at a variety of scales – regional, city, neighborhood, block – and can be initiated by a diverse range of partners. Projects can range from large-scale government-funded revitalization projects to small-scale grassroots neighborhood art projects. However, all successful creative placemaking initiatives have several key components in common.

M OBI LI ZATI ON OF PUBLIC WI LL Successful projects generate buy-in from public, private, and arts and cultural non-profit sectors, as well as citizens.

C R E ATIVE I N ITIATOR S These originators of a creative placemaking vision help to spark arts and revitalization efforts and can come from a variety of backgrounds. They could be individual or groups of artists, local developers, public sector employees, or private organizations or businesses.

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PRIVATE SECTOR SUPPORT Local arts and cultural businesses, developers, banks, and private-sector philanthropists are often crucial to funding and facilitating creative placemaking projects.

ARTS COM M UNI TY ENGAGE M E NT Creative placemaking cannot take place without the time, talent, and financial commitment of the arts community. Hiring local artists and partnering with local arts organizations is crucial to success.

BUI L D I N G PA RTNE R SHIP S Cross-agency, cross-sector, and intergovernmental partnerships are central to successful outcomes. Diverse partners offer a wide range of skills, knowledge, and support to move a project from idea to implementation.

LIGHTER , Q U I C K E R , C H E A PER One of the benefits of the creative placemaking approach is that you do not need large capital investments in order to make drastic improvements to the public realm.

Small-scale and low-cost strategic interventions can be used to expand, remake, and improve public space quickly and more cheaply while calling attention to the need for larger changes and investments. This creative placemaking technique, known as “tactical urbanism” uses short-term, low-cost, scalable interventions

to improve street safety, public space, and catalyze long-term change (Tactical Urbanism, n.d.).

The “lighter, quicker, cheaper” philosophy of tactical urbanism projects enables creative placemakers to design, implement, and test projects immediately with community involvement while longer-term and higher-cost projects languish for years in the development pipeline (The Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper Transformation of Public Spaces, n.d.).

This approach has led to a greater acceptance of pilot projects – flexible short-term projects that allow their creators to test out various design ideas before committing to large-scale long-term investments. This incremental place-based approach can be incredibly appealing for those who want to see tangible change fast and can help to generate wider community support for long-term changes.

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C R EATIVE PL AC EM A K I N G ST R AT EG I E S A Better City’s 2016 Report, A Guide to Placemaking for Mobility, provides an overview of emerging design and planning strategies focused on improving the experience of living, working, and playing in a place. The report argues that places within a city’s mobility system should meet several key placemaking goals.

The strategies are separated into passive, interactive, and temporal categories.

SOCIAL: Places should encourage interaction between users, facilitating conversation, gatherings, events, and other social uses.

Interactive interventions, such as interactive art, motion-activated fountains or lighting, or movable furniture or games, are additions to the built environment that encourage social activity or play.

CULTURAL: Places should tell the story of their surrounding neighborhood or community through art, design, events, and other forms of expression.

CIVIC: Places should serve a civic purpose and be open and inclusive to all, while fostering a sense of local ownership of public space.

HELPFUL: Places should help users find their way, letting them know the distance, route, and time to their destination.

Passive interventions are permanent changes or additions to the built environment, such as streetscaping features or infrastructure, that change how people physically move through spaces.

Temporal interventions are temporary events, projects, or activities, such as a pop-up park, a temporary art installation, a farmer's market, or seasonal decorations.

Meow Wolf should use a combination of these strategies to improve the pedestrian environment and activate the surrounding streets.

INFORMATIVE: Places should help users discover more about the neighborhood, directing them to local activities and alerting them to neighborhood news and events.

INVITING: Places should make people feel safe and comfortable with high quality design and regular maintenance.

The following tables are reproduced from A Guide to Placemaking for Mobility and showcase a selection of placemaking strategies that have been successful in transforming mobility spaces into vibrant and thriving public places.

Underpass Park in Toronto, Canada

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FI G U R E 20 : PA SSIVE PL AC E MAKING STRATEGI ES

Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood mural by Problak X Marka27 at Boston's Underground Ink Block 83

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FI G U R E 2 1 : I NTE R ACTIVE PL ACEM AKI NG STRATEGIES

Richard Grimes plays a tune on one of the many pianos open for use to everyone in downtown Denver's 16th Street Mall.

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FI G U R E 2 2 : TE MP OR A L PL AC E MAKING STRATEGI ES

Urban and Regional Planning students at the University of Colorado Denver participate in a pop-up parklet event in September 2019.

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C HA LLEN G E S Creative placemaking can face significant obstacles. According to the National Endowment for the Art’s white paper on the subject, key challenges include: ▶ Assembling and maintaining partnerships; ▶ Combating community skepticism; ▶ Assembling adequate financing; ▶ Overcoming regulatory hurdles; ▶ Providing for maintenance and longterm sustainability; ▶ Avoiding unintended consequences of displacement and gentrification; and ▶ Developing adequate metrics for performance and evaluation (Markusen & Gadwa, 2010).

According to Denver Streets Partnership’s Director, Jill Locantore, the biggest barrier to creative placemaking and tactical urbanism projects in Denver is a lack of regulatory guidance and difficulty getting permits for projects. Organizations seeking to do innovative projects to improve pedestrian and bicyclist safety in Denver will need to engage the city early and often in the process, working closely with city planners and engineers to brainstorm creative solutions to regulatory barriers.

Funding – both for the initial project implementation and for ongoing maintenance – is also a key challenge that Meow Wolf will have to overcome. During recessions, such as the Great Recession of 2007-2009 and our current pandemic-related reces-

sion, funding for out-of-the-box art projects can be hard to come by. While some grant funding does exist for creative placemaking projects (see Potential Funding Sources), grants can be incredibly competitive and time-consuming to apply for.

Finding funding sources for ongoing maintenance and long-term programming is also a big challenge, as there are fewer grants available and funding sources are often less likely to support ongoing maintenance than new projects. To be successful long-term, it is advisable to build these concerns into an initiative’s design.

C R E AT I VE PLACEMAKING CASE STUDIES The following pages showcase several successful examples of creative placemaking from around the country. The oldest project is more than fifty years old, while the most recent project is barely two years old.

The projects highlight a variety of creative placemaking interventions, including wayfinding, underpass and viaduct restoration and revitalization, traffic calming, and pedestrian safety interventions. In each, public art is an integral component of the project’s design and success.

Some were initiated by city governments or local community organizations, others are citizen-led. All demonstrate a remarkable level of cross-agency, cross-sector, and intergovernmental partnerships and have included extensive community outreach.

While these case studies are by no means exhaustive, they represent a variety of approaches that Meow Wolf, in partnership with their community partners, the City and County of Denver, and the Colorado Department of Transportation could take improving wayfinding, pedestrian and bicycle access, safety, and public space in the areas between Meow Wolf’s location and the nearby transit stations.

Additional resources about each project can be found in the Bibliography.

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40 WEST ART LINE WAYF I NDI N G | PU BLI C ART

T H E PR OJECT

LOCAT I O N

The 40 West Art Line is a 4 mile long interactive biking and pedestrian arts experience located in the 40 West Arts District in Lakewood, CO. Officially opened in May 2018, the Art Line is the centerpiece of a major community effort to revitalize the West Colfax corridor in Lakewood and promote it as an economic, cultural, and artistic destination. Envisioned as a way to provide a safe, interesting and vibrant multi-modal pathway within the arts district, the Art Line connects three neighborhood parks, a light rail station, the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, local businesses, art galleries and venues, and historic neighborhoods on both sides of West Colfax Avenue. The Art Line features over 70 permanent and temporary art installations by over two dozen artists including sculptures, wall and ground murals, fence art, interactive games and installations, and Art Line story totems. Functioning as both as a unique wayfinding project and a free outdoor art gallery in a neighborhood that has traditionally been underserved by the arts, the 40 West Arts District plans to keep the Art Line fresh and active by periodically adding new art installations and hosting regular events and activities along the Art Line.

Lakewood, Colorado

TYPE Standalone project

LEAD EN T I TY City of Lakewood and 40 West Arts Creative District

ART I ST Multiple

T I MELI N E 2 years

DURAT I ON Indefinite

KEY TA K EAWAYS The Art Line was the result of years of hard work and community engagement and benefited from other ongoing district-wide placemaking efforts which included a signage and wayfinding program, streetscaping enhancements, and community branding. Since its opening, the Art Line has been successful in revitalizing and beautifying a previously unwelcoming area while also encouraging walking and biking. However, maintenance and programming have been ongoing challenges.

MAT ERI ALS Latex-based outdoor paint for line, other materials vary by installation

COST $300,000

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U N D E R .OVE R . PA S S UNDE RPA S S R E STOR AT ION | INTE RACTIVE L IGHTING

T H E PR OJECT

LOCAT I O N

Developed in 2012 as a creative means of transforming a long-abandoned rail road underpass into a safe and inviting non-vehicular connection between two historically underserved communities and the employment and cultural hub of Downtown Greensboro, Over.Under.Pass has brought new life to aging infrastructure while improving mobility. Prior to the construction of the project, the rail road tracks and the adjacent four lane road created a barrier for residents in Warnersville and Old Asheboro, cutting them off from Greensboro’s central business district.

Seeking to revitalize the city center while improving connections to the surrounding neighborhoods and encouraging active living, the City of Greensboro in partnership with the non-profit Action Greensboro, began work on the Downtown Greenway project, a 4 mile long multi-use trail enhanced with public art. Under.Over.Pass, one of the first public art installations to be completed along the trail, includes eight sculptural gates backlit by colorful motion sensitive LED lights which illuminate the underpass and change colors based on the movement of trains overhead and users on the trail. The interactive art installation has transformed the underpass from a dangerous obstacle into an appealing and popular route into Downtown.

Greensboro, North Carolina

TYPE Standalone project

LEAD EN T I TY City of Greensboro and Action Greensboro

ART I ST Jim Gallucci and Scott Richardson

T I MELI N E 6-12 months

DURAT I ON Indefinite

KEY TA K EAWAYS This project is an excellent example of how incorporating art into larger mobility and economic development efforts can lead to more successful projects. The installation, which was designed with community input, has become one of the most popular portions of the trail system. A key challenge in these types of projects is funding for ongoing maintenance. To address this issue, the project managers have set up an endowment to assist with maintenance costs of all public art installations along the greenway.

MAT ERI ALS Steel, fiberglass, LED lights

COST $220,000

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C H I C A N O PA R K NEW PU B L IC S PAC E | I N F R ASTRUCTURE REC L AMATIO N

T H E PR OJECT

LOCAT I O N

One of the best examples of a community using art to reclaim unsightly transportation infrastructure comes from the Barrio Logan neighborhood in San Diego, California. In the 1960s, the neighborhood – the oldest Mexican-American neighborhood in the city, was cut in half by the construction of Interstate 5, an 8-lane freeway.

Many residents believed that they would gain access to the land underneath the highway ramps for the creation of a local park, but on April 22, 1970, residents discovered that instead construction had begun on a California Highway Patrol substation. In protest, hundreds of residents occupied the park for twelve days and formed the Chicano Park Steering Committee to guide the creation of a new park which would celebrate local Chicano culture. After months of negotiation between city and state agencies, the park was officially created in 1971 and mural painting began two years later. Today, the 7.4 acre park contains over 80 intensely colorful murals celebrating Chicano and Mexican history and identity along with sculptures, gardens, picnic tables, playgrounds, a kiosk resembling an Aztec temple which is used as a stage for performances and events, and other community amenities.

KEY TA K EAWAYS

San Diego, California

TYPE Standalone project

LEAD EN T I TY Chicano Park Steering Committee

ART I ST Multiple

T I MELI N E Bulk of murals painted between 1973 and 1989

DURAT I ON Indefinite

Chicano Park’s internationally renowned monumental murals are now federally recognized as a National Historic Landmark and serve as an “outdoor Cathedral of community activism” (SanDiego.org). The park is closely linked with the history of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement and the struggle for civil rights, social justice, and recognition of cultural identity. Maintenance of the murals has been an ongoing concern and restoration projects have taken place periodically since the late 1980s with the most recent restoration project completed in 2012.

MAT ERI ALS Paint

COST Not available

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I N T E R S E C T I O N R E PA I R INTE RS ECT ION M U R AL | T R AFFIC CAL MING

T H E PR OJECT

LOCAT I O N

Led by City Repair, a Portland-based non-profit organization that promotes the creative reclamation of public space, the Intersection Repair initiative encourages communities to work together to reclaim streets as shared public space and transform ordinary intersections into vibrant community spaces. The grass-roots initiative relies mainly on volunteers and community members to initiate, fund, design, implement, and maintain the street murals, which fosters relationships between neighbors and increases residents’ sense of ownership of their streets.

Seeing that the popular projects shared many of the city’s planning goals, the initiative is supported by the Portland Bureau of Transportation, which has created a streamlined permitting system for street paintings. Community members can propose an intersection mural design and location, and work with the City Traffic Engineer to obtain approval and technical guidance for implementation.

Projects are generally designed and implemented by community volunteers which keeps costs minimal. Projects generally take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to complete, depending on the scale of the mural. To date, over 70 intersection repairs have been completed throughout Portland’s residential neighborhoods.

Portland, Oregon

TYPE Ongoing program

LEAD EN T I TY City Repair and Portland Bureau of Transportation

ART I ST Varies by site

T I MELI N E Online applications accepted on a rolling basis

DURAT I ON 1-25 years

KEY TA K EAWAYS The Intersection Repair initiative is an excellent example of a public-private partnership, with a grass-roots movement gaining municipal support after demonstrating its ability to improve quality of life and public safety by bringing communities together. The program is also an example of the enormous impact that quick low-cost projects can have on public space. The main challenges have been funding, recruiting volunteers, and maintenance, as the street murals need to be repainted every 1-3 years.

MAT ERI ALS Acrylic deck stain, acrylic traffic paint, non-slip additive

COST $500 - $3000 for materials

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LAKEVIEW LINCOLN HUB CUR B EXT EN S I ON | T R AF F IC CAL MING

T H E PR OJECT

LOCAT I O N

This project, led by the Lakeview Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Chicago Department of Transportation, transformed four blocks of Lincoln Street and reclaimed over 5,000 sq ft of space for pedestrians.

Three key priorities informed the project: traffic calming, greening and landscape improvements, and pedestrian safety enhancements. Using low-cost and temporary materials of paint, delineators, and planters, the streetscaping project added curb extensions and pedestrian plazas, café tables and chairs, planters, and wayfinding measures. The effect of the redesign has been to shorten the pedestrian crossing distance and slow traffic, encouraging more pedestrian activity along the corridor and supporting local businesses. After the project was initiated, the Lincoln Avenue Placemaking Project Task Force was formed to gather community input, select the designer and contractors necessary to install the project. The project was funded by the Special Service Area 27 tax levy.

Chicago, Illinois

TYPE Standalone project

LEAD EN T I TY Lakeview Chamber of Commerce

ART I ST Site Design Group

T I MELI N E 18 months

KEY TA K EAWAYS This project shows how temporary creative placemaking projects can be instrumental in securing long-term capital improvements. The Lakeview Lincoln Hub project was created knowing that the Chicago Department of Transportation had a long-term multimodal roadway improvement plan that would reconstruct Lincoln Avenue to support its transformation into a vibrant commercial corridor. Using low-cost short-term materials, the project was able to bring high-impact improvements to the intersection years before the permanent overhaul of the streetscape. This temporary project allowed the city to test out bold ideas and new street geometries and gain valuable insights and feedback before investing in permanent improvements.

DURAT I ON 4 years until permanent streetscape reconstruction

MAT ERI ALS Epoxy-based pavement coating

COST Materials: $50,000 Design fee: $20,000

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DENVER PLANS REVIEW The creative placemaking and active transportation goals proposed in this report align with and support the broader city and community goals for the area. The Sun Valley neighborhood has been the subject of over a decade of planning documents, each seeking to revitalize the neighborhood through mixed-use, mixed-income, walkable, transit-oriented development. The various plans show strong support for increasing pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, improving first/last mile connections to transit, and enhancing public space through art, wayfinding, and creative placemaking. Careful review of the planning documents demonstrates a strong desire for investing in the Lower Colfax corridor and surrounding areas and highlights potential partnerships.

SUN VAL L EY N E IG H B O RH OO D DECATUR- FEDERAL STAT I O N ARE A PL A N ( 201 3) This plan lays out a positive vision of growth and change in the Sun Valley neighborhood. Key goals include celebrating local culture through the improvement of public space and the support of public art; and improving multi-modal connectivity by improving the bicycle and pedestrian networks, improving first-last mile connections to transit, and developing a wayfinding system. The plan specifically identifies Lower West Colfax Avenue as a pedestrian priority street which should offer enhanced pedestrian features and amenities. Federal Boulevard and 14th Street, West Howard Place and Decatur Street, and Lower West Colfax Avenue and the Stadium Festival Street are all identified as priority intersections which should be given design enhancements to improve safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.

STAD I UM D IST RI CT M A ST E R PL AN (2019) This plan reimagines the southern portion of the Metro Football Stadium District, which currently consists of surface parking lots and highway infrastructure, as a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood destination. Improving connectivity and enhancing the public realm are key goals. The recommendations support the improvement of pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, improving transit station and bus stop amenities, and enhancing outdoor public space through furnishings, art, lighting, and wayfinding signage. The plan also describes the desire to explore alternative community-driven uses such as public art, temporary recreational uses, pop-up businesses; events (such as farmer’s markets), and plazas under the Colfax Viaduct.

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DENVE R D OWN TOWN A R E A PL AN AM EN DMEN T (2018 ) This plan looks at the area directly northeast of the Meow Wolf Denver site, including the Mile High Light Rail Station and much of the larger River Mile development area. The plan has a strong focus on mobility and connectivity issues with one of the five key vision elements being walkability.

The plan expresses the desire for new parks and public open space, increased pedestrian connections along the river, a multi-modal street grid that prioritizes pedestrians and bicycles over automobiles, and mobility options that are integrated with existing light rail stations. The plan identifies Walnut Street as a priority street for enhanced bicycle and pedestrian amenities and suggests reclassifying it either as a local street or a shared street. The plan also supports using creative placemaking strategies.

AU R AR I A WE ST STAT I O N AREA PL AN (20 0 9) This plan, completed in anticipation of the opening of the West line in 2013, lays out a vision for the Auraria West Station area as a walkable, transit-oriented destination with campus-serving retail and amenities. Placemaking is identified as a key objective of the plan, which advocates for improving the station’s status as a destination, creating a strong sense of arrival for the station and the campus itself. The plan identifies both Walnut Street and 5th Avenue as enhanced streets which should be prioritized for pedestrian and bicycle enhancements such as pedestrian bulb-outs, crosswalks with special paving patterns, lighting, and other amenities.

DENVE R HO U S IN G AUT H ORI TY S UN VALLEY MAST ER PL AN (201 5) This plan establishes a strategy for the Denver Housing Authority’s redevelopment and replacement of the existing Sun Valley Homes public housing project. In addition to replacing one-for-one each of the existing 333 low-income affordable units, the plan calls for providing an additional 417 units of attainable workforce housing and market rate housing to create a true mixed-income community. One of the plan’s priority areas is connections and open space, which includes goals of creating safe, walkable streets, improving connections to transit, connecting Sun Valley with the neighboring communities, and improving outdoor public spaces.

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VISION

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GOALS

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VISION In the future, Meow Wolf will serve as a creative beacon, helping to connect adjacent neighborhoods to Downtown and the nearby light rail stations through the vibrant and immersive art that spills out its doors and into the surrounding streets.

Through engaged creative placemaking, Meow Wolf and its community partners will transform the functional infrastructure of the street to prioritize pedestrian and bicycle mobility, creating street-level experiences that invite and stimulate visitors and passersby.

Meow Wolf will transform itself from a disconnected urban island into a truly connected and accessible place that allows people the choice to walk, bike, scoot, pedicab, ride transit, carpool, taxi, rideshare, or drive.

GOA LS SAF E & ACC E S S I B L E

ACT IVE & I NVI T I N G

The routes to and from Meow Wolf should make all people – regardless of age, ability, or means of transportation – feel safe and comfortable. Slowing traffic, improving intersection safety with high contrast, high-visibility crosswalks, and adding pedestrian-scaled lighting fixtures will help to make the streets around Meow Wolf feel safer and more accessible for all users.

An attractive, high-quality urban environment filled with interesting art and activities will encourage people to get out of their cars, because the pathways to Meow Wolf will be more active. The streets and trails around Meow Wolf should be well-maintained, aesthetically pleasing, and offer shade, seating, and other amenities to create a welcoming environment for all.

UNI Q UE & CO M M U N I TY- B A S ED

EN G AG I N G & I M MERS IVE

Creative placemaking measures should work with the community to identify the existing culture, character, assets and other aspects that makes the area distinctive.

Meow Wolf should pursue partnerships and heavily engage with the existing community of residents, workers, artists, and organizations that are already working to improve the neighborhood and take steps to ensure that the neighborhood’s history and culture are properly celebrated and not appropriated or mis-represented.

The streets and trails around Meow Wolf should showcase what Meow Wolf does best – creating immersive, interactive, narrative art experiences. Allowing that art to spill out into the surrounding area will not only enhance the existing neighborhood and improve transportation infrastructure but will provide Meow Wolf visitors with a fun and engaging experience during their journey to and from the venue.

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RECO

O M M E N DAT I O N S

1 . N AVI G AT I O N I M PR OVE M E N T S Based on my interviews with community stakeholders and my existing conditions analysis, one of the main barriers to non-vehicular mobility is a lack of wayfinding and navigation tools. The area below the viaduct is extremely confusing for all users, and especially unfriendly to pedestrians.

Wayfinding and signage are crucial to help visitors find their way to Meow Wolf and other nearby destinations. In addition to a utilitarian use, pedestrian-scaled wayfinding helps bicyclists and pedestrians feel safe and welcome.

RECO M M E N DAT IO N 1 A .

IMPLE M ENT A WAYF I N D IN G AND SI G NAG E PRO G R A M Meow Wolf should work with the City and County of Denver and other community partners to create an intuitive and consistent wayfinding system including signage, maps, neighborhood information, digital applications, and other graphic communication to establish clear and comfortable connections between the nearby light rail platforms, bus stops, multi-use trails, and nearby landmarks and destinations, including Empower Field at Mile High, Children’s Museum of Denver, Elitch Gardens, Pepsi Center, Auraria Higher Education Center, Rude Recreation Center, Rodolpho "Corky" Gonzales Branch Library, the Colorado Convention Center, and the Lower Colfax District.

Signage should be geared towards pedestrians and bicyclists and list walking and biking times to neighborhood destinations in minutes in addition to distances so people can accurately judge how long 106

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

it will take to get where they are going.

Providing walking and biking times also encourages active transportation by helping people understand how easy and quick it can be to bike and walk.

The signage and wayfinding program should develop and incorporate a strong and distinctive style that will create a recognizable image for the area without branding the area, which could overshadow the emphasis on local culture, history, and community led designs.

Recommended sign types include: PRIM ARY GATEWAY M ONUM E NTS These large and eye-catching monuments serve as a prominent statement of entry and should be placed at key entrances/ gateways for each pathway within the study area.

SECONDARY GATEWAY M O NUM E NTS These secondary gateways should be placed at important destinations, decision points, or intersections that are crucial for linking visitors to their destinations. These provide an opportunity for large-scale unique, commissioned artworks.

M AP & I NFO KI OSKS These kiosks will provide area maps and highlight key destinations, attractions, and local businesses. They can also be customized to feature local history and culture, or community bulletin boards. These should be placed at light rail stations, bus stops, and important destinations such as Meow Wolf, Empower Field at Mile High, and in the Lower Colfax District.

PE DE STR I A N- SCA L E D SIGNAGE These pedestrian-scaled signs with walking and biking times and distances should appear at crucial intersections and point the way to area destinations. Each should include unique information, depending on their location, but they should provide continuity so the user can follow the signs for their destination(s) along the entire route.

B AN N ER S O N TR A FFIC SIGN A LS & P O L ES These banners are highly visible for both automobiles and active transportation users, can help provide navigation, and contribute to the area’s overall character.

They can be installed on existing poles for traffic signals and streetlights, or on newly erected poles installed for this purpose.

Banners can be changed out periodically, which can allow for Meow Wolf to regularly commission new artwork.

Gateway concept for Roosevelt Road in Chicago, IL designed by Site Design

Map info kiosk in Lakewood’s 40West Arts District

Looking Through Windows by Michael Kuschnir, art installation on the Indianapolis Cultural Trail.

Pole banners in Long Beach, CA, designed by Iona Urma

Temporary pedestrian wayfinding signs popularized by the Walk Your City initiative.

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FI G U R E 2 3 : MA P OF SU GGE STED WAYFI ND I NG SIGN LOCATIONS

Federal Blvd

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7t h

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W Colfax Ave

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S UBH EADI N G 2

Weir Gulch Trail 1/4 MI

Primary Gateway Monument (3) Secondary Gateway Monument (9) Map & Info Kiosk (8) Pedestrian Info Sign (11) Traffic Signal & Pole Signs (10)

The above map offers suggested locations for the five primary wayfinding sign types outlined above.

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Primary gateway signs are located at major intersections along Colfax, Federal, and Auraria Parkway and are geared towards vehicular travelers, while secondary gateway signs are located at smaller intersections and geared towards pedestrians.

Map and info kiosks are located at transit stations and other major destinations.

Pedestrian info signs are located at key intersections and decision points along the primary pedestrian routes to Meow Wolf.

RECO M M E N DAT IO N 1 B .

CRE ATE A H IG H -VIS IB I L I TY NEI G HBO R H O O D A RTS T R AI L This trail, inspired by the 40 West Art Line case study in Lakewood, CO, would provide a safe, interesting, and vibrant pathway linking Meow Wolf to transit and other nearby destinations and amenities. This trail would not only benefit Meow Wolf and its employees and visitors but have create community benefits through increased pedestrian and bicycle traffic to local businesses and neighborhood destinations, and giving residents the opportunity to further define and steward the development and caretaking of their neighborhood.

foster community-grown creativity and placemaking.

The trail could begin similarly to the 40 West Art Line along Colfax Avenue, with simply painting a line on the sidewalk, and develop and grow into a more permanent trail with time. Meow Wolf will need to work closely with the local community to ensure that placemaking efforts acknowledge, showcase, and celebrate the existing culture and history of the neighborhood.

This will encourage local residents and other users, not just Meow Wolf visitors, to use, contribute to, and benefit from it.

Ideally, the trail would be dynamic and sustainable, giving its users wonderful and diverse street-level experiences and transforming the landscape of grey asphalt into a colorful and memorable place that people can fall in love with. The trail should transform the unfriendly, auto-oriented streets into a safe and welcoming public place that showcases diverse art experiences and supports the careers and industries of local emerging artists.

With Meow Wolf’s artistic expertise leading the way, this trail could incorporate colorful, interactive art and create an immersive narrative experience. In this way, Meow Wolf visitors, both committed and potential, can begin their arts experience before they even reach the front door and will be encouraged to explore the neighborhood, and discover and patronize other local businesses and destinations.

This project will provide ample opportunities to deeply collaborate with the local community, showcase local artists, and to

An interactive art installation along the 40West Arts Trail in Lakewood, CO. Biking along the Indianapolis Cultural Trail

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RECO M M E N DAT IO N 1 C . WAYFI N DI N G APP & DIGI TAL COM M U N ICAT I O NS If Meow Wolf wants its employees and visitors to choose transit and active transportation over driving, they need to make it as easy, obvious, and fun as possible.

Meow Wolf’s website and visitor experience app should include transit, walking, and biking directions and strongly encourage visitors to choose these modes by highlighting the unique experiences and benefits of non-vehicular transportation. ▶ Transit, walking, and biking directions should be given first, and not treated as an afterthought. ▶ Clear maps showing pedestrian paths and bicycle trails should be provided. ▶ The website and app should include direct links to purchase transit tickets. ▶ Information about RTD’s Park-n-Ride facilities (see page 48-49) should be prominently included to encourage people to use transit for at least part of the journey.

parking through their online messaging and communications, Meow Wolf should give visitors a real incentive to use transit and active transportation modes. Meow Wolf visitors are coming for the experience – so the best way to encourage them to use non-vehicular modes of travel is to incorporate the Meow Wolf experience into the journey itself.

The visitor experience app should also be used to help create an immersive narrative for visitors to follow, guiding them from transit stations to Meow Wolf’s front door in a fun and exciting way. The app could include augmented reality, video, music, or other auditory art to entertain visitors on their walk and to encourage exploration.

The website and app should also be integrated with and provide information on the previously mentioned arts trail, the art works located along it, and should include clear messaging about the environmental benefits of walking, biking, and transit.

▶ Driving and on-site parking directions should be given last. ▶ Parking fees should be clearly stated so visitors can decide before they go if the expense of parking on-site is worth it. ▶ Meow Wolf should also price their parking so that people consider the cost before using it. Meow Wolf can explain they have priced their parking in order to encourage other modes in line with their environmental goals as a B-corp .

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Local artist group Prismajic used augmented reality to create an immersive experience in their recent installation, Shiki Dreams.

2 . TA R G E T E D I N T E R S E CT I O N & STREETSCAPING IMPROVEMENTS Jeff Speck’s General Theory of Walkability states that for walking to be favored, a walk needs to be useful, safe, comfortable, and interesting (Speck, 2012). While the draw of Meow Wolf alone might be enough to make a walk useful, much work needs to be done to make the walk feel safe, comfortable, and interesting for pedestrians.

High automobile speeds, confusing and poorly marked intersections, and a lack of trees, buildings, and pedestrian amenities leave pedestrians feeling vulnerable and exposed. Targeted intersection and streetscaping improvements can help to slow traffic, make pedestrians more visible to drivers, and create a more comfortable and welcoming environment.

RECO M M E N DAT IO N 2 A .

SUPP O RT D E S IG N E N H A N C EMEN TS AT PR IO R ITY INT ER SECT IO N S

▶ Full ADA compliance ▶ 4-Way stop control ▶ Countdown pedestrian signals ▶ Curb extensions or pedestrian islands ▶ No right turn bypasses ▶ Additional landscaping and public art Priority intersections identified by the existing conditions analysis include: FED ERAL BLVD & W HOWAR D PL Of all the intersections in the study area, this one is by far the most dangerous. While there are existing crosswalks, high-speed heavy traffic and long crossing distances make this an especially daunting intersection for pedestrians. Given the intersection's proximity to the Decatur-Federal Light Rail Station and numerous bus stops, making it safe for pedestrians should be a top priority.

The designated Priority Intersections in this report are highly utilized crossing locations by pedestrians or bicyclists, and therefore should be designed with the safety and comfort of pedestrians and riders in mind.

Meow Wolf should work with the City of Denver’s Department of Transportation and Infrastructure to support updates to these existing intersections to increase comfort and safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Design enhancements that may be appropriate for priority intersections include: ▶ Wide and well-marked crosswalks

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O LD W CO L FAX AVE & MIL E HIGH STAD I U M C I R This intersection is confusing for both pedestrians and drivers. The three-way stop has no crosswalks and the curb ramps are not aligned with each other, which creates a significant hazard for people with mobility or vision impairments.

W COLFAX AVE & 7TH ST This intersection features long crossing distances, high speed traffic, heavy traffic volumes, and is adjacent to the light rail tracks. It is a primary entrance to the Auraria Higher Education Center and is likely to be both a pedestrian and vehicular route for Meow Wolf visitors.

O LD W CO L FAX AVE / Z U N I ST / I -25 O N - R A MP This confusing intersection, which only features one stop sign, is made significantly more dangerous by high speed vehicles turning onto the highway. The largest crossing distances lack crosswalks and have misaligned curb ramps, which put pedestrians, especially those with mobility and vision impairments, at risk.

RECOMMENDATION 2B .

IMPLEMENT AN INTERSECTION REPAIR PROGRAM For smaller and less heavily trafficked intersections in need of improvement, Meow Wolf should undertake a community-based intersection repair program, modeled after Portland’s City Repair Project. This type of program would transform ordinary intersections into vibrant public places through community design and engagement.

In contrast to the major improvements suggested above, this type of program would be low-cost and provide faster results, and help to connect and forge partnerships with people of all ages and walks of life in the local community.

In this type of placemaking program, community members are invited to submit design ideas and to help paint a mural or craft other low-cost, temporary installa-

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tions to transform an intersection into a gathering place and point of pride for the neighborhood.

These types of community-based interventions can help to slow traffic, make streets safer, and add colorful and interesting art to otherwise drab streets.

Meow Wolf could serve as the program’s convener or participant, helping to organize the community around meaningful art and design, and hosting events where the community could come together to paint and improve their streets.

This program would offer Meow Wolf a chance to show its respect for the community and create a positive social impact while also improving the safety, comfort, and walkability of neighborhood streets.

A successful community project team poses in front of their mural Common Ground, designed by artist Cecelia Lueza in St. Petersburg, FL.

Intersections that should be considered for this program include: ▶ DECATUR ST & W 12TH AVE ▶ W HOWARD PL & DECATUR ST ▶ OLD W COLFAX AVE & MORRISON RD ▶ WALNUT ST & WALNUT ST (Meow Wolf

Entrance)

▶ WALNUT ST & WALNUT ST (Elitch Gardens

South Gate Entrance)

▶ WALNUT ST & 4TH ST ▶ WALNUT ST & 7TH ST

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R ECO M M E N DATI O N 2 C . PROV I D E E N H A N C E D PE D E S TR I A N A N D WH E E LC H A I R A M E N ITI E S O N PR I O R IT Y S TR E E T S To improve safety and comfort of those walking and rolling, Meow Wolf should work with the Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure to provide high-quality pedestrian facilities on major pedestrian routes throughout the study area.

Pedestrian- and wheelchair-priority streets should be enhanced with humanscaled amenities to create an active and inviting public realm.

Street furnishings and other amenities add functionality and vitality to the public realm, making streets more comfortable and welcoming to pedestrians and rollers, while adding visual detail and interest.

Enhanced facilities should include: ▶ Wider, detached sidewalks ▶ Enhanced paving materials and detailing that are also amenable to those with canes or in wheelchairs ▶ Trees, attractive landscaping, and green infrastructure ▶ Amenities such as benches, trash/recycling receptacles, and shade structures ▶ Bike lanes and bicycle parking ▶ Public art ▶ Human-scaled lighting High-quality human-scaled facilities and an enhanced public realm will facilitate the shift from vehicular travel to active transportation.

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the new investments in Sun Valley, the Stadium District, the River Mile, and the Auraria Higher Education Center.

Pedestrian Priority streets include: WALNUT STREET As the most significant access road for Meow Wolf, it is paramount that Walnut Street provide a safe, comfortable, and inviting experience for pedestrians.

In the existing conditions analysis, Walnut had the worst pedestrian environment in the study area due to an unappealing built environment, high speed traffic, perceived safety issues, and poor maintenance.

Enhanced pedestrian amenities, along with the addition of lighting, wayfinding, and public art, could make this street feel much more welcoming.

OLD W COLFAX AVENUE Lower Colfax has the potential to be a vibrant Main Street and should be given a wide range of streetscaping enhancements to balance pedestrian activity, bicycle traffic, and accommodate stadium and other event traffic.

Pedestrian improvements here will improve walkability and encourage the redevelopment of adjacent parking lots into active uses.

D ECATUR STREET While much of Decatur Street scored well on the street assessments, the section between W 13th Ave and Morrison Rd scored low due to the poor quality of the built environment and a lack of pedestrian-scaled amenities and lighting.

F I G U R E 24 : PE DE STR IA N PR IORITY INTERSECTIONS AND STREETS

Federal Blvd

Pepsi Center/Elitch Gardens Station

Au Empower Field at Mile High Station

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ria

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Decatur-Federal Station

Decatur St

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Auraria West Station

W 13th Ave

10th/Osage Station

1/4 MI

Major Pedestrian Priority Intersection - Targeted for design enhancements to improve safety and comfort for bicyclists and pedestrians Secondary Pedestrian Priority Intersection - Targeted for community-based intersection repair program and public art enhancements Pedestrian Priority Street - Targeted for design enhancements that will improve the safety and comfort of bicyclists and pedestrians Given that Decatur St is a crucial road for connecting the residents of Sun Valley to the Decatur Federal Light Rail Station,

ensuring this road is safe and comfortable for pedestrians should be a high priority.

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3 . PU B L I C A RT A N D B E AUT I F I CAT I O N Interesting and attractive public spaces are crucial for community health and well-being by facilitating social interaction, encouraging physical activity, supporting active transportation, and fostering a sense of belonging and civic pride.

Community-led art that is well-designed and integrated into the public realm can help to create a safer, more comfortable pedestrian environment by lessening the impact of motor vehicle traffic through slowing traffic, by providing directional tools to guide visitors to their destinations, and by creating a more aesthetically pleasing and interesting environment that entices people to explore and enjoy the area without their cars.

RECO M M E N DAT IO N 3 A .

SUPP O RT T H E C R E AT I O N O F COMM UNI TY- L E D PU B L I C ART Public art should be a reflection of the community it serves, and new public art projects in the neighborhoods surrounding Meow Wolf should be collaborative and community-led.

Sponsoring and supporting grassroots public art initiatives will allow Meow Wolf to give back to the community, support safe, walkable communities, provide paid opportunities for local artists, and build deeper relationships with its community partners and neighbors.

When done correctly, public art can foster a deep sense of community pride and social cohesion and further enhance the community’s sense of place.

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A mural by artist Julii McMillan on a traffic signal box in Toronto, Canada installed as part of StreetARToronto's Outside the Box program.

To ensure new public art is reflective of community culture and values, Meow Wolf should: ▶ Partner with other area nonprofits to establish a committee of local residents, employees, and representatives of community organizations to oversee, select, and manage public art installations ▶ Work through the committee to collaborate with local artists and community organizations for the design and implementation of art that is integrated and interactive and reflect the history and heritage of the area ▶ Provide sponsorships and in-kind support including fundraising, marketing, materials, fabrication, training/mentoring, and installation for community-led public art initiatives

N RECO M M E N DAT IO N 3B .

ESTABLI S H A N U N D E R T H E VIAD UCT A RTS PR O G RA M The areas along Walnut Street under the Colfax Viaduct are the worst areas in terms of pedestrian environment. One way to improve the experience under the viaduct is to give it a fresh coat of paint – literally.

▶ Using neon or LED light fixtures to add creative lighting and improve the sense of safety ▶ Creating activity zones, such as a community park, skate park, temporary vendor structures, picnic tables and seating areas, or other spaces for community gatherings and recreation

Creating an Under the Viaduct Arts Program would give Meow Wolf a way to drastically improve the pedestrian environment over time, while also providing ongoing paid opportunities for local artists.

This program should focus on reaching out to a diverse group of artists of color and/or artists from underrepresented communities and should primarily focus on employing local Denver-area artists.

By transforming the existing underpass into a colorful, interesting, and inviting thoroughfare, the Under the Viaduct Arts Program will help to create a safe and memorable environment that will encourage active transportation by both residents, workers, and visitors alike. This will help to improve a crucial east-west connection between Sun Valley and Downtown Denver.

Ballroom Luminoso, designed by artists Joe O'Connell and Blessing Hancock, transformed a highway underpass in San Antonio, TX.

Meow Wolf should lead the way in refreshing the under-loved underpass through: ▶ Adding murals, artworks, and sculptures to brighten and add color to the underpass while reflecting local culture, heritage, and values ▶ Using a combination of light, sound, and visual projection to expand the senses and create a truly immersive experience

Artist Silvia Lopez Chavez works on a mural at Boston's Underground Ink Block in 2019.

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4 . BICYCLE AND MICROMOBILITY AC Situated at the crossroads for two regional bike trails, Meow Wolf should take full advantage of its location and do all it can to encourage bicycle use.

By encouraging the shift from automobile use to bicycle use, Meow Wolf will reduce its carbon footprint and reduce vehicular traffic impacts on the neighborhood, since the travel shed area for bicycle users is larger than for pedestrians. Supporting a bike-friendly neighborhood will also enhance public health, community livability, and equity for those who cannot own or drive a car.

Micromobility options, such as docked and dockless bikeshare, electric scooters, and other small light-weight vehicles, should also be accommodated at Meow Wolf’s site to further encourage the shift away from automobiles to more sustainable and environmentally-friendly transportation options.

RECOMMEN DAT I O N 4A .

PROVI DE AMPLE AN D SECURE O N - S I T E BI KE PARKI N G Meow Wolf cannot solely rely on its proximity to major regional bicycle facilities to promote bicycle use; it must also provide ample bike parking.

Studies from around the world have shown that a major factor in the choice to bike is the availability of end-of-trip facilities such as bicycle parking (Why Bike Parking?, 2016).

All bicyclists need a place to store their bike at the end of their trip. Without secure bike parking at their destination, bicyclists run the risk of having their bicycles stolen, vandalized, or taken away by police.

Ideally, the parking is more than racks and provides these additional features that help to attract more than the most dedicated bike riders: ▶ Ensure that there is enough bicycle parking to accommodate the target number of bicycle visitors. ▶ Place bicycle parking in a prominent, highly visible location, within 50 ft of the building entrance, or at least as close as the nearest parking space.

A colorful bike corral in San Francisco. Mural by artist Kristin Farr.

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▶ Commission colorful custom bike racks designed by local Denver artists. Welldesigned, artistic bike racks increase the visual appeal of the area they are placed, provide heightened visibility, and improve the perception of bicycling as a transportation mode. ▶ Select bicycle parking facilities that are

CCO M O DAT I O N S compatible with u-style locks that secure both the wheels and frame of the bike. ▶ Consider providing at least some covered bike parking to provide greater protection from the elements. ▶ On the busiest days each year, provide additional valet parking in a temporary fenced off valet-secured area. ▶ Provide at least some bike lockers or a secure indoor bicycle storage facility specifically for Meow Wolf employees. ▶ Provide a public bike repair station that gives bicyclists the tools necessary to perform basic bike repairs and maintenance ▶ Provide showers and changing rooms for Meow Wolf employees who bike to work In addition to providing ample on-site parking at their location, Meow Wolf should also

support and encourage local businesses and neighborhood organizations throughout the study area to provide bike parking facilities at appropriate locations along streets and in parks and public spaces.

Meow Wolf should consider supporting these activities financially or provide in-kind support or design help.

People who bike to one destination can often be prohibited from going to other nearby destinations on the same trip because there isn’t enough bike parking. In the end, they decide to drive so they can go to more than one place.

By promoting bike parking in other nearby sites, it promotes the idea of biking to the area and visiting several sites at once, including Meow Wolf. Promoting the area as a biking destination could attract additional visitors to Meow Wolf.

The Sun Guided the Road Bike Shelter by Darren Goins in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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RECO M M E N DAT IO N 4B . PR OVI DE DEDI CAT ED S PAC E FOR SHAR E D M I C R O M O B I L I TY O PT I O N S While the shared micromobility industry, which includes a range of lightweight vehicles including bikes, e-scooters, and mopeds – has been hard hit by the COVID19 pandemic, it is anticipated that ridership will fully return to precrisis levels and will likely increase over the long term (Heineke et al., 2020).

Further, the City of Denver has a plan to accommodate shared bikes and e-scooters, which makes it even more likely to return to pre-COVID-19 levels.

Meow Wolf should anticipate the use of shared micromobility options among its visitors, particularly for visitors coming from Downtown Denver, where micromobility options proliferate. ▶ Set aside dedicated space for dockless micromobility vehicle parking. Without dedicated parking options, micromobility vehicles can quickly become obstructions, especially to people with disabilities, and consume valuable sidewalks, right-of-way, and other public space.

E-scooter coral in Santa Monica, California

▶ Ensure that micromobility parking areas are clearly marked and designated with symbols, paint, tape, thermoplastic, and signage. ▶ Consider partnering with micromobility companies that offer docked options to provide a docking station at Meow Wolf. ▶ Consider partnering with local pedal cab companies to encourage the use of pedicab transit to Meow Wolf from Downtown and make sure to provide a dedicated pick up/drop off zone for pedicabs.

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Pedicabs offer and fun and eco-friendly way to get around Downtown Denver.

RECO M M E N DAT IO N 4 C . S U PP O RT EFFORTS TO I MPROVE AND EXPAND D E NVE R' S B ICYC LE FACI LI T I ES The easier it is to bike and use other micromobility options in Denver, the more likely it is that people will choose to bike and scoot to Meow Wolf.

High-comfort bike facilities that are safe, convenient, and pleasant will contribute to the shift away from automobiles to environmentally-friendly bicycles and other micromobility options.

Meow Wolf should work with Denver and community groups to: ▶ Advocate for the continued implementation of the Denver Moves Plan: Bicycles projects, especially the protected bike lane along W 13th Ave, neighborhood bikeways along Eliot St, Irving St, and W 14th Ave, and improvements to bicycle connectivity within Auraria Campus.

The Cherry Creek Trail in Denver.

▶ Improve the intersections of the S Platte River Trail with the Lakewood Gulch Trail and the Weir Gulch Trail. ▶ Explore ways to update the multi-use trail underpasses to be more comfortable and inviting. ▶ Add pedestrian amenities such as benches, shade structures, trash/recycling receptacles, wayfinding signage, and public art to enhance the experience along the multi-use trails. ▶ Support the work of existing Denverbased bicycle advocacy groups such as the Bike Denver Initiative by Bicycle Colorado and the Denver Streets Partnership

Bicycle Colorado's RIDE initiative aims to build equity and encourage diversity in biking.

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5. SAFETY AND MAINTENANCE Throughout my interviews with community stakeholders, safety was repeatedly brought up as a major issue. A lack of lighting, poor maintenance leading to lots of trash, high traffic speeds, and a lack of “eyes on the street” all contribute to the perception of danger in area.

While many of the previous recommendations will help with reducing traffic speeds and making pedestrians feel more welcome, the following suggestions specifically address the perception of safety.

Meow Wolf should work with their community partners and advisory committee to implement the following recommendations. In many parts of the city, additional safety and maintenance is provided by a Business Improvement District.

While there are several BIDs, including the West Colfax BID and the Downtown Denver Partnership, working in the area,

Meow Wolf is not currently within a BID. To implement these recommendations, Meow Wolf might want to consider working with one of the nearby BIDs to extend their boundaries to include the area surrounding their location.

RECOMMEN DAT I O N 5 A . AD D ADDI T I ON AL PEDEST RIANS CALED LI G H T I N G Lighting can enhance the pedestrian environment and increase comfort and safety. Well-lit pedestrian areas make people walking through the area feel safer.

Lighting can also enhance the ambiance of an area and makes pedestrians more visible to motorists.

While most of the area has basic streetlamps, only a few areas near the stadium and along the Sports Walk route from the Decatur-Federal and Empower Field at Mile High Light Rail Stations have specialty pedestrian-level lighting.

To ensure pedestrian comfort and safety: ▶ Install additional pedestrian-scaled lighting along key pedestrian routes to and from the light rail stations and bus stops, especially along Walnut St underneath the viaduct, along Old W Colfax Ave, and along Decatur Street from 13th Ave to Morrison Rd ▶ Install additional pedestrian-scaled lighting along the South Platte River and Lakewood Gulch Trails

Sensing You light art installation by Dan Corson in an underpass in San Jose.

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▶ Hire local artists to install artistic lighting under the Colfax viaduct

RECO M M E N DAT IO N 5 B .

ADD E M ER G E N CY PH O N E TOWE R S ALO N G K EY PED E STR I A N PAT H S Emergency phone towers provide reliable communications and improve public safety. They are often used on freeways, bridges, tunnels, parking lots, campuses, industrial complexes, and on remote roadways, parks and recreational areas to provide a reliable and direct communication channel to public safety authorities.

Emergency phone towers allow people to call emergency personnel with a push of a button and give passers-by an enhanced sense of security.

Emergency telephone towers help pedestrians feel safe when walking at night.

RECO M M E N DAT IO N 5 C .

WO R K TO R E D U C E L I T T E RI N G & R EM OVE T R A S H F RO M PED E STR I A N PAT H S A simple way to quickly improve the quality of the pedestrian environment is to clean up litter and other debris. Litter destroys the beauty of a community and can damage the environment. The presence of litter is often associated with higher crime rates, and as a result can make people feel unsafe.

During the street assessments, I found high levels of litter on Walnut St below the viaduct, on Old W Colfax Avenue between Decatur St and the S Platte River, on Zuni St between W 14th Ave and W 13th Ave, and on Lakewood Gulch Trail.

To reduce the amount of litter in these areas:

Existing litter under the viaduct along Walnut Street, close to Meow Wolf's entrance

▶ Install trash cans and recycling receptacles at regular intervals along the streets most in need of clean up ▶ Participate in Denver’s Adopt-a-Spot program, which is designed for schools, businesses, civic groups, churches or families who want to maintain a particular area. ▶ Sponsor and participate in regular community clean-up days, particularly focusing on the areas underneath the viaduct.

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IM

M PL E M E N TAT I O N

REALIZING THE VISION This plan sets forth a vision for a more interconnected, vibrant, and pedestrianfriendly neighborhood that encourages people to ride transit, walk, and bike, through the addition of fun, stimulating, community-created art, wayfinding, and placemaking elements. The goals and recommendations in this plan are complex and interconnected, and implementation will take place in phases over several years.

Implementation of the plan will be a collaborative effort and will rely heavily on partnerships and coordination between Meow Wolf, community and neighborhood groups, non-profits, local artists and arts organizations, public agencies, and the private sector.

Achieving the vision for the plan area will take concerted, sustained effort among all stakeholders to tackle the initiatives in this plan and set the course for success.

Working closely with local neighborhood representatives, community groups, and local business will be critical to ensuring the community benefits described in this plan are fully realized.

PA RTN ERS HIP S & CO M M U NI TY COLL ABOR ATION The concept of creative placemaking described in this plan is based on a collaborative, community-centered approach to the planning and design of public spaces.

The implementation of the recommendations in this plan must start with authentic and respectful community outreach.

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Before making any improvements to the neighborhood, Meow Wolf must reach out to the local community and form partnerships with existing community-based organizations.

Neighborhood organizations such as the Sun Valley Community Coalition, Jefferson Park United Neighbors, La Alma/Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association, and West Colfax Association of Neighbors will be crucial to gaining community support and engaging people in the process of placemaking.

Partnerships with public, private, and civic sector stakeholders will also be essential

The recommendations in this plan cannot be accomplished without active and sustained involvement of the community – the people who call Sun Valley and West Denver home, the employees who work in the neighborhood businesses, the students, faculty, and staff that live, work, and study on Auraria Campus.

for successful implementation. Due to the difficulties of securing permits for changes in the right-of-way, Meow Wolf should reach out to the City and County of Denver, Colorado Department of Transportation, and RTD early in the process, and establish collaborative working relationships with these agencies.

Meow Wolf will also need to work in partnership with local developers and business owners on many aspects of these recommendations, especially when it comes to implementing a wayfinding program.

Non-profits and civic sector groups are also important. Denver already has several organizations focused on improving

Mural by Faatma Be Oné at Namaste Solar in Sun Valley

pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure, including Denver Streets Partnership and the Greenway Foundation. Nearby local business improvement districts, including the West Colfax BID and the Downtown Denver Partnership also strongly support improvements to the pedestrian environment. The Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition is also a key organization to engage to ensure that Meow Wolf’s community interventions are accessible for all regardless of different abilities.

More information about potential partners and a stakeholder engagement strategy can be found in Appendix C.

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PROJ ECT PHA S ING Recommendations are separated into immediate (less than one year), short term (1-3 years), and medium term (4-6 years). Long term projects (7+ years) were not included, as the focus of these recommendations is on concrete things that Meow Wolf can do within a few years of completing and opening their Denver location.

FI G U R E 2 5. R ECO MME NDATIO NS PHASING AND SUGGESTED PART NE R S NUMBER

RECO M M E N DATI O N

1C

Wayfinding app and digital communications

4A

Provide ample and secure on-site bike parking

4B

Provide dedicated space for shared micromobility options

5B

Add emergency phone towers along key pedestrian paths

5C

Work to reduce littering and remove trash from pedestrian paths

1A

Implement a comprehensive wayfinding & signage program

2B

Implement an intersection repair program

3B

Establish an Under the Viaduct arts program

1B

Create a highly visible neighborhood arts trail

2A

Support design enhancements at priority intersections

2C

Provide enhanced pedestrian amenities on priority streets

5A

Add additional pedestrian-scaled lighting

3A

Support the creation of community-led public art

4C

Support efforts to improve and expand Denver’s bicycle facilities

ACRONYMS USED: AHEC - Auraria Higher Education Center BID - Business Improvement District CDOT - Colorado Department of Transportation

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CPD - Community Planning & Development DOTI - Department of Transportation & Infrastructure DHA - Denver Housing Authority DPS - Denver Public Schools

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

MFSD - Metropolitan Footba RNO - Registered Neighborh RTD - Regional Transportati

REL AT IVE COST

TI M E F RA M E

KEY PARTN E RS

$

Immediate

Meow Wolf employees & contractors

$

Immediate

Meow Wolf employees & contractors, local artists

$

Immediate

Meow Wolf employees & contractors, pedicab companies, shared micromobility companies

$

Immediate

Denver DOTI

$

Immediate & Ongoing

Keep Denver Beautiful, RNO's, West Colfax BID, Downtown Denver Partnership

$$$

Short Term

Denver CPD, MFSD , Sun Valley EcoDistrict, RNO’s, Colorado Cross Disability Coalition, local businesses, Revesco, AHEC, RTD

$$

Short Term

Denver DOTI, Denver CPD, Denver Streets Partnership, RNO’s, local artists

$$

Medium Term

CDOT, Denver DOTI, Denver Arts & Venues, RNO’s, local artists, local businesses, Urban Ventures

$$$

Medium Term

RNO’s, Denver Arts & Venues, local artists, local businesses, local residents, MFSD, Pepsi Center, AHEC, Denver CPD, RTD, DHA, Denver Parks & Rec

$$$

Medium Term

Denver DOTI, Denver Streets Partnership

$$$

Medium Term

Denver DOTI, Denver CPD, RNO’s

$$

Medium Term

Denver DOTI, Denver CPD, CDOT

$$

Ongoing

RNO’s, local residents, local artists, Earthlinks, arts organizations, AHEC, AHEC students, DPS, Denver Arts & Venues

$

Ongoing

Denver Streets Partnership, Denver DOTI, Greenways Foundation, Denver Parks & Rec

all Stadium District hood Organization ion District

RELATIVE COST GUIDE: $ - $0 to $50,000 $$ - $50,000 - $250,000 $$$ - $300,000+

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F UND IN G STR ATEG Y The implementation of the recommendations included in this report should be championed by Meow Wolf, community leaders, registered neighborhood organizations, property owners, and developers.

the community, that also help Meow Wolf meet its environmental goals.

These entities will need to work with the mayor and City Council representatives to promote and encourage the wayfinding improvements, community-based creative placemaking efforts, and other multi-modal improvements described in this report.

Grant funding opportunities can come from a variety of public and private entities and are typically interested in promoting a specific outcome.

Implementation will require coordinated involvement of many different organizations pursuing a variety of funding sources and strategies.

G RAN TS

Grants typically include specific conditions and requirements as to what types of projects are eligible and how the funds can be deployed.

A variety of funding sources that could be used for the recommendations in this plan include:

There are a variety of grant funding opportunities for creative placemaking or for projects promoting multi-modal transportation projects. Figure XX on the following page details a few of these opportunities.

MEOW WO L F S PO N S O RS HI P

PARKI N G BEN EFI T DI STRICT

Meow Wolf Denver’s Corporate Social Responsibility 2018 Report pledges to invest a percentage of the Meow Wolf Denver profits directly back into the Denver community through donations, sponsorships, and projects.

A Parking Benefit District (PBD) is a defined geographic area within which revenue from parking facilities is returned to the district to finance neighborhood improvements to enhance mobility, pedestrian and bicyclist safety, and improve the public realm.

As of November 2020, Meow Wolf has invested over $615,000 from donations and sponsorships directly to Denver non-profit organizations and businesses, with over half of that money going to projects and events that pay artists directly.

While PBDs are typically implemented in downtowns or commercial corridors and normally apply to on-street parking, this solution could easily be implemented by Meow Wolf and other surrounding businesses that charge for parking.

Implementing the recommendations in this report would offer Meow Wolf additional opportunities to engage with the community and hire local artists, while promoting safe, walkable neighborhoods and access to transit, two key priorities for

By redirecting parking revenues into neighborhood improvements in multi-modal transportation, Meow Wolf can give back to the community and offset some of their more detrimental traffic impacts.

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

OTH ER S PEC IA L D I ST RI CTS The city charter and state statute enable various types of districts to be created, including business improvement districts, general improvement districts, metropolitan districts, and local improvement or maintenance districts.

These districts allow citizens to pool their economic resources to implement specific projects in their locality. They are a useful tool when the community desires and is willing to pay for enhanced public improvements. However, special districts usually require the approval of the Denver City Council as well as a vote of the local electorate.

DENVER' S 6-YEAR CAPITAL I M PROVEMEN T PRO G RA M The City’s 6-year Capital Improvement Program (CIP), serves as a work plan for the city and its departments and sets aside funding for improvements, including acquisition, construction, and maintenance of buildings, streets, bike lanes, plazas, parks, public art, and other real property.

Meow Wolf and its community partners should work closely with the City and County of Denver to ensure that major desired improvements are in plans that are used to create the City’s 5-year CIP.

Two existing BIDs, the Downtown Denver Partnership and the West Colfax BID, cover areas to the east and west of Meow Wolf Denver's site. Meow Wolf could seek to join one of these existing BID, or create their own. Should Meow Wolf seek to go this route, they will need to spend some time garnering community support and talking with elected officials in order to make the case for this approach.

Crosswalk mural installed by the West Colfax BID with the help of P.S. You are Here grant funding 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

131

FI G U R E 26 . GR A NT O PP ORTU NI TIES FOR CREATIVE PL ACEM AKI NG AND ALT E R GRANT

PRO G RA M G OA L

WH AT IS F U N DE D

Arts in Society

Promoting cross-sector work with the arts

Projects that integrate arts and cultu with other disciplines to improve the health and well-being of Coloradans, specifically projects that demonstrat high level of collaboration between a organizations, and a target communi address a problem or social justice iss

Imagine 2020 Fund

Supporting initiatives that advance Denver's Cultural Plan, IMAGINE 2020.

New, creative and innovative program inspired by one or more of the seven vision elements outlined in IMAGINE 2020 that further develops Denver’s c ative landscape including: Integration Amplification, Accessibility, Lifelong Learning, Local Talent, Economic Vita and Collective Leadership.

National Endowment for the Arts Our Town

Strengthening communities through creative placemaking activities

Projects that integrate arts, culture, and design activities into efforts that strengthen communities by advanci local economic, physical, and/or soci outcomes. Projects may include acti such as community co-creation of ar temporary or permanent public art, ist-facilitated community planning, p space design, professional artist dev ment, and more.

P.S. You are Here

Enriching the lives for Denver residents and visitors by integrating the arts, culture and creativity into daily life and neighborhoods that are accessible for all

Creative, short-term physical improv ment projects that aim to transform underutilized urban spaces to increa collaboration, honor heritage, build c engagement, beautify neighborhoo enrich communities and inspire long term change

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

NATIVE T R A N S P ORTATIO N EL I GI BL E A PPL I CA N TS

F U N DIN G AMOU N T

APPL ICATION DEADLINE

ure e , te a artists, ity to sue.

Open to nonprofits and individuals. Basically, all who reside in the state of Colorado can apply. You do NOT need to be an arts organization.

$5,000 - $35,000

2020 applications are currently closed.

Proposal submissions for the next round of funding will begin in Fall 2021 and funds will be disbursed Spring 2022.

ms n

City agencies, cultural institutions, businesses, entrepreneurs, civic leaders, neighborhood and community-based organizations and individuals in the City and County of Denver

Up to $7,500 per program. Requires a 1 to 1 match.

Applications for the next grant cycle are TBD.

All applications require partnerships that involve at least two primary partners and must include a nonprofit organization and a local governmental entity. One of the two primary partners must be a cultural (arts or design) organization. Additional partners are encouraged.

$25,000 - $150,000 Requires a 1 to 1 match.

2020 applications were due August 6.

Application timetables for 2021 have not been announced yet.

Primary applicants must be place-based entities such as an RNO or neighborhood-based group, business improvement district, maintenance district, business association or chamber of commerce, art or creative district, business or placedbased organizations (non- and for-profit), or an individual working with one or more of the above

Up to $10,000 per project. Requires a 1 to 1 match.

Applications for the next grant cycle are TBD.

cren,

ality,

t ing ial ivities rt, artpublic velop-

vem ase civic ods, g-

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FI G U R E 27. GR A N T O PP ORTU NITIES FOR CREATIVE PL ACEM AKING AND ALT E R N GRANT

PRO G RA M G OA L

WH AT IS F U N DE D

Transportation Alternatives Program

Funding transportation improvement projects that expand travel choice, strengthen the local economy, improve quality of life, and protect the environment

TAP provides funding for programs a projects defined as transportation alt natives, including on- and off-road pe trian and bicycle facilities, infrastructu projects for improving non-driver acc to public transportation and enhance mobility, community improvement a ties, and environmental mitigation; re ational trail program projects; and pr for planning, designing, or constructi boulevards and other roadways large in the right-of-way of former Interstat System routes or other divided highw

Urban Arts Fund

Graffiti prevention, youth development, and advancing community building and social change

The creation of murals in “graffiti hot spots.” A graffiti hot spot is an identifi geographical location which is the on ing target of graffiti vandalism. Photo documentation of graffiti vandalism accompany each application.

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NATIVE T R A N S P ORTATION EL I GI BL E A PPL I CA N TS

F U N DIN G AMOU N T

APPL ICATION DEADLINE

and teredesure cess ed activiecrerojects ing ely te ways.

Local governments, regional transportation authorities, transit agencies, natural resource or public land agencies, school districts, local education agencies, or schools, tribal governments, nonprofit entities responsible for the administration of local transportation safety programs, and any other local or regional governmental entities with responsibility for, or oversight of, transportation or recreational trails.

Varies by project.

CDOT has allocated about $1.68 million for TAP projects in CDOT’s Region 1 (which includes the Denver Metro Area) for FY21-FY23.

Projects require a 20% local match.

For application details, please contact JoAnn Mattson at joann. mattson@state.co.us

t fied ngoo must

Any artist or team of artists demonstrating the ability to execute a successful mural project, with an emphasis on emerging artists, and artists representing marginalized communities including women, people of color, people with disabilities, and people identifying as LGBTQ+.

$3,000 - $10,000

2020 applications closed on March 16.

2021 application details have yet to be announced.

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M ONITOR I NG PR OG R E S S Measuring a project’s impact is a crucial step in the implementation process. In a restricted fiscal environment, funders, taxpayers, and community partners want to see a return on their investment for wayfinding, placemaking, and mobility projects.

▶ Number of public events

Being able to effectively communicate project outcomes and community benefits can help with securing additional funding and building broader community support for placemaking projects.

ECON OMI C

The recommendations within this report, if implemented, would be a great contribution to the community and have tremendous social impact. Like with their Corporate Social Responsibility Plan, Meow Wolf Denver should document and publicly report their progress towards these goals, and plan an annual event to celebrate progress toward the implementation of this plan.

In a white paper by the Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) at MIT, the authors recommend metrics to measure the success of community-led creative placemaking efforts in the following four categories:

USE AND ACT IVI TY These metrics measure who is using the space, when, and how: ▶ Daytime and evening pedestrian and bicyclist counts, ▶ Number of different types of users such as families, older people, or racial or ethnic mix, ▶ Transit usage, 136

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

▶ User satisfaction surveys ▶ Safety perception surveys ▶ Perceived community benefits surveys

Creative placemaking projects can often prove controversial from an economic standpoint. While some might push for placemaking as a catalyst for revitalization, others may be skeptical of projects due to their potential to cause rising property values and gentrification.

Economic metrics are important for monitoring a project’s impact on the local community. Examples include: ▶ Employment rates ▶ Number of jobs ▶ Property values ▶ Increased tax revenue ▶ Change in adjacent retail sales ▶ Number of businesses ▶ Commercial and residential occupancy rates ▶ Increases in median area wages ▶ Change in rent prices ▶ Gain or loss of rental uses ▶ Change in share of resident income devoted to housing costs ▶ Nearby school enrollment and absenteeism ▶ Change in racial and ethnic diversity

▶ Change in poverty

Metrics include:

▶ Average age of business (to determine if incumbent ones were displaced)

▶ Number of community meetings related to the placemaking project

▶ Number of locally owned versus corporate businesses

▶ Number and diversity of community partners involved

PUBLI C HE A LT H & S A F E TY

▶ Number and diversity of people who show up to community meetings

The holistic, community-based approach to creative public space planning and design advocated in this report can have many benefits for public health and community safety.

▶ Diversity and geographic range of users of public place ▶ Number of friends or acquaintances residents encounter on the streets

Metrics related to public health include:

▶ Number of congregation points on the streets

▶ Crime statistics

▶ Social capital surveys

▶ Sanitation ratings

▶ Rates of volunteerism

▶ Air quality ▶ Decibel levels ▶ Traffic speed ▶ Traffic counts ▶ Public health data such as asthma or obesity rates ▶ Crash/injury data for pedestrians, cars, and bicyclists.

SOC I AL CAPITA L & COMM UNI TY E N G AG E M E N T

Prior to initiating a creative placemaking project, Meow Wolf should carefully consider their project goals and establish a set of metrics for measuring the project’s outcome, with particular emphasis on how the project will impact the existing local community.

The above measures should be designed to measure and capture effects on existing residents in relation to new residents after Meow Wolf and other changes occur.

The recommendations in this report strongly advocate engaging the community throughout the process. Creative placemaking projects should be a collaborative effort that center community voices and provide tangible benefits to the people who live, work, play, and study in the area.

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IM AGE C R E D ITS Note: All photos, maps, or other graphics not cited below were created and owned by the author, Annelies van Vonno.

Cover and Chapter Page Image: Google Earth Pro 7.3.3.7786 (2020). Aerial view of Denver, Colorado.

PAGE 6.

SA+R Architects. Meow Wolf Denver.

Architectural rendering. https://sararch. com/projects/in-progress/meow-wolf/ PAGE 8. (TOP) Google Earth Pro 7.3.3.7786. (2020). Aerial view of 1338 1st Street, Denver, CO. PAGE 15.

Greg Raisman. (2014). Children in Sunnyside Piazza. Photograph via Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/nKuMYL PAGE 16. (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) "Today is the Day" installation by Yulia Avgustinovich at 1350 Lamar St. Photograph courtesy of the 40 W Arts District. https://40westarts.org/sculptures-1/ uwjh8lqf4nph9ujzskjk5c4dtx9gpj Under.Over.Pass installation by Jim Gallucci and Scott Richardson. Photograph courtesy Greensboro Public Art. https:// publicartgso.org/2018/06/06/over-underpass-by-jim-gallucci-and-scott-richardson/#respond Kelsey Kaline (2019). Chicano Park, San Diego, CA. Photograph via The Cultural Landscape Foundation. https://tclf.org/ chicano-park Example of an Intersection Repair project in Portland, OR. Photograph courtesy of The City Repair Project. https://cityrepair.

org/intersection-repair-examples Lakeview Lincoln Hub. Photograph courtesy of Site Design Group. https://www. site-design.com/lakeview-lincoln-avenue/ PAGE 20.

Ken Hamblin III (2019). Mural by Faatma Be Oné. Photographi via Namaste Solar Blog. https://blog.namastesolar.com/ sun-valley-mural PAGE 25. (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) Camille Walala. (2016). Crosswalk design

by Camille Walala. Commissioned by Better Bankside and Transport for London.

Photograph via https://www.camillewalala.com/architectureinteriors/2019/1/28/ better-bankside Nicola Betts. (2016). Underpass Park in Toronto, Canada. Photograph via Waterfront Toronto Blog. http://blog.waterfrontoronto.ca/nbe/portal/wt/home/bloghome/posts/underpass-park-redefines-thefuture-of-public-realm Justin Mitchell. (2018). Coxe Avenue. Drone photograph. Image courtesy of The City of Asheville. https://www.ashevillenc.gov/ news/coxe-avenue-transformed-for-tactical-urbanism-multimodal-exercise/ Snow Cones light art installation by Jeff Zischke. (2019). Photograph courtesy of Georgetown Glow. http://www.georgetownglowdc.com/2019-artists Dor Kedmi. (2014). Warde interactive installation designed by HQ Architects in Vallero Square, Jerusalem, Israel. Photograph courtesy of HQ Architects. https://www.hqa. co.il/home/warde

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PAGE 26.

PAGE 33.

SA+R Architects. Meow Wolf Denver.

Architectural rendering. https://sararch. com/projects/in-progress/meow-wolf/

Sun Valley Residents at Sun Valley Youth Center. Photo from DHA’s Sun Valley Master Plan.

PAGE 30. (TOP TO BOTTOM)

PAGE 44-45. (TOP TO BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT)

West Colfax Viaduct. (1915). Photograph.

Denver Public Library Special Collections. https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/ collection/p15330coll22/id/30632/rec/21 Louis Charles McClure. (c. 1921-1930).

Midwest Steel & Irons Works Co., Denver.

Photograph. Denver Public Library Special Collections. https://digital.denverlibrary.org/ digital/collection/p15330coll22/id/31127/rec/1 Old West Colfax Avenue. (c. 1949-1950).

Photograph. Denver Public Library Special Collections. https://digital.denverlibrary.org/ digital/collection/p15330coll22/id/90938/ rec/1 Kevin J. Beaty. (2018). Photograph via Denverite. https://denverite. com/2020/08/10/the-denver-housing-authority-has-so-far-received-6-5-million-infederal-relief-funds/ Aerial photo of Empower Field at Mile High next to Mile High Stadium.

Photograph via Walter P. Moore. https:// www.walterpmoore.com/projects/ empower-field-mile-high PAGE 31. (TOP AND BOTTOM) SA+R Architects. Stadium District Master Plan. Architectural rendering. https:// sararch.com/projects/in-progress/ stadium-district-master-plan/ SA+R Architects. River Mile Development.

Architectural rendering. https:// sararch.com/projects/in-progress/ river-mile-master-plan/

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Lloyd Brown. Photograph via Stadium Journey https://stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/ broncos-stadium-at-mile-high-s66/ Tivoli Student Union Building.

Photograph via Auraria Higher Education Center. https://www.ahec. edu/services-departments/tivoli/ reflection-rooms Cori Anderson (2017). Photograph. Courtesy of 303 Magazine. https://303magazine. com/2017/10/raw-project-denver/ Rude Recreation Center (2019). Photograph courtesy of the DPR Rude Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/ DPRRude/?ref=page_internal Aerial Photo of the Pepsi Center.

Photograph courtesy of Pepsi Center. https://pepsicenter.co/?page_id=103 Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park. https://www.elitchgardens.com/ Kara Pearson Gwinn (2013). Photograph via Confluence Denver. https://www. confluence-denver.com/features/sunvalley_072413.aspx ZoeO. (2015). Children’s Museum of Denver. Photo via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:20150804_childrens-museum_120.jpg Albert Pego. Downtown Denver.

Photograph via Shutterstock. Reposted on: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-bestthings-to-do-in-downtown-denver/

Marvin Anani (2017). Photograph. Courtesy of Westword. https://www.westword.com/ arts/lawrence-argent-denver-artist-andcreator-of-the-big-blue-bear-passesaway-9563041 Mariposa Denver. Photograph courtesy of EcoDistricts. https://ecodistricts. org/2016/08/01/innovative-design-offers-roots-and-community-for-denvers-most-vulnerable/ PAGE 57. (THIRD ROW, RIGHT) Rebecca Todd. (2018) Photograph. https://www.rebecca-ann-photography. com/cherry-creek-trail-denver-tourism/ hBBD583CD#hbbd583cd PAGE 69.

Mural by Luis Fernando at Raices Brewing.

Photo courtesy of Denver Public Art. https://denverpublicart.org/public-arts/ raices/ PAGE 72.

Google Earth Pro 7.3.3.7786 (2020). Aerial view of Denver, Colorado looking at the intersection of I-25 and Colfax Ave. PAGE 73.

Google Earth Pro 7.3.3.7786 (2020). Aerial view of the parking lots at Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado.

PAGE 76-77.

What Makes a Great Place? Diagram by the Project for Public Spaces. https://www. pps.org/article/you-asked-we-answered-6examples-of-what-makes-a-great-publicspace PAGE 79.

Jaime Rogers. (2020). Love on Larimer Square mural by S0-Gnar Creative Division. https://sognarcreativedivision.com/gallery/ details/love-on-larimer-square

PAGE 81.

Photo collage of Lighter Quicker Cheaper projects around the world. Image courtesy of Project for Public Spaces. https://www. pps.org/article/lighter-quicker-cheaper PAGE 82.

Underpass Park, Toronto, Canada.

Photography courtesy of Waterfront Toronto. http://www.explorewaterfrontoronto.ca/project/underpass-park/ PAGE 83.

Lee Hopkins for Ow.ley. (2020). Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood mural by Problak X Marka27. Photograph via https://undergroundinkblock.com/2020-project PAGE 84.

Paul Labbe. (2012). Venture to LoDo. Richard Grimes plays a tune on one of the many pianos open for use to everyone in the downtown Denver area. Photograph.

Courtesy of U.S. Air Force. https://www. buckley.spaceforce.mil/News/Photos/ igphoto/2000119807/ PAGE 88.

40 West Art Line along West Colfax in Lakewood. (2020). Photo courtesy of the 40WestArts Instagram page. https://www. instagram.com/p/CEFBfu5HwG5/?utm_ source=ig_web_copy_link PAGE 90. (ALL PHOTOS) Under.Over.Pass installation by Jim Gallucci and Scott Richardson. Photograph courtesy of Downtown Greenway. https:// downtowngreenway.org/explore/photos/?album=11280-under.over.pass PAGE 92. (TOP TO BOTTOM) Kelsey Kaline (2019). Chicano Park, San Diego, CA. Photograph via The Cultural Landscape Foundation. https://tclf.org/ 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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Robert Gauthier. Murals in Chicano Park showcase the neighborhood activism of the late 1960s and early ’70s. Photograph via the Los Angeles Times. https:// www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/ story/2020-04-24/coronavirus-cancellation-50th-anniversary-chicano-park-day-murals-san-diego-veteranos

Looking Through Windows. Sculpture by Michael Kuschnir. Photograph courtesy of Indianapolis Cultural Trail. https://indyculturaltrail.org/art/looking-through-windows/

PAGE 94. (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP) Example of an Intersection Repair project in Portland, OR. Photograph courtesy of The City Repair Project. https://cityrepair. org/intersection-repair-examples Safety on Schiller Street Painting Event.

Photograph courtesy of Village Building Convergence. https://villagebuildingconvergence.com/safetyonschiller Lloyd Intersection Mural. (2018).

Photograph courtesy of the Lloyd EcoDistrict via Flickr. https://www. flickr.com/photos/135820584@ N04/37068976945/in/ album-72157685931440300/ Greg Raisman. (2014). Children in Sunnyside Piazza. Photograph via Flickr. https://flic.kr/p/nKuMYL PAGE 96. (ALL IMAGES) Lakeview Lincoln Hub. Photograph courtesy of Site Design Group. https://www. site-design.com/lakeview-lincoln-avenue/ PAGE 107. (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT) Roosevelt Road Gateway Concept.

Streetscape design concept rendering by Site Design Group. https:// www.site-design.com/projects/ roosevelt-road-gateway-concepts/ Keith Dobie. (2017). Photograph. Image courtesy of BSC Custom. https://bsccustom.

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Walk Your City temporary wayfinding signs. (2015). Photograph courtesy of Keep Albany Boring. https://www.keepalbanyboring.com/2015/walk-your-city/ Iona Urma. Wrigley Village Banners.

Photograph via Iona Color https://ioanacolor.com/wrigley-banners/ PAGE 109. (TOP AND BOTTOM) Will Strathmann (2018). “Harvest Labyrinth” game mural by Katy Casper. Photograph via 40 West Art Line Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/40WestArtLine/ photos/226566501271989 Frank Stone rides his bike on the Indianapolis Culture Trail.

(2017). Photograph courtesy of Indianapolis Cultural Trail. https:// indyculturaltrail.org/2017/06/26/ real-trail-talk-frank-stone-teen-works/ PAGE 111.

Google Earth Pro 7.3.3.7786 (2020). Aerial view of the intersection of Federal Blvd and W Howard Pl, Denver, Colorado.

PAGE 112. (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT) Google Earth Pro 7.3.3.7786 (2020). Aerial view of the intersection of Old West Colfax Ave and Mile High Stadium Cir, Denver, Colorado.

Google Earth Pro 7.3.3.7786 (2020). Aerial view of the intersection of W Colfax Ave and 7th St, Denver, Colorado.

Google Earth Pro 7.3.3.7786 (2020). Aerial view of the intersection of Old W Colfax Ave, Zuni St, and I-25 On-Ramp, Denver,

Colorado.

PAGE 120. (TOP AND BOTTOM)

PAGE 113.

Gary Kavanaugh. (2018). Santa Monica e-scooter corral. Photograph via Streetsblog LA. https://la.streetsblog. org/2018/11/08/santa-monica-installs-instreet-e-scooter-parking-corrals/

Beth Reynolds. (2016). A successful community project team poses in front of their mural Common Ground, designed by artist Cecelia Lueza in St. Petersburg, FL. Photograph via Asphalt Art Guide.

PAGE 116.

Jocelyn Reynolds. (2019). A mural by artist Julii McMillan on a traffic signal box in Toronto, Canada installed as part of StreetARToronto's Outside the Box program. Photograph via Jocelyn Reynold’s Facebook page. https://www.facebook. com/media/set/?vanity=jocelynreynoldsphoto&set=a.103007334532559 PAGE 117. (TOP AND BOTTOM) Ballroom Luminoso art installation by artists Joe O'Connell and Blessing Hancock at the Theo & Malone Underpass at I-35, San Antonio, TX. Photograph courtesy of Creative Machines. https://www.creativemachines.com/ballroom-luminoso Artist Silvia Lopez Chavez works on a mural at Boston's Underground Ink Block. (2019).

Photograph courtesy of Underground Ink Block. https://undergroundinkblock.com/ new-page-3 PAGE 118.

Bike corral mural. (2016). Mural and photograph by Kristin Farr. Via Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ kristinfarr/26363647195/in/photostream/ PAGE 119.

The Sun Guided the Road Bike Shelter by Darren Goins in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Photograph courtesy of the City of Charlotte. https://charlottenc.gov/cats/transit-planning/art-in-transit/completed-projects/Pages/ble-bike-parking.aspx

Denver Pedicab Tours. Photograph via Visit Denver. https://www.denver.org/ things-to-do/itineraries/off-beat-tours/ PAGE 121.

Caroline Makepeace. (2016). Riding the Cherry Creek bike trail in Denver.

Photograph courtesy of Y Travel Blog. https://www.ytravelblog.com/ what-to-do-in-denver/ Bicycle Colorado’s RIDE initiative.

Photograph courtesy of Bicycle Colorado. https://www.bicyclecolorado.org/ ride-building-equity-in-bicycling/ PAGE 122.

Jamadrian. (2017). Last Night in San Jose, CA. A Light Installation by Dan Corson "Sensing You." Photograph via Imgur. https://imgur.com/gallery/biKg9 PAGE 123. (TOP) Blue Light Tower installed at MiraCosta.

Photograph courtesy of Case Emergency Systems. https://www.caseemergencysystems.com/products/blue-light-tower/ PAGE 127.

Ken Hamblin III (2019). Mural by Faatma Be Oné. Photographi via Namaste Solar Blog. https://blog.namastesolar.com/ sun-valley-mural West Colfax BID crosswalk mural. (2016).

Photograph courtesy of the West Colfax BID. https://westcolfaxbid.org/portfolio/twospectacular-art-crosswalks-on-west-colfax/

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APPENDIX A GET TING TO M EOW WO LF D E NVE R This appendix offers clear and concise directions to Meow Wolf via transit, walking, and biking. These directions can be used on Meow Wolf's website or in other promotional materials to give guidance on how to travel to the site.

As in this appendix, eco-friendly and active transportation mode directions should be given first, with driving directions given later to encourage people to think of transit, walking, and biking as first choices.

PUBLI C T R A N S PO RTAT IO N The Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD) offers eco-friendly transportation services by Bus or Light Rail within and around the City of Denver and to and from the Denver International Airport. Use the RTD trip planner to plan your route from your starting location to Meow Wolf Denver.

LI G H T R A I L SE R VIC E The Empower Field at Mile High Station, Auraria West Station, and Decatur-Federal Station provide direct access from light rail to Meow Wolf.

EMPOWER FIELD AT MILE HIGH STATION

The C, E or W light rail lines stop at the Empower Field at Mile High Station, a 6-minute walk to the stadium. Fans may also take the D or H lines and transfer to the C or E lines at I-25 & Broadway, Alameda, or 10th & Osage stations.

AURARIA WEST STATION

The C, E or W light rail lines stop at the Auraria West Station, a 7-minute walk to the stadium. Fans may also take the D or H lines and transfer to the C or E lines at I-25 & Broadway, Alameda, or 10th & Osage stations.

DECATUR-FEDERAL STATION

The Decatur-Federal station provides service to Meow Wolf from the West Corridor Line. The Decatur-Federal Station is also a 10-15-minute walk to Meow Wolf.

BUS SERVI CE The nearest bus stops are located at Decatur-Federal Station (Bus Routes 1, 15L, 16, 16L, 30, 30L, 31, 36L, and the Platte Valley FlexRide), the Colfax & Federal Transfer Center (Bus Routes 10, 30, 31), and Auraria Parkway at 7th Street (Bus Route 20). Each of these stops is 0.6 miles, or about a 10-15minute walk from Meow Wolf’s site.

After arriving at your transit stop, follow the appropriate walking directions to Meow Wolf.

WALKI N G TO M EOW WOL F FROM EMPOWER FIELD AT MILE HIGH STATION (6 MIN / 0. 3 MI)

The C, E or W light rail lines stop at the Empower Field at Mile High Station, a 6-minute walk to the stadium. Fans may also take the D or H lines and transfer to the C or E lines at I-25 & Broadway, Alameda, or 10th & Osage stations.

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WA L K I NG TO M EOW WO L F

BI KI N G TO M EOW WOL F

FROM AURARIA WEST STATION (7 MIN / 0. 3 MI)

Denver has an extensive trail system and many bicycle-friendly streets, making biking one of the most enjoyable and hassle-free ways to get to Meow Wolf.

Exit the station onto 4th St and turn right.

Take a left onto Walnut St. Continue along Walnut St under the viaduct. Meow Wolf will be on your right.

FROM DECATUR-FEDERAL STATION Via Old W Colfax (14 min / 0.6 mi):

From the station, take a right on W Howard Pl and then take a slight right onto Morrison Rd. At Old W Colfax Ave, take a right and continue along Old W Colfax until it turns into Walnut St. Meow Wolf will be on your left.

Via Lakewood Gulch (13 min / 0.6 mi):

From the station, take a right on W Howard Pl. Cross at the railroad tracks and take Lakewood Gulch Trail to the S Platte River Trail and take a left. At the bridge, take a slight left onto Old W Colfax Ave and turn right. Follow Old W Colfax Ave until it turns into Walnut Street. Meow Wolf will be on your left.

FROM THE COLFAX & FEDERAL TRANSFER CENTER (12 MIN / 0.6 MI)

Exit the transfer center and turn right onto Mile High Stadium W Cir. At, Old W Colfax Ave, turn left. Follow Old W Colfax Ave until it turns into Walnut Street. Meow Wolf will be on your left.

FROM AURARIA PARKWAY AT 7TH ST (11 MIN / 0.6 MI)

Turn left onto 7th St. At Walnut St, turn right, and follow Walnut St past the Auraria parking lots under the viaduct. Meow Wolf will be on your right.

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Meow Wolf is easily accessible from the multi-use S Platte River Trail of the Denver bike trail system. The S Platte River Trail connects to the Lakewood Gulch, Weir Gulch, and Cherry Creek trails, making it easy to get to Meow Wolf from a variety of locations.

Click here for complete bike and trail maps of Denver and surrounding areas.

DRIVI N G TO M EOW WOL F Meow Wolf is located in downtown Denver at the intersection of I-25 and Colfax Avenue. To access Meow Wolf: FROM I-25 NORTHBOUND Via 8th Ave & Zuni:

Exit at 8th Ave (EXIT 209C) and turn left on 8th Ave. Turn right on Zuni St. Take Zuni St north for 0.7 mi and turn right onto Walnut St. Meow Wolf will be on your left.

Via Auraria Parkway:

Exit at Auraria Parkway (EXIT 210B) and turn right on 7th St. Turn right on Walnut St. Meow Wolf will be on your right.

FROM I-25 SOUTHBOUND

Exit at 23rd Ave (EXIT 210C) and continue to 20th Ave. Turn left at Bryant St and continue on to Mile High Stadium Cir. Turn left onto Old W Colfax Ave and continue on to Walnut St. Meow Wolf will be on your left.

FROM COLFAX AVE EASTBOUND Via Mile High Stadium W Cir & Old W Colfax:

Take W Colfax Ave east and use the right lane to take the US-287/Federal Blvd ramp and continue onto Federal Blvd. Take a right onto W 17th Ave/Dick Connor Ave. Turn right onto Mile High Stadium W Cir. Turn right onto Old W Colfax Ave and continue onto Walnut St. Meow Wolf will be on your left.

Via 7th St & Walnut:

Take W Colfax Ave east and turn left onto 7th St. Turn left onto Walnut St. Meow Wolf will be on your right.

FROM COLFAX AVE WESTBOUND

Take E Colfax Ave west and turn right on 7th St. Turn left onto Walnut St. Meow Wolf will be on your right.

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APPENDIX B STR EET AS S ES S M EN T TO O L The following street assessment tool is based on the work of urban planning and transportation systems researcher and professor Reid Ewing, PhD, who has identified five key urban design qualities – imageability, spatial definition, human scale, transparency, and complexity – that impact walkability, and their significant physical features.

The questions look at basic physical features of the street and intersection, as well as specific features of the built environment that speak to the five urban design qualities linked to walkability. A separate set of questions was developed for street segments and intersections. The street assessment tool was printed out and completed by the researcher in the field. The data was then entered into an Excel file for analysis.

Below is the full list of questions. For the longer street segments portion of the assessment, questions were separated based on which urban design quality the metric is related. On the following page, you can see scanned copies of my completed street and intersection assessments.

STR EET SEG M E N T Q U E ST IO N S BAS I C PH YS I CA L FE ATU R E S ▶ Presence of sidewalk (one side, both sides, none) ▶ Type of sidewalk (attached, detached, rollover curb)

▶ Width of sidewalk (less than 5ft, more than 5ft) ▶ Are there major cracks in the sidewalk? ▶ Are there any major obstructions in the sidewalk? ▶ Number of driving lanes in each direction ▶ Street classification (local, collector, arterial) ▶ Presence and type of bicycle lane (sharrow, bike lane, protected bike lane) ▶ Number and type of lighting fixtures ▶ Is there trash and if so, how much? ▶ What are the typical building setbacks?

I M AGEABILI TY ▶ Number of historic buildings ▶ Number of courtyards, plazas, and parks ▶ Presence of outdoor dining ▶ Number of buildings with non-rectangular silhouettes ▶ Noise level (measured using the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Sound Level Meter app for iOS) ▶ Presence of major natural landscape features (e.g. hills, tree stand, gulch, river)

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VI SUA L /S PATIA L DE FINITIO N

▶ Number of pieces of public art

▶ Is there a cohesive street wall?

Note: After the coronavirus pandemic disrupted travel patterns, pedestrian counts were dropped from the assessment.

▶ Number of street trees ▶ Is there a strong visual termination point?

I N T ERS ECT I ON Q UEST I ONS

H UM A N S CA LE

▶ How many crossings have crosswalks?

▶ Presence, number, and type of street furniture and pedestrian amenities ▶ Building height (measured in number of stories) ▶ Presence and number of planters ▶ Number and type of pedestrian-scaled wayfinding signs T RA N S PA R ENCY ▶ Proportion of first floor with windows ▶ Presence of active uses (such as shops, cafes, and other social uses) COMPL EXI TY ▶ Number of pedestrians ▶ Number of buildings

▶ Is the crossing signalized? ▶ If the crossing is signalized, is there a pedestrian walk signal? ▶ If there is a pedestrian walk signal, how long is it? ▶ Is there a stop sign? ▶ Is it a two-, three-, or four-way stop? ▶ How many of the intersection’s corners have curb ramps? ▶ Are the curb ramps directional or diagonal? ▶ Number of driving lanes in each direction ▶ Street classification (local, collector, arterial)

▶ Number of dominant building colors

▶ Presence and type of bicycle lane (sharrow, bike lane, protected bike lane)

▶ Number of accent colors

▶ Number and type of lighting fixtures

▶ Variation in width of buildings along the street frontage

▶ What are the typical building setbacks?

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▶ Is there a cohesive street wall?

COMPL ETED ST RE E T S EG M EN T AS S ES S M EN T

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Note: Originally, my street assessments were going to look at both street width and traffic volumes.

However, after difficulties getting this data I changed these categories to "number of traffic lanes" and "street classification" - i.e. local, arterial, collector. I also planned to include pedestrian counts for each street in my assessments, but after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted travel patterns in mid-March 2020, I dropped this question from my assessment.

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COMPL ETED I N T E RS ECT IO N AS S ES S MEN T

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ANALYT I C H I E RA RC H Y PROCES S - ST REETS Street Segments

Sidewalks

Lighting

Trash

Setbacks

Street wi

Bike Lanes

Importance to Walkability (0 to 1) 0.30 0.40 0.25 0.20 0.20 Walnut from MW entrance to rail road tracks Walnut from Zuni to Meow Wolf entrance Zuni from 14th Ave to 13th Ave

1

1

‐2

‐2

‐1

0.5

‐2

‐1.5

‐1

‐2

‐1

1

‐1

0

‐2

Zuni from Old W Colfax to 14th Ave

‐1

‐1

1

0

‐2

Decatur from 13th to Morrison Road

1.5

‐1

1

‐2

‐2

2

1

1

‐1

‐1

0.5

1.5

1

‐1

1

Old West Colfax from Decatur to South Platte River

0

‐1

‐1.5

‐1

‐2

Morrison Road from W Howard Place to Old West Colfax

1

2

‐2

‐1.5

‐2

7th Street from Walnut to Auraria Parkway Walnut from the rail road track to 5th Street

Walnut from 5th Street to 7th Street

2

2

1

‐2

1

Mile High Stadium W Circle (from W Dick Connor Ave to Old W Colfax)

2

2

1

‐2

‐2

Mile High Stadium Circle (east side, from Bryant Street to Old W Colfax Ave)

1

2

1

‐2

‐2

W Howard Place from Federal to Decatur

1

2

0.5

0

‐2

Decatur from 11th to 13th Ave

1

1

0.5

0

‐2

Walnut Street ‐ the river loop

1

1.5

‐1

‐1

1

Old West Colfax from South Platte River to Zuni

1

2

1

1.5

‐2

Fake Street Positive Test

2

2

1

2

2

ANA LYT I C H I E R A R C HY PR O C E SS - STREETS SCORI NG RUBRIC Score Sidewalks

2

1

0

‐1

‐2

156

Lighting

wide, detached, appropriate well lit with both street coverage (i.e. both sides of street), lamps and pedestrian‐ with no major cracks or obstructions scaled lighting wide, attached, appropriate coverage, minor cracks, no obstructions narrow, attached, missing some coverage, some cracks and obstructions narrow, attached, inadequate coverage, major cracks and obstructions no sidewalk at all

Trash

Setbacks

no setbacks

Bike Lanes protected bike lane

some lighting with minor no trash unprotecte street lamps but no setbacks (5‐ or litter d bike lane pedestrian scaled lights 10 feet) moderate setbacks (10‐ 20 feet) small major poorly lit ‐ few lighting amounts setbacks sharrow fixtures of trash (over 20 no buildings lots of no lighting at all or surface no bike lane trash parking lots

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Street Street widths Classification Imageability At least 5 Imageability features (historic buildings, courtyards, plazas, parks, outdoor dining, non‐ rectangular buildings, major natural/landscape feature)

2 lanes

3 lanes

local

3‐4 Imageability features

4 lanes

collector

1‐2 Imageability features

5 lanes

arterial

No Imageability features

6+ lanes

No Imageability features, plus detractions (high noise, lots of trash

Street Assessment Metrics Street Classification

idths

Enclosure / Visual Definition Human Scale

Imageability

Transparency

Identified as a Identified as a Problem in Problem in Plans Interviews

Complexity

TOTAL

0.40 0.10 0.40 0.20 0.15 0.40 0.15 0.05 0.05

325%

2

‐1

‐2

‐2

‐2

‐2

‐2

‐2

‐2

‐0.179

1

‐1

1

‐2

‐1.5

‐1

‐1

‐2

‐2

‐0.164

1

0

0

‐1

‐1

‐2

‐1

‐0.104

1

0

0

0

‐1

‐1

‐1

0

0

1

‐1

‐0.5

‐1

‐2

‐2

‐1

‐1

‐1

1

0

‐1

2

‐1

‐2

0

‐0.5

‐2

‐1

‐2

1

0

2

0.5

2

‐1

1.5

‐1

0.000

1

0

2

‐1

‐0.5

‐1

‐1

‐1

0.016

1

‐1

‐1

‐0.5

0

‐2

‐1

‐1

0.018

1

1

0

0

‐1

‐2

‐1

0.018

1

1

1

0

‐1

‐2

0

0.036

‐1

0

1

1

2

‐1

0

‐1

0.063

0

0

1

0.5

2

0

1.5

‐1

0.100

2

1

1

0

0.5

‐1

‐1

0

0

1

0.5

1

‐1

1

2

1

2

2

2

2

2

Visual Definition

Human Scale

Transparency

human scaled buildings (under 6 cohesive street wall, lots of street lots of windows stories), presence of at least 5 pieces trees, striking visual termination with high of street furniture and/or planters, point, comfortable feeling of transparency, at at least 5 pedestrian‐scaled enclosure least 5 active uses wayfinding signs human scaled buidlings, presence of partial street wall, some street trees, some windows, 3‐ 3‐4 piences of street furniture interesting visual termination point 4 active uses and/or planters, 3‐4 wayfinding signs

no cohesive street wall, few street non‐human scaled buildings or only some windows, 1‐ trees, confusing or unattractive large parking lots, only 1‐2 pieces of 2 active uses visual termination point street furniture or planters, less than no street wall, surrounded by non‐human scaled buildings or only few windows, no surface parking lots, few or no street large parking lots, no pieces of street h) active uses treets, unattractive visual furniture or planters, no wayfinding

‐0.082 ‐0.080

‐1

‐0.046 ‐2

‐0.023

0.105 0.114

‐1

0.425

Identified as a Identified as a Problem in Problem in Plans Interviews

Complexity At least 5 building colors, multiple buildings and building width variety, multiple pieces of public art 3‐4 building colors, some building variation, at least one piece of public art

Only 1‐2 building colors, little Mentioned in at variation, no public art least 1 plan

Mentioned in 1‐2 interviews

One or fewer buildings, no variation, no public art, dominant color is grey

Mentioned in 3 or more interviews

Mentioned in at least 2 plans

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ANALYT I C H I E RA RC H Y PROCES S - I N T ERS ECT I ON S

Intersection

Crosswalks

Signalized?

Crossing Time

Stop Signs

Number of l to Cross

Curb Ramps

Importance to Walkability 0.40 0.10 0.10 0.30 0.50 (0 to 1) Old W Colfax, Zuni, 1‐25 on ramp

‐1

0

2

1

‐2

0

2

1

Walnut and Walnut (Elitch Gardens south access)

‐2

0

0

0

Decatur & 12th

‐1

0

0

‐1

Walnut & 4th St

‐2

0

0

‐2

Old W Colfax and Morrison

‐1

0

0

‐1

Decatur & Morrison

‐1

0

‐1

‐1

Meow Wolf Entrance

‐2

0

0

2

W Howard & Decatur

‐1

0

0

2

West Colfax & Irving

2

1

0

Auraria Parkway & 7th

1

1

0

Walnut and Rail road tracks

1

0

Walnut & 7th Street

2

1

Mile High Stadium/Decatur and Old W Colfax

1

0

1

0.5

Decatur & 11th

0

0

1

2

Decatur & Morrison

2

0

1

2

Walnut & 5th Street

1

0

1

2

Decatur & 13th

2

0

1

2

Decatur & Holden

1

0

1

2

Zuni & 13th Ave

1

1

Federal Blvd & W 14th Ave Old W Colfax & Mile High Stadium Circle West Colfax and 7th

Note: Scoring Rubric included on following page.

158

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

0 0

1 1

0.5

0 1

2 2 ‐1

0

1

‐1

2 2

2

Street Assessment Metrics

lanes Street Classifications

Bike Lanes

Lighting

Trash

Ped or Bike Identified as a Major Injury or Identified as a Problem in Fatality in past 5 Problem in Plans Interviews years?

Setbacks

TOTAL

0.50 0.40 0.15 0.30 0.10 0.05 0.75 0.05 0.05 375% 0

‐1

‐2

‐2

1

‐1

0

0

‐2

‐0.161

‐2

‐1

‐2

1

1

‐1

‐2

‐1

‐1

‐0.111

0

1

‐2

0

‐2

‐2

0

0

0

‐0.050

‐2

‐1

‐2

1

1

‐1

‐1

0

0

‐0.046

2

0

0

‐1

‐1

‐2

0

‐1

0

‐0.025

2

1

‐2

‐1

‐2

‐1

0

0

0

‐0.025

2

0

1

1

1

0

0

‐2

0

‐0.025

1

0

‐2

0.5

1

2

0

0

0

‐0.025

2

0

‐2

2

‐2

‐2

0

0

0

‐0.014

1

0

‐1

‐1

‐2

0

0

0

0

0.004

0

0

‐2

1

‐2

‐2

0

‐1

‐1

0.014

‐1

‐1

‐2

2

‐1

‐1

‐1

0

0

0.029

‐2

‐1

‐2

2

1

‐1

0

‐1

0

0.029

2

‐2

‐1

0

‐0.5

‐2

0

‐1

‐2

0.061

‐1

‐1

0

2

1

‐2

0

‐1

0

0.111

1.5

1

‐2

1

1

‐2

0

0

0

0.150

2

1

‐2

0

‐1

‐1

0

0

0

0.161

2

0

‐2

‐1

‐1

‐1

0

0

0

0.168

2

0

0

0

‐1

‐2

0

‐1

0

0.175

2

0

‐2

0

0

‐1

0

‐1

‐1

0.189

2

1

‐2

0

1

‐1

0

0

0

0.204

2

0

1

1

1

‐2

0

0

0

0.218

2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

159

ANA LYT I C H I E R A R C HY PR O C E SS - INTERSECTIONS SCORI NG RUB R I C

Score Crosswalks

160

Signalization

Crossing Time per Lane

2

high contrast, visible crosswalks on all sides

1

cross walks on 3‐4 sides

0

crosswalks missing on n/a a few sides, faded

3‐5 seconds per lane

‐1

crosswalks missing on No pedestrian walk most sides, severely signal faded

Less than 3 seconds per lane

‐2

no crosswalks

Stop Signs

Number of lanes to cross

Street Classification

All corners have directional curb ramps

only 2 lanes

both streets are loca

All corners have curb ramps, mix of 3 lanes directional and diagonal

one local/one collector

1 or 2 way stop

All corners have curb ramps, all are 4 lanes diagonal

both streets are collectors OR one is arterial and one is local

no stop signs

Some corners are missing curb ramps

5 lanes

one arterial/one collector

No curb ramps

6+ lanes

both streets are arterials

Pedestrian walk signal More than 5 seconds 3 or 4 way stop present per lane

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Curb Ramps

n

Bike Lanes

Lighting

well lit with both street lamps and al protected bike lane pedestrian‐scaled lighting some lighting with street lamps but no unprotected bike lane pedestrian scaled lights

Trash

Building Setbacks

Ped or Bike Injury or Identified as a Fatality in the Past 5 Problem in Plans years

Identified as a Problem in Interviews

no setbacks

no trash or litter

minor setbacks (5‐10 feet)

moderate setbacks (10‐20 feet)

s

none

sharrow

poorly lit ‐ few lighting fixtures

small amounts of trash

major setbacks (over 1 20 feet)

no bike lane

no lighting at all

lots of trash

no buildings or surface parking lots

1+

Mentioned as a problem or targeted for improvements in at least 1 plan Mentioned as a problem or targeted for improvements in at least 2 plans

Mentioned as a problem in 1‐2 interviews Mentioned as a problem in 3 or more interviews

2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

APPENDIX C STAKEHOL D E R A NA LYS I S The following stakeholder analysis identifies stakeholders and interest groups who could be directly or indirectly impacted by the project, or have some other interest in the outcome.

These stakeholders include various levels of local and state government agencies, major landowners and developers, local businesses, community-based organizations, civil society organizations, as well as artists, residents, employees, and other groups of individuals. Any of these groups could potentially have a positive or negative influence on the project’s success, or be impacted by the project.

In a complex urban environment such as Denver, successful urban planning and creative placemaking projects take an immense amount of collaboration and authentic community engagement. Since creative placemaking is primarily a partnership-based strategy, the following list of stakeholders can also be considered a list of potential partners for the projects listed in this report.

While this list is not exhaustive, it is a good place to start when thinking about the key agencies and groups that Meow Wolf will need to work with to implement the recommendations in this report.

The list is divided into four sections according to the stakeholder’s sector; public, private, civil society and community-based, and residents, visitors, and other individuals. Within each category, I have classified stakeholders into the following four types and noted their relevant power to influence the project and potential level of interest.

S H AREH OLDER Shareholders are stakeholders because they own assets that will be affected by the project outcomes. This can include land, buildings, roads, trails, railroad tracks, transit stations, or other facilities.

I N T EREST H OLDER Interest holders participate, often on behalf of others, because they understand the issues, neighborhood strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities. They are concerned about their community and will help or hinder a project based on whether they view it as helpful or harmful to the people they represent.

KN OWLEDG E H O LDER These stakeholders have specific knowledge about the project or issue. They may be subject matter experts, have specialized skill sets, possess little-known historical or cultural knowledge, or have other relevant experience that could help with the project.

S PACE H O LDER These stakeholders live, work, or visit areas that are affected by the project outcomes.

While they may not have a lot of power unless well organized, a people-centered approach to design and planning will make their needs, concerns, and experiences a priority. Ultimately, their reactions will determine the project’s success.

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163

STAKEHOL D E R E NGAG E ME N T & CO MMUN I CAT I O NS S As Meow Wolf seeks to implement these projects, it is vital that they develop a strategy for how to engage and communicate with their stakeholders.

While some stakeholders may become instrumental partners, others might put up roadblocks or otherwise slow down the projects.

Meow Wolf will need to prioritize which stakeholders to keep fully engaged, which to monitor closely, which to keep informed, and which need minimal effort to keep satisfied.

To do this, stakeholders can be placed into a grid based on their relative power to influence the project (either positively or negatively) and their perceived interest.

For the point of this stakeholder mapping analysis, I have estimated a stakeholder’s power based on whether they own land that could be affected by the project or whether they have the power to advance or block the project through regulation, influence, advocacy, or other means.

Stakeholders’ level of interest is my professional estimate based on how likely the stakeholder is to be affected by the project and whether or not the stakeholder has expressed interest in the project or in creative placemaking more generally (either in my personal interviews with them, on their website or in their mission statement, or in articles about them that I’ve encountered during the course of my research).

A stakeholder’s position on the Power/ Interest grid indicates the level of engagement and communication Meow Wolf should take with them. In general, the 164

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

more power and interest the group has, the more closely Meow Wolf should engage, communicate, and collaborate with them. The following guidelines provide suggestions for how Meow Wolf should engage with each group to implement the recommendations in this report.

H I G H P OWER, H I G H I N TEREST These are the stakeholders that have the most direct influence over the project and the highest interest in the study area. Their involvement could be tremendously influential and their support (or lack thereof) could make or break the project.

Meow Wolf should start to engage these groups as soon as possible, and keep them fully engaged as the project develops. They are potential key partners and should be seen as collaborators. Meow Wolf should make every effort to keep these groups engaged and satisfied.

LOW P OWER, H I G H I N TEREST While these groups may not have the power to directly influence the project, their level of interest indicates that they have the potential to be key allies, collaborators, and even co-creators. This category includes many community organizations, neighborhood associations, local businesses, and advocacy groups.

Especially since Meow Wolf is dedicated to respecting the community and building a diverse group of allies, including people of color and/or people from underserved communities, partnering with these groups should be considered essential to the project.

ST R ATEGY LOW P OWE R, LOW I N T E REST These groups do not have the power or interest to heavily influence the project.

They should be kept informed, but not overwhelmed or bored with excessive communication.

In some instances, a stakeholder in this group may have skills or knowledge that could make the project more successful. In that case, Meow Wolf will need to consider

the best way to raise their level of interest and engage them in the project.

H I G H P OWER, LOW I N TEREST These groups may still have a tremendous impact on the project’s outcome but may not follow it that closely. They need to be kept satisfied and informed, but do not need as much attention as the high-interest groups.

FI G U R E 27. STA KE H O L DE R P OWER/INTEREST GRID COLL AB O R ATE AND ENG AG E

M A N AGE A N D E N GAGE M O ST T H O R O UG H LY

Local Artists West Corridor TMA

Fairview Elementary School

Urban Ventures

Sun Valley Residents

Sun Valley Youth Center

INTER EST OF STAK EHO LDER

West Colfax BID

Meow Wolf Visitors

Denver Streets Partnership

SA+R Architects

Denver Arts and Venues

Local Businesses

Latino Cultural Arts Center

Sun Valley Community Coalition

Colorado CrossDisability Coalition

Local Employees Earthlinks

WeCAN

The Greenway Foundation

Denver Parks and Recreation

Downtown Denver Partnership

Denver Public Schools

CDOT

Auraria Higher Education Center

La Alma/Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association

West Denver Renaissance Collaborative

Denver DOTI Revesco Properties

Denver Community Planning and Development

Auraria Students

Local Pedal Cab Companies

Meow Wolf Denver

Metropolitan Football Stadium District

Jefferson Park United Neighbors

RTD

Denver Housing Authority

Pepsi Center

Sun Valley EcoDistrict Trust

Sports Fans and Event Attendees Denver Human Services

Other West Denver Residents Elitch Gardens

REGUL AR MI NI MAL CO NTACT

KE E P S AT I S FI E D A N D I N FO R M ED

POWE R AN D I NFLUENCE O F STAK EHO LDER 2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

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PUBLI C SECTO R STA K E H OLDERS N AM E

A DDR E SS

WEBSI TE

WHAT THEY HAVE AT

Auraria Higher Education Center

1068 9th St Park Denver, CO 80204

https://www.ahec. edu/

Housing three campuses ( University of Denver, and D tive student population of of the largest landowners i stations studied in this rep potential projects in the ar

City and County of Denver Arts and Venues

1345 Champa St Denver, CO 80204

https://www. artsandvenuesdenver.com/

Arts and Venues oversees D Arts Fund and the "P.S. You for murals and creative pla between artists, property o and Development, and can other public art on private

City and County of Denver Community Planning and Development

201 W. Colfax Ave Dept. 205 Denver, CO 80202

https://www.denvergov.org/content/ denvergov/en/ community-planning-and-development.html

Denver CPD is responsible sible, sustainable building.

Plan, a neighborhood plan Sun Valley. They have exten regulations, and future com port of multi-modal streets transportation.

City and County of Denver Department of Transportation and Infrastructure

201 W. Colfax Ave Dept. 608 Denver, CO 80202

https://www.denvergov.org/content/ denvergov/en/ transportation-infrastructure.html

DOTI is focused on increas gestion and fighting clima maintain Denver’s city infr support is crucial to the su right of way.

City and County of Denver Parks and Recreation

201 West Colfax Ave Dept. 601 Denver, CO 80202

https://www.denvergov.org/content/ denvergov/en/denver-parks-and-recreation.html

This city department plans parkways, trails, recreation South Platte River Trail, the Center. If Meow Wolf pursu trails, they will need the su

Colorado Department of Transportation

2829 W. Howard Pl Denver, CO 80204

https://www.codot. gov/

CDOT owns and maintains projects that would alter th While they do not have fun in improving bicycle and p Colfax viaduct. CDOT’s hea the Decatur-Federal Light from any improvements to

166

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Shareholder

Space Holder

STAKE

Knowledge Holder

TYPE

Interest Holder

POWER

I NT E R E ST

(University of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State Denver Community College), AHEC has a collec38,000 with over 5,000 faculty and staff. As one in the area and home to one of the three light rail port, they stand to be directly impacted by any rea.

High

High

Denver’s Public Art Program, as well as the Urban u are Here" program, both of which offer funding acemaking projects. They also serve as a liaison owners, Public Works, and Community Planning n help to facilitate the creation of murals and property.

Medium

High

e for city planning and ensuring safe, respon. They are currently working on the West Area n for six west Denver neighborhoods, including nsive knowledge of the area, current land use mmunity goals. They are also strongly in sups and encouraging the use of transit and active

High

Medium

sing mobility and safety while reducing conate change. Their role is to design, build, and rastructure and to regulate the right of way. Their uccess of any project that seeks to alter Denver’s

High

High

s, builds, maintains, and operates Denver’s parks, n centers, pools, and golf courses, including the e Lakewood Gulch Trail, and Rude Recreation ues public art or wayfinding projects along these upport of Parks and Recreation.

High

Medium

s both I-25 and the Colfax Viaduct. Any potential hese highways would need CDOT's support. nding available for public art, CDOT is interested pedestrian conditions both on and under the adquarters is also located across the street from Rail Station and their employees would benefit o the surrounding pedestrian environment.

High

Medium

2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

167

PUBLI C SECTO R STA K E H OLDERS N AM E

A DDR E SS

WEBSI TE

WHAT THEY HAVE AT

Denver Housing Authority

1035 Osage St Denver, CO 80204

http://www.denverhousing.org/

DHA is a quasi-municipal c affordable housing in Denv ty to Meow Wolf’s site – Su They are in the process of c mixed-income, mixed-use,

Denver Human Services

1200 Federal Blvd Denver, CO 80204

https://www.denvergov.org/content/ denvergov/en/denver-human-services. html

DHS provides education, su residents. Their services inc care, job training and resou ter. Their office is located le Wolf wants to reach out to ties, DHS might be a great

Denver Public Schools

1860 Lincoln St Denver, CO 80203

https://www.dpsk12. org/

DPS operates 207 schools i ing Fairview Elementary in DPS schools, 63.4% are elig are students with disabiliti Division (FACE) is intereste lives and daily travel and ac Transportation to school is Valley 59% of 9th graders a and mobiity improvement travel.

Regional Transportation District

1660 Blake St Denver, CO 80202

https://www. rtd-denver.com/

RTD is the regional agency Metro Area. They operate t that serve the Meow Wolf s stations within walking dis n-Transit program to enha stations. They stand to gain tors travel by transit.

West Corridor Transit Management Authority

407 S Allison Pkwy Lakewood, CO 80226

https://www.westcorridor.org/

The West Corridor TMA is a a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, m that works to attract qualit along the West Line light r nesses looking to impleme can help with setting up em mute action plans for large

168

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Shareholder

Space Holder

STAKE

Knowledge Holder

TYPE

Interest Holder

POWER

I NT E R E ST

corporation that develops, owns, and operates ver. They own two communities in close proximiun Valley Homes and the Mariposa Development. completely redeveloping Sun Valley into a , walkable community.

Medium

Medium

upport services, and opportunities to Denver clude food, cash, and medical assistance, child urces, aid for older adults, and housing and sheless than a mile from Meow Wolf Denver. If Meow o low-income and other underserved communit partner.

Low

Low

in Denver serving students in grades K-12, includn Sun Valley. Of the 93,815 students enrolled at gible for free or reduced price lunch and 11.6% ies. DPS's Family and Community Engagement ed in working with youth to document their ctivities and in helping to reduce absenteeism. s a major contributor to absenteeism. In Sun are chronically absent. The enhanced wayfinding ts could help some students with daily school

Low

Low

y operating public transit services in the Denver the three light rail lines and eleven bus routes site and own and maintain the three light rail stance of Meow Wolf. They also operate a Artance the design and user-friendliness of transit n new riders if large numbers of Meow Wolf visi-

High

Medium

a project of the West Line Corridor Collaborative, multi-jurisdictional and multi-agency partnership ty investment and support livable communities rail corridor. They provide free assistance to busient transit demand management strategies and mployee benefit programs and creating come employers.

Low

High

2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

169

PRIVAT E SECTO R STA K E H OLDERS N AM E

A DDR E SS

WEBSI TE

WHAT THEY HAVE AT

Elitch Gardens Theme and Water Park

2000 Elitch Cir Denver, CO 80204

https://www.elitchgardens.com/

The Elitch Garden property While the theme park is se the River Mile project, in th affected by improvements

Latino Cultural Arts Center

2700 Block of Lower West Colfax Ave Denver, CO 80204

https://www. lcac-denver.org/

The LCAC is redeveloping f and once completed could stand to benefit from any i the area.

Local Businesses

Various

Various

Local breweries and restau Company, Wit’s End Brewi Brooklyn’s, and Sun Valley traffic that Meow Wolf may venues Mile High Station a Nimbl, OLC+DW, Lyft, Turn fit from improved access a

Meow Wolf Denver

1338 1st St Denver, CO 80204

https://meowwolf. com/visit/denver

As a business, Meow Wolf h ship location easily accessi or operate an automobile. footprint by encouraging e portation modes including

Metropolitan Football Stadium District

1701 Bryant St Unit 500 Denver, CO 80204

http://mfsd.com/

As one of the largest lando the MFSD has a strong inte to navigate. Potential wayfi greatly benefit them, espe Stadium begin to be devel

Pedal cab companies

Various

Various

Downtown Denver is home Denver Pedicabs, Mile High several others, and manag Denver. These multi-wheel ly transportation around D Pedal cab companies stan Downtown to Meow Wolf a demand management stra

170

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Shareholder

Space Holder

STAKE

Knowledge Holder

TYPE

Interest Holder

POWER

I NT E R E ST

y is the largest single property in the vicinity. et to eventually relocate and be redeveloped as he short term (1-5 years), they potentially could be s in the area.

Low

Low

four buildings situated along Lower West Colfax d be a major cultural destination in the area. They improvements to wayfinding and accessibility in

Low

Medium

urants such as Raices Brewery, Strange Craft Beer ing Company, Rising Sun Distillery, The Original Kitchen all stand to gain from additional foot y bring. Other local businesses, such as the event and Ironworks, as well as office tenants such as ner, Shyft at Mile High, and others, stand to beneand wayfinding in the area.

Low

Medium

has a vested interest in making their new flagible to people regardless of their ability to own They have also pledged to reduce their carbon employees and visitors to use alternative transg walking, biking, and transit.

High

High

owners in the area as well as a major destination, erest in making the area accessible and easy finding and creative placemaking efforts could ecially as the extensive parking lots south of the loped.

High

High

e to several pedal cab companies, including h Pedicabs, Denver Trikes Pedicab Company, and ge a fleet of pedicabs that operate in Downtown led, human-powered vehicles provide eco-friendDowntown and follow crowds to major events. nd to potentially profit from the visitor traffic from and should be involved in Meow Wolf's traffic ategy.

Low

High

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PRIVAT E SECTO R STA K E H OLDERS N AM E

A DDR E SS

WEBSI TE

WHAT THEY HAVE AT

Pepsi Center/ Kroenke Sports and Entertainment

1000 Chopper Cir Denver, CO 80204

https://www.pepsicenter.com/

One of the largest properti sports, concerts, and other lots are close neighbors to by any improvements in th

Revesco Properties

2731 17th St Suite 300 Denver, CO

https://www. revescoproperties. com/

As the owner of both the M the largest landowner in th Wolf is Phase 1, stands to c use, walkable neighborhoo area is directly aligned with and other users of their site creative placemaking, and

SA+R Architects

1550 Wynkoop St #100 Denver, CO 80202

https://sararch.com/

As the primary architectur and the River Mile Master P project and in the connect

Sun Valley EcoDistrict Trust

n/a

https://www.sved. org/

A nonprofit master develop and County of Denver and trict-wide redevelopment o tion to commercial and res the design and constructio energy systems. They are in could be a crucial partner i from the Sun Valley neighb

Urban Ventures

1600 Wynkoop St #200 Denver, CO 80202

http://www.urbanventuresllc.com/

This local developer owns S directly south of Meow Wo and Raices Brewery. Future al commercial and/or resid ing the appeal and walkab Walnut and Lower Colfax c and creative placemaking.

172

VAN VONNO / UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER

Shareholder

Space Holder

STAKE

Knowledge Holder

TYPE

Interest Holder

POWER

I NT E R E ST

ies in the area and another major destination for r events, Pepsi Center and its extensive parking Meow Wolf and could potentially be impacted he area.

High

Medium

Meow Wolf and Elitch Gardens sites, Revesco is he area. Their River Mile project, of which Meow completely transform the area into a new, mixedod. Improving the appeal and connectivity of the h their 25-Year Master Plan. Their future lessors e stand to benefit from investments in mobility, d transportation demand management strategies.

High

High

re firm working on the Meow Wolf Denver site Plan, SA+R has an interest in the success of the tivity of the wider area.

Medium

High

per entity, SVED is working closely with the City d the Denver Housing Authority to lead the disof the entire Sun Valley neighborhood. In addisidential developments, they are also overseeing on of district infrastructure and roadways and nterested in sustainability and connectivity and in efforts to improve access to Meow Wolf Denver borhood.

Medium

Medium

STEAM on the Platte, a mixed-use development olf’s site, which is home to a variety of businesses e phases of development could include additiondential spaces. They are very interested in improvbility of the neighborhood, particularly along the corridor and have expressed support for public art .

High

High

2020 CAPSTONE / FINDING MEOW WOLF

173

CIVI L SO C I E TY & CO M M U NI TY- BAS ED STAKEH O LDERS N AM E

A DDR E SS

WEBSI TE

WHAT THEY HAVE AT

Colorado CrossDisability Coalition

1385 S Colorado Blvd Suite 610-A Denver, CO 80222

http://www.ccdconline.org/

CCDC is the foremost orga rights. Their motto is “Noth social justice for people wit ensure that their site is acc CCDC to ensure that the co addressed.

Denver Streets Partnership

1525 Market Street #100 Denver, CO 80202

https://denverstreetspartnership. org/

DSP is a coalition of comm Bicycle Colorado, that advo work to reduce the city’s d munities that prioritize peo promote people-friendly st ism projects featuring stre murals.

Downtown Denver Partnership

1515 Arapahoe St Tower 3, Suite 100 Denver, CO 80202

https://www.downtowndenver.com/

The Downtown Denver Par that bills itself as the leadin Denver. They support plan initiatives and are committ tion network that connects neighborhoods. While Meo be interested in potential p town, Sun Valley, and the M

Earthlinks

2746 W 13th Ave Denver, CO 80204

https://earthlinks-colorado.org/

Earthlinks is a non-profit o skills training and a work p low-income. Workshop par garden and create sustaina seeks to engage and empl a great partner.

Fairview Elementary School

2715 W 11th Ave Denver, CO 80204

https://fairview. dpsk12.org/

Fairview is a diverse eleme hood offering instruction fo In 2017, the school received artist as part of the RAW p to schools who need it mo having more art in their co

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anization in Colorado advocating for disability hing about us without us” and they advocate for th all types of disabilities. If Meow Wolf wants to cessible for all, they will need to partner with the oncerns of people with disabilities are heard and

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munity organizations, including Walk Denver and ocates for people-friendly streets in Denver. They dependence on cars and design streets and comople. In addition to advocating for policies which treets, they are known for doing tactical urbaneet calming, wayfinding signage and intersection

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rtnership is a non-profit business organization ng voice for private sector business in Downtown nning, economic development, and placemaking ted to building a robust multi-modal transportas Downtown Denver with surrounding center city ow Wolf sits outside of downtown, the DDP may projects to improve connections between downMetropolitan Football Stadium District.

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organization located in Sun Valley that provides program for people who are homeless and rticipants are paid a stipend to work in Earthlinks able nature-based arts and crafts. As Meow Wolf loy underrepresented artists, Earthlinks could be

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entary school serving the Sun Valley neighborfor students in kindergarten through fifth grade. d several new murals by both local and national project which seeks to spread art and creativity ost. This suggests that the school is interested in ommunity.

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The Greenway Foundation

1800 Platte St Denver, CO 80202

https://www.thegreenwayfoundation. org/

TGF is a Denver-based non South Platte River and its t environmental and recreat miles of hiking and biking Meow Wolf seek to implem the South Platte River and ant partner.

Jefferson Park United Neighbors

n/a

https://jpun.org/ about-us/

JPUN is the official Registe Jefferson Park neighborho advocate for Jefferson Park their neighborhood. While Jefferson Park by the South may take interest in the pr lems in their neighborhood

La Alma/Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association

1165 Lipan St. Denver, CO 80204

http://www.lincolnparkneighborhood. org/

La Alma/Lincoln Park Neig Neighborhood Organizatio borhood, located just east The association is made up resources and provides a c property owners to express from Meow Wolf by the riv home to the Santa Fe Arts be impacts by Meow Wolf' economy and potential ge

Sun Valley Community Coalition

2715 W. Holden Pl Denver, CO 80204

n/a

SVCC is the official Registe Sun Valley neighborhood, l advocate for Sun Valley bu neighborhood. Likely conc overflow parking from Meo nities for residents.

Sun Valley Youth Center

1230 Decatur St Denver, CO 80204

https://sunvalleyyouthcenter.org/

The Sun Valley Youth Cente youth ages 5 and up in Sun borhood where the levels o are among the highest in D privileged youth in efforts t crucial partner.

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n-profit focused on improving the health of the tributaries and promoting them as a point of tional pride. They led efforts to construct over 100 trails and over 20 parks and natural areas. Should ment wayfinding or other improvements along d Lakewood Gulch Trails, TGF could be an import-

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ered Neighborhood Organization (RNO) for the ood, located just north of the Stadium. They k businesses and residents on issues that affect e the Meow Wolf Denver site is separated from h Platte River and the Stadium District, JPUN roject if Meow Wolf’s visitors create traffic probd.

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ghborhood Association is the official Registered on (RNO) for the La Alma/Lincoln Park neighof the S Platte River and south of Colfax Ave. p of area residents who volunteer their time and community forum for residents, businesses and s ideas, thoughts and concerns. While separated ver and Colfax Ave, the neighborhood - which is District - and its residents and businesses could 's visitor traffic as well as their impact on the local entrification pressures.

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ered Neighborhood Organization (RNO) for the located just southwest of Meow Wolf’s site. They usinesses and residents on issues that affect their cerns will include traffic volumes and speeds and ow Wolf’s site, along with potential job opportu-

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er offers after school and summer programs for n Valley, a low-income, public housing neighof crime, teen pregnancy and school dropouts Denver. If Meow Wolf wants to engage underto improve the neighborhood, SVYC would be a

Low

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West Colfax Association of Neighbors

PO Box 12474 Denver, CO 80212

https://www.wecandenver.org/

The West Colfax Associatio Neighborhood Organizatio the City and County of Den Avenue and Sloan's Lake o the south, from Sheridan B WeCAN is a very active org neighborhood clean up an more. Like the other neigh and its residents and busin Wolf's visitor traffic and eff pressures. Their residents s

West Colfax Business Improvement District

3275 West 14th Ave Suite 202 Denver, CO 80204

https://westcolfaxbid.org/

The West Colfax BID works large-scale investment, ret improvements to the right multi-modal transportation pedestrian experience bot ing efforts to redesign the could be a crucial partner i along Colfax Avenue to the

West Denver Renaissance Collaborative

n/a

https://www. mywdrc.org/

The WDRC works to facilita improving the livelihood of ing the rich multicultural c affordable housing, they al and connectivity.

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Auraria Higher Education Center Students, Faculty, and Staff

n/a

n/a

AHEC is home to the Unive University of Denver, and D 38,000 students and empl stand to benefit from pote cle environments and tran by increases in traffic and p in art and design, and som opportunities with Meow W Apartments could be impa Auraria West Light Rail Sta

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on of Neighbors – aka WeCAN – is the Registered on (RNO) for the West Colfax neighborhood in nver. WeCAN’s boundaries stretch from 19th on the north to the Lakewood/Dry Gulch Park on Blvd., on the west to Federal Blvd., on the east. ganization with numerous programs including nd graffiti removal days, tree planting days, and hborhoods mentioned in this report, West Colfax ness could potentially be impacted by Meow fect of the local economy, including gentrification should be kept informed and engaged.

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s to revitalize West Colfax Avenue by promoting tail support and recruitment, and sponsoring t-of-way that encourage pedestrian usage and n. They are very interested in improving the th on and under the Colfax Viaduct and are leadColfax and Federal Boulevard interchange. They in efforts to improve the pedestrian environment e west of Meow Wolf’s site.

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ate the equitable revitalization of west Denver by f existing residents and preserving and amplifycharacter. While most of their work is related to lso support efforts surrounding pedestrian safety

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ersity of Colorado Denver, Metropolitan State Denver Community College which together enroll loy around 5,000 faculty and staff. These students ential improvements to the pedestrian and bicynsit stations, but may also be negatively impacted parking overflow. All three schools offer programs me students may seek job, internship, and other Wolf. Students living in the Campus Village acted by projects along Walnut Street or at the ation.

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Local Artists

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Denver has a large and thr could potentially view Meo itor. Meow Wolf has pledge ument to provide well-pay efforts could provide oppo

Local Employees

n/a

n/a

Employees of nearby busin potential parking overflow tively impact their commu environments, as well as im shift their behavior and lea

Meow Wolf Visitors

n/a

n/a

The primary target of the p Wolf’s visitors. These visitor tional. Most will be unfami Meow Wolf and will need c especially if Meow Wolf wo transportation modes. Meo artful journey that would e

Sun Valley Residents

n/a

n/a

Sun Valley is home to abou sidized public housing. It is high percentage of immig residential neighborhood t impacts from traffic and o for local employees.

Sports Fans and Event Attendees

n/a

n/a

Another group of visitors to events at Empower Field a Station and Ironworks even ly compete with Meow Wo from improved multi-mod

Other West Denver Residents

n/a

n/a

Residents living in other ne Sloan Lake, West Colfax, an parking impacts from Meo ties and appreciate increas area.

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riving community of local artists. These artists ow Wolf as a valued collaborator or as a competed in their Corporate Social Responsibility docying jobs for local artists. Creative placemaking ortunities for engaging some of these artists.

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nesses will have to deal with traffic increases and w from Meow Wolf’s visitors, which could negautes. Improvements to the bicycle and pedestrian mprovements to transit stations, could potentially ad to increased walking, biking, and transit use.

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projects recommended in this report are Meow rs might be local, regional, national, or internailiar with the areas immediately surrounding clear, concise directions on how to get there, ould like to encourage them to use alternative ow Wolf visitors might also appreciate having an enhance their overall experience.

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ut 1,440 residents, most of whom live in subs an incredibly diverse neighborhood, with a grants and large youth population. As the closest to Meow Wolf, they are likely to face the bulk of overflow parking. They also are a potential source

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o the area are sports fans and others who attend at Mile High, Pepsi Center, and the Mile High nt venues. These are groups that could potentialolf visitors for parking, and could greatly benefit dal connectivity and wayfinding in the area.

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earby neighborhoods such as Jefferson Park, nd Villa Park will likely not face severe traffic or ow Wolf, but may be interested in job opportunised connectivity and pedestrian amenities in the

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