Say goodbye to Civic Center Park as you know it.
Large parts of the central Denver park will be fenced off to the public as it gets an $18 million facelift.
Crews and officials put shovels into the ground Wednesday morning to commemorate the start of the Civic Center Next 100 project. The first phase of construction will see major changes to the park’s Greek Amphitheatre and Central Promenade.
“What you will see here is the investments that prepare us for the next hundred years,” Mayor Mike Johnston said at the groundbreaking. “We are both custodians of the history of this place. We are also caretakers of the future, which means we have to make sure we make the investments like this to prepare this public space for the next hundred years of events.”
The city says the project will make the park a premier destination for local families, tourists and commuters by revitalizing its landmarks and increasing Americans with Disabilities Act compliance.
Construction, which is expected to continue into 2027, will force some changes to the large events that the park hosts. The Christkindlmarket, which typically opens in the winter months in Civic Center Park, already preemptively moved to the Auraria Campus. It isn’t clear how other major events, like the Mile High 420 Festival and PrideFest, will adapt.
What will the park look like?
Eventually, the whole park will be rebuilt and rearranged. But this initial phase will focus on the Greek Amphitheatre, Central Promenade and South Plaza.
The biggest change will be to the amphitheatre bordering West 14th Avenue. City officials say the current layout is restrictive and isn’t accessible to people with disabilities. The project will flip the orientation of the theater, so attendees are facing north instead of south to avoid glare.
The stage and its colonnade (that’s the row of evenly spaced columns, for those who didn’t take Architecture 101) will instead become a “gateway” that connects a seating area to bathrooms, green rooms and administrative space, where the current south plaza is.
A memorial to the Gang of 19, a group of disability advocates who stopped two RTD buses in the name of accessibility, will also be built in the south plaza.
The central promenade will also be expanded with different walking paths to prevent congestion during large events. In the new design, there will be a designated food truck court, a designated garden plot, more trees and, eventually, a cafe near the McNichols Building.
It isn’t clear when the next phase of construction will begin. In addition to bond dollars, the Downtown Development Authority has set aside an additional $30 million to go towards Civic Center Park.
