Belmar is another Denver new urbanist community that’s appeared frequently in the press. It’s an innovative redevelopment of an old greyfield mall in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, Colorado.
Belmar is very urban, it’s like a downtown area built from scratch. Most of the buildings are three stories or more, giving it a nice enclosed feeling. The architecture is a mix of traditional and modern that works well, especially the lighting. Belmar has really cool retro lights strung across the main drag, and a cool retro looking movie theater to match. There is also an enormous Whole Foods located in Belmar, which in my opinion, isn’t very well integrated into the pedestrian fabric of the neighborhood, but adjoining sections are not yet complete, so I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt.
One very unique thing to Belmar is the Laboratory of Arts and Ideas, a think-tank/cultural center/gallery that is located across from the Foot Locker and Victoria’s Secret. I can’t help but wonder how many people have wandered into the Lab, looked around, and wondered where all the thongs are.
Downtown Area: Belmar has the largest and best downtown area of any new urbanist development in Colorado, and I’m willing to bet, probably the nation as well. There are an incredible number of shops, restaurants, and activities (like a fun bowling alley) in Belmar, and a significant number of these places are independent (although there are quite a few chains as well). Many of the homes are seamlessly integrated into the business aspect–the movie theater for example hosts lofts above it, and one of the condo towers is smack in the middle of retail buildings.
Architecture-how non-cookie cutter?: Belmar currently contains no single family detached homes (a few “modern cottages”are planned but not yet built). Housing in Belmar is predominately condos, townhomes, and apartments. I’ve been in the townhomes which are very nice, but being townhomes, are identical, lending a bit of cookie cutter feel. Overall I think the architecture is excellent in Belmar, and there are some really fun, interesting elements like a very industrial but cool glass elevator tower to one of the parking garages, the aforementioned lights, and a fun plant inspired covered walkway.
Open Spaces/Parks: Belmar has a few small parks integrated into the neighborhood which are very nice, especially in such an urban area. The best is the area between some retail buildings and the new condo tower which houses an ice skating rink in the winter and concerts/evens in the summer. It has a really neat fountain in it, and interesting sculptures–and the restaurants adjacent to this open area have really great open air patio areas. The place is always hopping and interesting.
Walkability: Excellent. There are very large sidewalks everywhere, and Belmar is all connected. Parking is on the periphery in tall parking garages, although there is also on street parking that is metered.
Sociability: I haven’t interviewed anyone in Belmar so can’t really speak to this. But I wondered if the lack of porches in Belmar would make it a bit less social but don’t really know. The developer of my neighborhood, Continuum Partners, is also the developer of Belmar, and I’ve asked them if Belmar is as social as my neighborhood and they’ve said no.
There’s a subgenre of horror/fantasy films that revolve around the Devil, and there have been some pretty good/amusing characterizations of the cloven hooved fallen angel on film, here’s a list of my personal favorites.
1. Al Pacino in Devil’s Advocate. (1997) A subtle, charming, somewhat grizzled Satan with the ideal job (for a really manipulative evil bastard that is): running a legal firm specializing in getting off the really guilty and skeezy. He sings Sinatra and wants to breed the anti-Christ. Best line:”Free will, it is a bitch”.
2. Tim Curry in Legend (1986). Really spectacular make up and sets creates a surprisingly hot 12 foot, red, rip-chested Prince of Darkness who wants to kill the last living unicorns so the sun will never rise again. Best line: “We are all animals my lady”.
3.Linda Blair. The Exorcist. (1973). I have a kid, and sometimes they do act like Satan and vomit an amount that seems to have been improbably contained inside their little bodies, but Damn, at least her head never spun around and she didn’t exit the stairs like an inside-out crab. I don’t remember if the main character here was said to be possessed by the Devil himself, or just a demon, but either way, creeeeeepy. Best line: I can’t bring myself to type it, but my brother does the FUNNIEST impression of it while making motions towards his crotch.
4. The Swirling Can of Satan in Prince of Darkness (1987). Mix the cock-eyed Asian dude from Big Trouble in Little China, some silly metaphysics, a dude with a cheesy 80s mustache, and can of liquid Satan in the basement of an abandoned church and you get this movie. It’s silly, but oddly disturbing, especially the scenes of the future trying to contact the main protagonist in (apparently) what is the easiest method of time travel: an in-dream preview of life on Earth if they don’t put some Drain-O into Can O Liquid Satan in the here and now.
5. Harvey Stephens [AKA that creepy British kid in The Omen]. The Omen (1976). Now, Damien (forever now in the vernacular as a synonym for “nasty little brat”) is technically not the Devil, he is the anti-Christ, which I thought I understood as being different from the Devil, so to make sure I Googled the term “Satan antichrist what is the difference”. Let me tell you, you get some really fucking weird results with those terms together.
We are fortunate in the Denver area to have forward thinking and ecologically minded municipalities that have made the necessary changes to their outdated zoning codes to allow for mixed-use development. Denver and surrounding areas have some great new urbanist communities, I’m starting a series where I critique each one of them and see how they live up to new urbanist ideals.
Stapleton
Stapleton is the Colorado new urbanist community that has appeared the most in the press. I’ve seen articles on it in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Sunset magazine, and many others. Stapleton is a HUGE mixed-use development located just east of downtown Denver at the site of the former Stapleton airport. This development gets big points for revamping what could have been a very blighted site into a vibrant, mixed-use community. Stapleton’s only drawback in my mind is its size: the place is enormous, and walking to a downtown area is not possible from many homes. Also many of the streets are very, very long, giving the area a Byzantine feel, instead of the “outdoor room”and cozy feel many new urbanist planners strive for.
Downtown Area: Stapleton has several retail areas, but only one of them currently is really like a small downtown area that residents can walk to. The other retail areas in Stapleton are like an outdoor mall separated from homes, and a big-box strip mall (bowing I’m sure, to economic necessity, I don’t knock them for this). The one current downtown section however, has some excellent business in it, like a wonderful little independent flower shop that sets their flowers out on the sidewalk during warmer weather, and Udi’s Bistro, a supremely excellent restaurant that has to-die- for bread and wonderful, original food.
Architecture-How non cookie-cutter?: I like that Stapleton mixes many different types of housing, they really have it all: single family homes, townhomes, for rental apartments that are really cool, and affordable housing. I also like that Stapleton has included modern architecture in the mix, a lot of those buildings are very cool and painted fun, bright colors. The single family homes are all traditional architecture, and because of Stapleton’s size, it can get a bit of a cookie-cutter look (although by no means to the degree of a normal subdivision).
Open Spaces/Parks: Excellent. Beyond excellent. Stapleton has the best parks and pools of any new urbanist community I’ve seen anywhere. The parks range in size from HUGE to small, neighborhood size and there are tons of fun, innovative play equipment everywhere.
Walkability: Large sidewalks connecting everywhere and bike paths. However, only about 10% of the homes are a 5-10 minute walk from a retail/shopping area. Sociability: I’ve talked to several people who live in Stapleton and they describe it as very social and there are many fun events, and like many new urbanist developments, great for kids.
My 5 year old: “Mommy, I like plants”
Me: “Of course you do honey, it’s in your genes” (my grandfather, my mother, me-all gardeners and I have a master’s in plant ecology)
My 5 year old: “I’m not wearing jeans, I’m wearing pants!”
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My Sister-in-law was explaining why she didn’t sleep well the night before…
“Mom and stepfather were up at 4 a.m. and at 5 a.m. they were yelling at each other”
My mother-in-law: “Yeah, we were discussing politics and religion–the yelling subjects”.
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My neighbor–a stay at home mom–relating her psycho blow-up at her husband:
“I’m sick of hearing about all the great damn lunches and stuff at work you get to do!! All I have to think about is where to place the office furniture and how not to get pooped on!”
You know the illustrative myth of Sisyphus? Condemned to roll a boulder up a hill in hell which tumbles back to the bottom right before he reaches the top every time? It’s about futility, but let me tell you that Greek dude has nothing on parents of toddlers. It’s impossible to clean a house containing one. I can’t ever seem to get over the crap I find in the strangest places. I can’t even count how many times I’ve wondered: Why the hell am I cleaning this here? What is the reason for this? Then I clean it and it’s dirty again 2 seconds later, Oh the Futility!
Both my husband and I were recently very sick but our daughter was fine and dandy. Very quickly things devolved into complete entropy, the house became almost borderline filthy, like Department of Child Affairs filthy, because neither of us could clean but our daughter could go on creating one mess after another. I remember having very bitter thoughts about my super nice neighbors–a couple who do not have children–thinking when they clean shit, it actually stays clean, even if they are sick!!! What a concept. On the other hand, I also believe you cannot truly appreciate having a clean house in the future, say the someday when my daughter moves out (and/or cleans up after herself which she already does to some extent) until you have experienced the futility of cleaning in its truest form: cleaning a house with a toddler in it. At least I can look forward to knowing I can truly appreciate something like that which would probably never occur to childless people. The lucky bastards.