The New Tennyson Main Street Underway from 38th to 44th

Dang, I guess I missed some excitement while Ali and I were shooting across Europe in the form of some good trolley history.

While breakfast dining at DJ’s Berkeley Cafe, one of my favorite Denver breakfast spots the folks behind and at the counter began chatting about the ongoing construction that has been ripping up the street outside DJ’s for weeks now.

It’s not stopping anytime soon I learned as they shared plans for construction that extend through the fall as Tennyson Street experiences a new redevelopment in part of a $2.5 million dollar business improvement initiative approved for the area.

The new Tennyson Street from 38th to 44th is getting a Face Lift. I’m glad, although I have had no complaints when enjoying our walking ventures during the Denver First Friday Art Walks.   And while I love the Santa Fe Art Walk the Tennyson one was more relaxed, less crowded.  I enjoyed being able to actually find a seat to enjoy a glass of wine and not swimming upstream in a crowd of people on the street.

But I digress..

Here’s what’s happening to Tennyson Street in the improvements.

• Slab Seating
• Planted flower and plant beds adjacent to seating
• Varied levels of night-time lighting to create a great pedestrian setting
• Pedestals with public art
• Scored and sand finished concrete sidewalks
• Seatwalls to channel rainwater into planted beds
• Open and airy trees
• intersections bulb outs for pedestrian safety
• Energy efficient street lights
• Recycled aluminum benches
• Artistic Street Grates
• And my favorite feature for any street… new bike racks

Denver is getting better every day… in every neighborhood.  I’m happy to see Tennyson getting some love and tlc in it’s improvements.  With great breakfast spots like DJ’s and great pizza spots like Ernies around, along with the eclectic mix of shops, restaurants, and bars in the area Tennyson is one of my favorite spots.

Here are some links to learn more about the new Tennyson Streetscape Character, Conceptual Plan, and Conceptual Illustrations.

It’s gonna be pretty cool.  Although I have to admit I loved the rough and quaint existing streetscape design I have to give the new plan thumbs up for sustainable design elements.  And I’d rather see these smaller businesses succeed and prosper with more foot traffic.

By this winter we should all be able to amble through the new Tennyson district enjoying First Fridays (or any night of the week) and this newly designed district.

In the meantime.. I’ll be biking to breakfast and dinner there to avoid the missing parking.

And speaking of missing… at the start of this post I mentioned that I missed some excitement while Ali and I were traveling.  It turns out that the “dig” of Tennyson Street turned up the old Trolley Tracks that once carried folks up and down this area (as they did among much of the Highlands).  The folks at DJ’s shared that it was pretty cool to see the old lines and the historic rail ties and lines being unearthed from long ago.

We shared a few wishes that somehow these old transit lines could exist once again allowing an alternative transit option.  The charm of these old trolley lines would have been my perfect Tennyson Street solution.  Then we went on to complain about our lack of rail, the high cost of gasoline, and the short sighted planning we continue to postpone alternative transportation to our cars.

But that’s a topic for another day.

Congrat’s Tennyson and congrats to the great Berkeley neighborhood!  I can’t wait to see the finished product.   But in the meantime I’d love to see the historic product.  If anyone has any photos from the archives about the old trolley system in Denver they can share I’d love to post them.  And if you were one of the photographers shooting the trolley lines being pulled up and have some to share I would sure love to see them.

Cheers,

Mike