Then and Now

Then and Now: The Dancers and DPCA

May 24, 2020 By Neil

In the summer of 2012 I took this image of the Dancers at the Denver Performing Arts Center (DPCA). Using the shrubs along Speer for the foreground I liked having nature profound in the image as it led into the city.

The Dancers and DPCA in 2012

Returning to the same spot seven years later shows a couple of changes in the Denver skyline.

The Dancers and DPCA in 2019

The most noticeable change in the skyline is the 1144 15th building which is behind the Four Season in this image. Additionally the 1401 Lawrence building (Polsinelli Building) can be seen through the Dancers from this view. The main reason there is not a lot of growth shown in this image is the direction in which it was taken. There are height restrictions in the Lower Downtown area of Denver which is beyond the DPCA in this image and the Union Station area is too far in this distance with this perspective. If I had taken the initial image a little more to the right, the dynamic of the skyline change would be more profound.

Then and Now: Davita at Millennium Bridge

April 26, 2020 By Neil

I first noticed this image when I would drive home from gallery nrc, my gallery which was located in Northwest Denver. During the shorter days, around dusk and into the evening hours, where I would notice the Davita Building and how it brought in Millennium Bridge as a design element from this perspective.

Over the years I would return to this location looking for new perspectives to capture the scene. In 2013, I took this image which starts to show the changes taking place in this area of Denver.

Commons Park Denver Area

The area behind Millennium Bridge had started already to fill in with new construction in the Union Station area. Also in the foreground of the bridge is a crane for other development taking shape in the area.

Fast forward to August 2019 and it definitely is a different scene.

Davita and Millennium Bridge 2019

The area on the far side of Millennium Bridge has filled in with a second building. The building was completed in 2018 and is branded with Davita, however they only have space in part of the building with other companies filling the remainder of the 16 Chestnut building.

What you don’t see behind are the additional buildings which have grown in the Union Station area redevelopment. While the negative or open space from the original image taken not even ten years ago is gone, the reflection which now exists can make for interesting images in the future.

Then and Now: Reflecting on Denver

March 22, 2020 By Neil

When I was walking down Speer in 2011 a motorist stopped at a red light mentioned the reflection of the skyline from this building on the Auraria Campus. I ended up walking further down to capture a different reflection of the city and frame it with the window frame of the building.

In 2019 I went back to capture the same image. For the most part it is the same with two elements which are different.

The first being one of the newest buildings on the Denver skyline. 1144 15th Street is just to the left of the Four Seasons building on the far right of the image. The other is the growth of the tree over the past eight years in the bottom of the reflection.

With many established buildings in this area of downtown I don’t expect the reflection to change much, however you never know what will happen in terms of development in the next ten years.

Then and Now: Union Station from Commons Park

February 23, 2020 By Neil

It was 2011 when I captured this image of Union Station from Commons Park at dusk.

It doesn’t seem like it was eight years ago when I took this image, especially when you see this image taken from the same spot eight years later.

Denver Skyline from Commons Park in 2019

Quite a difference!

You may first notice the building which is blocking the view of Union Station and beyond. However this is just the first of three buildings blocking the view, all of them of course built in the last few years. The Union Station redevelopment has filled in much of the area left behind when the train yards were reduced in size and have added apartments and office space in their place, essentially building a new part of town in just a few years.

What I first noticed between the two images were the height of the trees and the growth they made since first planted. In a few years these would also be blocking some of the view of the image which was first taken in 2011.

Then and Now: The Four Seasons in Denver

January 26, 2020 By Neil

Shortly after the Four Seasons was built in Denver I noticed the positioning of the Daniels and Fisher Tower with the Four Seasons one day while driving down Arapahoe. Not too much after that I went to capture a photograph on a Sunday morning of what I was seeing while driving. I picked a Sunday morning as it let me quickly capture the image from the street without traffic.

In the past year I went back to this same area due to the new construction happening in Denver, which shows a vastly different look along Arapahoe.

The newest addition to the skyline in this scene is 1144 15th Street. This building was completed in 2018 and is one of the larger additions to the skyline in the past thirty years.

In capturing the updated image I moved a little to the right from my original position. This allowed for a better patterning and shows the differences of the three buildings.

Then and Now: Washington Park

December 22, 2019 By Neil

On a Snowy May Day (May 1st) in 2008 I first visited Washington Park in Denver to photograph the spring snow which was falling in the city. As I walked through the park I came across a tree which had an interesting angle of growth over the Smith Lake.

The response to this initial was extremely positive and the feedback I received pointed out that many thought it was black and white at first until looking deeper into the image.

Around nine months later I went back to photograph once again, however this time on a snowy morning. With the fresh snow I photographed this initial image and also tried a new angle. Over the course of 8 months there was not much change at the location.

Over the course of the years after taking these images I have been park to this location countless time photographing the tree in Washington Park over various seasons.

Recently I visited the park on a similar day to photograph the tree once again. Over the years the scene has not change for the most part.

The most telling change from the growth of the tree I can tell is the location of the light. For the first few years I was able to place this in the same location in the frame quite easily. As the tree has grown it has become more challenging to do so, which has also blending in the two elements.

I will continue to photograph at this location as I have been doing so for over ten years, but will also continue to look for new locations at the park as well.

Then and Now: Union Station

November 24, 2019 By Neil

On a snowy spring evening in 2010, I captured the following image of Union Station in Denver.

Shortly after this image was taken the redevelopment of Union Station started with the dismantling of the platforms one of the first steps in the process.

Towards the end of 2013, from roughly the same location I took this image of the new train station canopy. At this time, the final touches were being put on the train station area. Around Union Station some of the new vertical development was taking shape which would result in the new Union Station area which we see today.

For approximately the same location I took the above images, it is quite different today. With the completion of the five story building along “Block A” the view from 16th Street towards Union Station is blocked by some of the new vertical construction.

Even though the view has changed from 16th Street in the past 9 years, the area as a whole is filled with more opportunities to capture the urban landscape around Union Station. Over the years I have been able to capture some of these changes and continue to find more different views each time I head through the area.

Then and Now: Denver from Millennium Bridge

September 22, 2019 By Neil

Denver Skyline from Millennium Bridge

In December 2007 I was at the Millennium Bridge along 16th Street in Denver to capture the skyline at sunset. Almost 12 years later I went to the same spot on the bridge and it is quite a different view.

Denver from Millennium Bridge 2019

Along 16th Street there are two buildings which are visible in both images, the Barclay Towers (White high rise condo building) and Larimer Place Condos (Red high rise condo building to the right of the Barclay). The majority of the buildings which now make up the view were built in the past five years and are a mix of office space, hotels and apartments. The building closest on the left is 16 Chestnut which opened in 2018 and is sometimes referred to as Davita Tower II. Davita does have a fair amount of space on this building and also their logo on the building, but their are other tenants. Lastly in the original image you can see the light rail tracks heading along 16th Street and then the station near Union Station. This was relocated to its current location a couple years after this image was taken as one of the first components of the Union Station redevelopment project.