Traffic and Parking in Denver: Effects on the Development of Cherry Creek Shopping Center In 1948 Temple Buell’s goal of building an ultra-modern and fully integrated shopping center and residential area on the southern edge of the City of Denver was given approval by Denver City Council. The project which Buell first envisioned when he purchased the property in 1925, had long been delayed, first by the Great Depression and then by World War II. The project was also plagued by zoning disputes between Buell and the City of Denver. By 1946 Denver had become one of the largest cities in the western United States. Between 1940 and 1950, Denver's population had grown nearly 20 percent, from 322,000 to about 416,000. Denver's population growth prompted Buell to try, once again, to achieve his vision of a Denver based regional shopping center, The increasing population in Denver and the surrounding suburbs would give Buell the consumer base required for such a large endeavor. Although Buell first envisioned building the shopping center nearly 25-years earlier, Denver's population growth, coupled with the nationwide trend of a growing dependence on automobile traffic, made it necessary for Buell to devise a design strategy that could accommodate those vehicles. Buell’s attempts to get his property rezoned and approval for his project from Denver City Council illustrate the traffic and parking issues that Denver was facing in the 1940s, Denver's roads were inadequate for the growing number of vehicles using them and public parking in the central business district was scarce, (Owen D. Gutfreund, Twentieth Century Sprawl, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, 109; and Denver Post Online, WWII Migration, www.extras denverpost,com/snapshot/part2a,htm, accessed 4/09/12.Ina new era of automobile travel, shopping centers and cities had to develop new methods for accommodating a growing number of vehicles. The decade following World War II, there was a rapid decentral tion of the downtown shopping district. Department stores located downtown lost popularity as automobile traffic increased, “The postwar period,” according to architectural historian Meredith L. Clausen, “was marked by a boom in the retail industry.” Clausen also argues, “as use of the private car became commonplace...vast numbers of people moved to the suburbs.” The migration of people to the suburbs acted as a turning point in the design and construction of department stores and shopping centers. In the 1940s, the regional shopping center was a relatively new idea, That idea developed around the concept of “one-stop shopping’ and supplying sufficient parking As defined by Clausen, a shopping center, as opposed toa retail area, “is conventionally defined as a group of commercial establishments under a single ownership, planned, developed, and managed as a single unit."* Prior to the 1940s there were relatively few ventures in regional shopping center development. However, an carly example of an integrated retail shopping center was The Country Club, designed by Kansas City based developer, J. Clyde Nichols, in 19225 The Country Club was an early model for fully integrated neighborhood and shopping center construction. Nichols's design for The Country Club was unique at the time. It eventually encompassed a housing area that allowed for 50,000 persons on 5000 acres built around * Meredith L. Clausen, “Northgate Regional Shopping Center ~ Paradigm From the Provinces," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 43 (1984):144, * Clausen, "Northgate Regional Shopping Center ~ Paradigm from the Provinces,” 147, Clausen, “Northgate Regional Shopping Center ~ Paradigm from the Provinces,” 146 * author Unk, “Markets in the Meadows By-passing the downtown “trap”, shopping centers set new retail patterns for customers and merchant alike,” Architectural Forum March (1949): 114-12511 shopping centers.* Although unique in the 1920s, after World War II, Architectural Forum argued, “Nichols's germinal idea - clusters of stores serving specific trading areas, with most of the services and none of the frustration of downtown shopping [had] at last found root.”’_ Retail shopping centers were being designed to address the needs of the new Post-World War Il suburban, vehicle owning consumer. In the 1940s, as American cities were recovering from the social and economic effects of the war, populations were increasing rapidly. Homeownership was also on the rise. Clausen suggests, “[VJeterans taking advantage of the GI bill. joined the job market [and]...like others brought up on the great American dream, they sought homes of their own.” The housing boom in the 1940s gave rise to the growth of suburban America; however it also increased the population’s reliance on automobile travel and essentially increased traffic congestion throughout major metropolitan areas, such as Denver. Denver's increased traffic congestion also hinged on its decaying and nearly obsolete mass transit system. As in many other cities, public transportation in Denver was declining as more public funds were allocated for road building for automobile travel? The housing boom of the 1940s and increased development of shopping centers and other regional amenities was a catalyst for suburban growth. Another leading factor in the development of regional shopping centers and suburban growth was increased reliance on automobiles by suburban populations. In 1949 Architectural Forum noted that for downtown shopping districts, “[t]raffic...[began] to be a palpable disadvantage.” * Author Unk, "Markets in the Meadows: By-passing the downtown “trap", shopping centers set new retail patterns for customers and merchant alike,” Architectural Forum March (1949): 114-125 Author Unk, “Markets in the Meadows: By-passing the downtown “trap”, shopping centers set new retail patterns for customers and merchant alike,” Architectural Forum March (1949): 114-125 ‘Clausen, “Northgate Regional Shopping Center ~ Paradigm from the Provinces, 148. ° Mark S. Foster, Citizen Quigg: A Mayor's Life of Civic Service, Golden: Fulerum Publishing, 2006, 88.Additionally, Architectural Forum suggested, “the consumer, thanks to the automobile, [had] become mobile enough to transcend the fixed concentrations of retail stores, where congestion and lack of parking spaces [made] shopping an ordeal.” Consumers’ reliance on automobile travel was a major incentive for developers and retailers to consider moving their businesses to provide sufficient parking for their consumers. Central business districts were growing more and more crowded as people used vehicles to drive to work or for shopping trips. Parking in Denver's central business district was limited and the increase of vehicle traffic made it difficult to travel through the city. The issue of downtown shopping and its decline was felt across the country. It was estimated that in Los Angeles, by 1949, the number of residents conducting retail transactions downtown had dropped from one-third to 12 percent in just twenty years."! The decisive drop in downtown shopping, coupled with, as Architectural Forum stated, “[sJhopping centers creating new markets,” influenced a shift from central business districts to regional shopping centers. From Seattle’s Northgate Regional Shopping Center to the Montclair Shopping Center in Houston, regional shopping centers emerged as the Jeading way to meet consumer needs, such as more accessible parking. Developers and architects, like Temple Buell, shared ideas about the design of regional shopping centers at conferences like the 1947 Urban Land Institute Conference in Los Angeles. The problem of accommodating increased traffic was not limited to Denver; cities across the nation were dealing with similar issues, ® author Unk, “Markets in the Meadows: By-passing the downtown "trap", shopping centers set new retail patterns for customers and merchant alike,” Architectural Forum March (1949): 114-125 * Geoffrey Baker and Bruno Funaro, Shopping Centers: Design and Operation (New York: Reinhold, 1954}, 6.Vehicles had been a growing problem in Denver, as they had been around the United States, since the 1920s, The debates over the construction of Coloden Moor and its impact on Denver traffic were a symptom of the larger traffic issues facing Denver. Not only was Denver's road infrastructure inadequate to handle the size and number of vehicles travelling on them, but main retail areas in downtown had extremely limited parking. A study conducted as early as 1924 indicated that streets were simply not wide enough to allow for vehicle passage, curbside parking, and pedestrian sidewalks, Streets that needed to allow for two way traffic were only able to provide one unobstructed lane for moving traffic after accounting for room required for sidewalks, trams, and parking, The study also found that there was room for only five thousand cars to park curbside downtown, while car registration in and around Denver at the time was over 70,000.12 Denver had grown asa city before vehicle ownership was commonplace. Its roads were designed for pedestrians, horse and buggy, and trams. Another study in 1926 by Dr. FLL. Carmichael, Director of University of Denver's Bureau of Business and Social Research concluded that downtown pedestrian traffic had decreased, which he attributed to, “congested traffic conditions downtown and the use of automobiles for shopping purposes.”!3 Indeed, traffic and parking issues continued to be a source of concern for Denver government official, residents, and merchants. Denver was growing at a rapid pace during this period and grew at twice the national average for metropolitan areas. Its already stressed infrastructure was increasingly unable to accommodate the number of people and vehicles in the city. For developers like Temple Buell, this meant that parking © McCrary, Culley, and Carhart, “A City Plan for Half-a-Million Population: Report to City Planning Association, 1924," Municipal Facts (May-June, 1924), ® Buell Papers, Denver Public Library, Box 3, File Folder 28, Newspaper clipping, “Drop in Foot Traffic Downtown, Disclosed.”and traffic accommodations had to be a top priority in any design plans, Around the country, other proposed shopping centers were facing similar conditions and insider journals such as Architectural Forum were quick to point out that architects and developers of regional shopping centers across the country were focused on accommodating large numbers of vehicles, A number of traffic studies and design plans were started under Mayor Ben Stapleton during his second term in office, from 1935-1947. The plans were largely focused on decentralization of the downtown shopping district and an increased dependence on automobiles.'4 Traffic congestion in the city continued to increase and a 1931 Planning Commission Report suggested that the cost of traffic congestion in downtown amounted to $1million per day in lost revenue.!5 The City of Denver's inability to accommodate the growing number of vehicles only continued to increase during and after the war. According to historian Owen D. Gutfreund, a number of large military instillations in and around Denver that were built during the late 1940s created an influx of military personnel to the state. This increased the amount of traffic and congestion that the city faced, ‘The Denver metropolitan area’s vehicle ownership continued to increase during the 1940s. Between 1930 and 1945 the number of vehicles in the metropolitan area doubled.” In 1946, the year Buell first proposed his plans for Coloden Moor to City Council, Denver roadways and congestion were a top priority for city government officials. The main ** Qwen D. Gutfreund, Twentieth Century Spraw (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 78. * wiliam Jones and Kenton Forrest, Denver: A Pictorial History (Golden: Colorado Railroad Museum, 1993), 30; Denver History Museum, Tale of a City, DeBoer papers. ° Gutfreund, Twentieth Century Sprawl, 84. ” Gutfreund, Twentieth Century Sprawl, 88.headline of the December 16, 1946 edition of the Denver Post declared that the Colorado Road Budget for that year would be $18,783,073, the largest road budget in state history to that point.1# Of that budget, nearly $2.1million was slated for Denver-based projects. A leading project was the construction of Valley Highway (currently I-25), which “would {run] north and south thru the city, following generally the South Platte River valley. For Buell’s shopping center plans, the construction of Valley Highway had been both a hindrance to obtaining approval for his shopping center and a potential boost to his clientele base. In its initial phases of design, Buell’s property was directly in the path of the proposed Valley Highway. However, later road studies suggested that Valley Highway's path should be moved west of the earlier proposed site2, At the time Buell was proposing his “ultra modern shopping center,” Mayor Stapleton’s term in office was ending. One of Stapleton’s failings as a mayor had been his “inability, or unwillingness, to tackle traffic problems.”®! Denver traffic was a serious problem and citizens were looking for solutions to that problem. In light of the previous administrations inability to deal with Denver's growing traffic problem, newly elected Mayor Quigg Newton launched several programs designed to increase Denver's auto mobility.2 Among these programs were the creation ofa traffic engineering department, off-street parking facilities, and the creation of the Denver Planning Office23 Through these three programs, Newton hoped to alleviate some of Denver's worsening traffic and parking ™ Denver Post, “Colorado Road Budget For 1946 is $18,783,073,” December 16", 1946, pt 2 Denver Post, “Colorado Road Budget For 1946 is $18,783,073,” December 16", 1946, p 14, 2 Gutfreund, Twentieth Century Sprawl (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004), 88. 3 Mark Foster, Citizen Quigg: A Mayor's Life of Civic Service, {Golden: Fulerum Publishing, 2006), 138. © Rocky Mountain News, March 10, 1946; Gutfreund, Twentieth Century Spraw! (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004) 88, © Gutfreund, Twentieth Century Sprawl (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2004), 88.conditions. While projects like the construction of Valley Highway helped to move traffic more effectively around the city, parking within the city remained a significant problem. Curbside parking was one issue that had been a persistent problem since Stapleton’s time in office during the 1920s. Although curbside parking was a hindrance to the movement of traffic, it was necessary as there were few other parking areas within the city. One solution to the problem of congested downtown parking was to implement time limits for parking meters, a plan that Denver City Council proposed in April of 1946. Downtown merchants, however, did not support the measure. George A. Flanigan, the manager of the Denver Retail Merchants, suggested, "[T]hirty-minute parking would be of little value to most shoppers.” He also stated,"[A] committee representing retail stores [was] seeking ways of making it easier for shoppers to park close to the central business district.” Public parking structures and parking lots were being considered as a solution. Ata time when shopping in the central business was already declining, due in part to traffic congestion and parking issues, limiting parking in additional ways was not a reasonable solution, ‘The 1946 measure to limit curbside parking was not approved. However, in November, 1946, certain time restraints were placed on curbside parking. “Motorists,” the Denver City manager of safety stated, “[would] only be permitted to stop at the curb to load or unload passengers [during rush hour]. The rush-hour ban [was] designed as a partial solution to the city’s growing problem of snarled traffic.’2° Bans such as these placed an extra limitation on downtown bu: esses that already lacked sufficient parking for their customers. Buell, and other developers at the time, recognized insufficient parking as one * Denver Post, untitled, April 2, 1946, p1 * Rocky Mountain News, untitled, November 24, 1946,of the main deterrents for shoppers. The continued lack of available parking in downtown made projects such as Buell’s Coloden Moor appear more viable because they were automobile friendly. Parking in the downtown shopping district continued to worsen. Mayor Newton proposed several off-street parking projects in order to lessen the problem and facilitate easier parking for potential downtown shoppers and workers, In July of 1947, Newton and his constituents issued a report indicating that the downtown area needed a 40 percent increase in parking spaces. An editorial in the Rocky Mountain News, suggested, “The most obvious problem in Denver [was] the downtown parking mess,” it went on to say that if the problem of downtown parking was not solved Denver would, “face [the] slow strangulation of the whole central business area.”2” Chase urged voters to “approve enthusiastically” a bill that would grant a $4.Smillion revenue bond to pay for city owned off street parking. The bond was approved by voters in 1948 and allowed for the construction of two city-owned garages that could provide parking for 2450 vehicles 28 Although the new bond would allow for additional parking areas in downtown, merchants were already beginning to develop in areas that would accommodate consumers with off- street parking. Denver-based architect Temple Buell designed a variety of buildings, which ranged from schools and hospitals to theaters and churches. Buell, however, is most remembered for his design and development of Cherry Creek Shopping Center (originally Coloden * Quigg Newton Papers, box 3, Western History Department, Denver Public Library, “Advance Release fcom the. Mayor's Office, after SPM,” July 19, 1947, ” Rocky Mountain News, September 7”, 1848, “Denver Needs These Parking Spaces,” p 25. ** Rocky Mountain News, September 7", 1948, “Denver Needs These Parking Spaces,” p 25.Moor).”” Buell, born in 1925, grew up in Chicago and graduated with a B.S. and an MS. in architecture, from the University of Illinois and Columbia University, respectively. After graduating Buell worked for several Chicago architectural firms, however, in 1921 he moved to Denver because of issues with his health. After recovering from complications due to tuberculo: in 1923, Buell began his own architectural firm, which he incorporated as T-H. Buell and Company Architects.*0 By the1940s T.H. Buell and Company had grown to the largest architectural firm in Denver.*! Buell’s ambition to develop a shopping center on the outskirts of Denver and the delays he faced as he tried to achieve City Council's approval demonstrates the difficulties Denver City officials were having as they tried to facilitate Denver's growing automobile owning consumers. Although Denver had been growing rapidly during the 1940s and into the 1950s, there were still very few shopping areas located outside of the city center to serve Denver's suburban populations. According to the US Census, the two census zones that Buell’s land fell into (tracts 38 and 39) were experiencing the most growth during that 10-year span(fig.1).#? The growth around the southern edges of Denver gave Buell incentive to begin in earnest to develop his property into a shopping center and residential area, Buell and Co. first proposed its plans for the construction of Coloden Moor shopping and residential center in March 1946. The project encountered several delays in Denver City Council due mainly to issues of parking and traffic. The area surrounding the proposed site of Coloden Moor was already experiencing rapid growth; the mall would potentially draw ® office of Archaeologoy and Historic Preservation, Architects of Colorado Biographical Sketch: Buell, Temple Hoyne, www.historycolorado.org, accessed 4/09/12 °° Office of Archaeologoy and Historic Preservation, Architects of Colorado Biographical Sketch: Buell, Temple Hoyne, www. historycolorado.org, accessed 4/09/12. ® Denver Post Empire, January 7, 1956, p11. * Denver Post, untitled, by Robert Powell, cca 1947more vehicles into the area. One Denver newspaper wrote, “Tentative approval of the plans was given by the Stapleton administration in March, 1946." Buell needed to gain the approval of Denver City Council to rezone his property before he could begin to develop it. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of his design Buell hired Seward H, Mott, the Director of the Land Planning division of the FHA in Washington, to analyze his plat’s viability. Buell suggested to Mott, “[T]he area...outside the city limits, lying to the southeast [was] rapidly building up and [would] unquestionably sometime in the future be incorporated within the city limits.” Buell’s plan called for a shopping center that would offer around 150,000 square feet of retail area, off street parking, and a 900-unit apartment complex. Buell’s land was close enough in proximity to the city limits that he would be able to capitalize on the heavy downtown traffic. Furthermore, its proximity to the rapidly growing neighborhoods of Mayfair Mountain and Cherry Hills made it an ideal location for a shopping center. Coloden Moor, as proposed by Buell, was designed, “mainly to serve the certain specific needs of a population of 59,573 people” who were living in an area that was “on the axis of the movement of the center of housing facilities in Denver.”35 The growth of housing in the area was trending southeast of the city center, directly towards Buell’s land. Due to the growth of Denver's housing developments to the southeast of the city center it was in a particularly good area for retail development. According to Mott the proposed area for the shopping center was “an unusually good location for a major shopping center.” In one of his earliest correspondences with Buell, Mott indicated, © Newspaper Clipping, “Super Shopping Site Approved By Zoners,” circa 1948, Buell papers, Western History Department, Denver Public Library, Box 3, FF3O. Buell Paper,8ox 3, FF 28, Western History Department, Denver Public Library, Unidentified Report, 2. * Buell Papers, Box 3, File Folder 27, Western History Department, Denver Public Library, letter, January 2, 1947.“Denver [was] one of the very few major cities that [had] no modern outlying shopping center,” and providing a shopping center of this nature, “[was] a convenience and service to the public.” Indeed, many major cities throughout the United States had begun building shopping centers to service outlying areas and to ease the congestion of downtown traffic. These new shopping centers provided convenience and ease to shoppers, as they were like Boston's Northgate Center a, “fully integrated community of retail, service, and entertainment.”*6 The benefit of regional shopping centers for consumers was their ability to eliminate the necessity of travelling into congested downtown business districts. In January 1947, nearly a full year after Buell first proposed his plans to Denver City Council for approval, the Denver Zoning Board gave initial approval for the development of Coloden Moor. As reported by the Rocky Mountain News, “the huge project” was approved by the board. The initial approval for the rezoning did not, however, come without stipulations. On January 24th, 1947, David F. Wallace, of Buell and Co, wrote to Denver Mayor Quigg Newton, [T]he Board approved the rezoning of this acreage, but imposed a number of conditions which made it impracticable to carry out the development." OF main concern to Wallace and Buell was a stipulation that required Buell to dedicate a 100 foot strip of land on the east side of University Boulevard for future widening. Denver City Council proposed that the area where Coloden Moor was to be built was soon to be one of the most heavily trafficked areas in the city; and as such, widening University Boulevard would be essential to ease traffic flow into the city center. Allowing for a 100 foot * Author Unk, “Markets in the Meadows: By-passing the downtown “trap", shopping centers set new retail atterns for customers and merchant alike,” Architectural Forum March (1949): 114-125. bi Buell Papers, Western History Department, Denver Public Library, Box 3, FF 27, Letter August 11, 1947.widening project on University Boulevard would have eliminated much needed, and desired, parking for the shopping center. The design of the shopping center took parking as a main consideration. In an analysis report, Buell and Co. suggested that, “Phe parking plaza will contain space for 1300 cars, without crowding,” and that, “the ease of parking and its flexibility [was] being considered more important than the number of cars accommodated.” The ease of parking was necessary in order to draw consumers to the shopping center. As the areas to the south and east of the mall developed into residential areas traffic along University Boulevard was rising. At the time of the report, a traffic study at the intersection of University and Speer Boulevards recorded that 28, 375 vehicles passed that intersection daily. Parking, then, needed to be able to accommodate a large number of cars and consumers needed to be able reach the parking without a struggle. Adequate and easy parking was incentive to consumers to shop at Coloden Moor and avoid the hassle of parking in downtown Denver. By early October 1948 Buell and Co. was still trying to get its plans for Coloden Moor through City Council. The Denver Public Roads Administration (PRA) was hesitant to approve Coloden Moor due traffic flow issues through the area. Of concern to the PRA was the redesign of a diagonal road that transected the proposed site of the shopping center. Additionally, they were concerned with drainage from a section of the newly proposed location of East First Avenue, which Buell and Co. wanted to move one-half block from Coloden Moor's northern boundary. Even after Buell and Co. redrew plans for the roads * Buell Papers, Western History Department, Denver Public Library, Box 3, FF 28, Unidentified Report, p2. ® Newpaper Buell Papers, Western History Department, Denver Public Library, Box 3, FF30, Newspaper Clipping, “OK Again Delayed on Coloden Moor,” 10/12/1948.through Coloden Moor, the PRA would not give approval. * The PRA, and several adjacent neighbors and business owners, argued that Buell’s intent to restructure diagonal intersections into right angle intersections was to increase business front footage and did not take into account traffic flow. Changes in road design and layout would directly affect the surrounding neighborhoods and traffic flow. Although less problematic for Buell and Co. than gaining Denver City Council's approval, protests to the development of the shopping center were also raised by members of the surrounding community. Several of the adjacent property and business owners submitted an official protest to the Denver City Council. The protest seemingly raised the same concerns that Denver City Council voiced. Chief amongst the protesters’ complaints were the “magnification of traffic problems in the area,” and “increasing the heavy strain on the already severely taxed transportation systems.”*? Adjacent property owners argued that the area was already being served by surrounding businesses and Coloden Moor would only detract from those business, while also creating increased trafic flow into the area, The area around the proposed site of Coloden Moor had been developing into one of the wealthiest areas in the Denver metropolitan area. Ina land appraisal of the area, eight United States census enumeration districts were considered. Those eight districts represented 15.9% of Denver's population and their incomes compared to the rest of “ Buell Papers, Western History Department, Denver Public Library, Box 3, FF30, Newspaper Clipping, “OK Again Delayed on Coloden Moor,” 10/12/1948. Buell Papers, Western History Department, Denver Public Library, Box 3, FF 25, Citizen Petition of Protest sills Number 76, 77, 78 * Buell Papers, Western History Department, Denver Public Library, Box 3, FF 25, Citizen Petition of Protest Bills Number 76, 77, 78.Denver were 148% higher.‘¥ In fact, the proposed site of Coloden Moor was bounded by several newly developed areas to the south and the east, and to the west by the Denver Country Club. The growing population in the area made increasing traffic inevitable. However, despite traffic problems in Denver's central business district, the development of Coloden Moor would also pull the wealthy, mostly white population, and its consumer spending further away from the central business district. By the end of October 1948, City Council voted 6-to-3 in favor of allowing Coloden Moor to be built. The approval did not come without debate.** Council re-voted in order to gain another week's delay on the decision. Council argued that another week's delay was necessary in order to give the administration additional time to review a revised traffic control plan for the area, Coloden Moor’s impact on traffic was a hotly debated topie within City Council. Councilman Stafford called for the delay because of concerns for public safety raised by the Denver Fire Department. Denver Fire Chief Allie Feldman contended “{T]he subdivision street plan as mapped would be disadvantageous for fire fighting."* Issues of increasing traffic into the area and whether or not Buell's plans addressed those issues continued to plague the project. Coinciding with the issue of increased traffic to the area was Buell’s ability to provide one-hundred percent off-street parking for shoppers. A 1948 an article in Architectural Forum declared that, “The harder it becomes to shop in traffic jammed cities, the easier enterprising developers are making it to shop outside the city.”*® Buell’s land surveyor, Seward Mott, continually urged Buell through surveys, plans, and letters to ‘Buell Papers, Western history Department, Denver Public Library, Box 3, FF 26, Land Appraisal Document * Denver Post, “Council Finally Okays Proposal to Build Swank Coloden Moor,” October 26, 1948, © Denver Post, “Council Finally Okays Proposal to Build Swank Coloden Moor.” October 26, 1948, “Architectural Forum, November 1948, 14.always keep parking as a top consideration for his venture. Additionally, a land appraisal of the area suggested that development of a business district in that area was dependent upon one-hundred percent off-street parking.” Other business in the area, especially in the neighborhood of First Avenue and Broadway were already lacking sufficient parking Buell’s top priority, along with issues of traffic flow, was to provide adequate parking. The delays faced by Buell in the development of Coloden Moor were finally resolved in City Council. Buell compromised with Denver City Council by deeding the city the debated 100-foot strip of land on University Boulevard and by redrawing some of his proposed right angle intersections.*® By the end of 1948 Buell was given approval to begin construction of his shopping center and residential area. The problem of traffic congestion in the area was addressed by T-H. Buell and Co. in a brochure they developed to attract potential businesses to rent space in the shopping center. The brochure suggested: Relief of traffic congestion at the intersection of First Avenue and University Blvd. will be achieved by the opening of Detroit Street through the development as well as north of First Avenue, in order that much of the traffic which now crosses that intersection will flow north on Detroit St. to Third Avenue and other streets. Adequate “off street” parking in the subdivision will further relieve congestion.? Through redesign of several of the more heavily used streets through the area, Buell was able to eliminate some traffic congestion issues. Furthermore, he dedicated 11.5 acres of land for parking.*° Plans for Coloden Moor were finalized and ground was officially broken for construction in June, 1952. The final plans ‘Buell Papers, Western History Department, Denver Public Library, Box 3, File Folder 26, Land Appraisal, 1947. ‘S Buell Papers, Western history Department, Denver Public Library, Box 4, File Folder 2, Untitled Brochure, “ Buell Paper, Western History Department, Denver Public Library, Box 4, File Folder 1, Untitled Brochure, ® Newspaper clipping, “Super Shopping Site Approved by Zoners,” no date, Buell Papers, Western History Departmen, Denver Public Library, Box 3, File Folder 30.for Coloden Moor called for 1600 parking spaces, 300 more than had originally been allotted for in the 1946 plans.*! The shopping mall was to be anchored by Denver Dry Goods department store, which Buell touted as being built according to, “the most enlightened concepts of what such a store should be.”*? The shopping center was one of the most up-to-date and elaborate in the United States, according the Denver Post.53 This was based not only on the types of stores that would be occupying the shopping center, but also on its design abi to accommodate such a large number of vehicles. Conclusion By the early 1950s, Denver was still developing plans to deal with traffic problems that continued to worsen. Cherry Creek’s delay in approval had been a symptom of larger city-wide traffic problems facing Denver. In 1952, the Denver Planning Office (DP) released their Comprehensive Plan, which focused largely on the issues of traffic in Denver. In the first installment of the Comprehensive Plan, the DPO released the General Street Plan. Under the guidance of the director of the DPO, the General Street Plan stated that its goal was “to give the automobile maximum freedom of direction and speed.” ‘The problems faced by Temple Buell concerning traffic and parking for his proposed mall were early indicators that Denver was a city where rapid growth and increased automobile ownership had limited the freedom and movement of Denver consumers. E Denver Post, “Work on Huge New Shopping Center to Start Wednesday,” June, 1952. & Denver Post, “Work on Huge New Shopping Center to Start Wednesday,” June, 1952 * Denver Post, “Work on Huge New Shopping Center to Start Wednesday,” June, 1952,Although Buell was finally able to begin construction on Cherry Creek in 1952, traffic remained a key issue for Denver. Buell’s initial plan and design for Cherry Creek was achieved, despite set-backs in City Council. Buell proposed additions and changes to the shopping center and residential areas in both the 1960s and 1970s, when he again faced delays from City Council due to issues of traffic volume created by the shopping mall. The delays faced by Buell and Co,,as they tried to develop Coloden Moor, demonstrated the serious traffic issues facing Denver as the city became more decentralized and more dependent upon automobile travel. While Denver's population and vehicle ownership increased, city official found it difficult to upgrade the infrastructure at the same pace.DENVER BY CENSUS TRACTS ! cal a YLT,” ! f ty epee / eee al “ 4 I Lawes 16m CENSUS. ! of THE UNITED STATES | ( | coy UMTS UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON +1941 United State Census Tracts, circa 1940. Fig. 1