Speaker 1: Madam President, I. Madam Secretary, closed the voting and announced the results. Tonight. Are we showing any? I apologize. It's actually an absence. Okay. Okay. Ten Eyes Counsel Bill 21, Dash 1365 has passed. Councilmember Hines, will you please put Council Bill 1479 on the floor for final passage?
Speaker 3: I move that council bill 1479 be placed upon final consideration and do pass.
Speaker 1: Forgive me.
Speaker 3: 1429 Excuse me. Thank you. 1429. I move here, I'll just start the movement over. Move the constable. 21 dash 1429. Be placed upon final consideration and do pass.
Speaker 1: Thank you. It has moved and been moved and seconded. The required public hearing for Council Bill 1429 is open. May we have the staff report?
Speaker 6: Good evening, counsel. I'm up again. Next up is the proposed historic designation of Crucial Hall at 3001 South Heather Boulevard on the former Loreto Heights College campus, now under redevelopment as a multi-use residential and commercial node in southwest Denver. This designation application is the result of several years of community planning and negotiations with the property owner to ensure historic preservation of this significant landscape and the legacy of the Sisters of Laredo and Denver. The proposed designation of Pancreas to Hall as a Denver landmark resulted from those community conversations and negotiations and is the first to come forth for consideration. Two more will eventually be submitted. The Administration building and chapel and the process. The applicant is owner of Pan Crucial Hall Partners. It is located in the Harvey Park South Neighborhood Council. District number two, Councilman Flynn. The zoning is customized and resulted from the implementation of the Heights Small Area Plan. Pdg number 24 includes guidance on the treatment of Pan Crucial Hall and the other historic structures and open spaces that are being preserved for future use. The structure is near the end of a rehabilitation that is providing an adaptive use of the structure as affordable housing. It is a state and federal rehabilitation tax credit project. As mentioned in the previous presentation, a property must meet these criteria for historic designation. It has to be more than 30 years old or of exceptional importance. Meet at least three out of ten significance criteria, maintain its integrity, and be considered by the Landmark Preservation Commission for a historic context or theme. The structure built in 1930 is more than 30 years old. It also meets five significance criteria that you see highlighted on the screen. That is 50% of the significance criteria. It meets B, C, D and J. Parish Hall has direct and substantial association with the Sisters of Loreto and Mother Mary Pan, Croatia born Mary Lucinda Bon Fees in 1851, for whom the building was named In Memoriam. Both the group and person had influence on Denver society as an arm of the Roman Catholic Church, focused on education, in this case women's education. While Mother Pankhurst had died in 1915 before construction of Pan Christian Hall in 1930. Her individual contributions are worth noting as part of a larger legacy left by the Sisters of Loreto in Denver and the evolution of the Loreto Heights campus. The Sisters of Loreto were a North American educational order established in 1812 that followed a commitment of the Roman Catholic Church to provide schooling for its children and proliferation of the church itself. The sisters presence in Denver prior to the establishment of Loreto Heights Academy spanned at least two decades. In 1864, the sisters established St Mary's Academy in downtown Denver at 14th and California streets. The then 16 year old sister, Pat Christian moved to Denver and served as teacher and administrator, eventually becoming director of the academy by age 30. Mother, Pam Crusher, was one of the most important members of the Sisters of Loretto in Denver and related to the Bonfils family, who were well-known local benefactors. She established the Loretto Heights Academy in 1888. Her vision and that of the Sisters of Loretto is generally accredited for the success of the Sisters First Denver location, St Mary's Academy, as well as Loreto Heights Academy. They are responsible for the education of thousands of women. The sisters of Loreto operated Loreto Heights College until 1988, 100 years after Mother Pancreas purchased the Hilltop Property and established Loreto Heights Academy. Saint Mary's Academy eventually moved to the Denver suburb of Cherry Hills Village and continues to be operated by the sisters furthering their legacy. Pan Croatia Hall embodies the distinctive, visible characteristics of the collegiate Gothic style. History Colorado defines this architectural style as a combination of the Gothic revival and Jacobean Elizabethan styles. In Colorado, this is primarily seen in large institutional and civic buildings, and crucial hall is no exception as a large institutional building in the former Loretto Heights Academy and College campus. Parish Hall exhibits the collegiate Gothic style through common elements such as arched entrances, entrances, steeply pitched roof, intersecting gables and dormers front facade chimney and abundant multi light windows. Parish Hall is a significant example of recognized Denver based architect Harry W.J. Ashbrook. This collegiate, gothic style structure was a departure from Ed Burke's more common Mediterranean influenced designs like the Valverde School and former Drexel drugstore on East Colfax that you see pictured here. Pinkish Hall is the only collegiate, gothic style structure on the Florida Heights campus and represents a stylistic shift from the previous Richardson and Romanesque designs of various Uncle Frank Ed Brooke, who designed the Loreto Heights administration building in 1891 and the chapel in 1909. At the time of Parish Hall's design, Harry was in the middle of a successful architecture practice that would extend until 1946. Harry came from a line of successful architects. Born in Chicago, he was a son of Willoughby at who designed such buildings as the old U.S. Post office in Washington, DC, and nephew of Frank Easterbrook, who became one of Denver's most highly acclaimed architects. Harry joined his uncle's architecture practice in 1908 and opened his own independent firm in 1913 upon his uncle's retirement. He became a notable Denver architect himself, designing many well-known commercial, civic and institutional structures. Parish Hall was an important architectural commission for the Loreto Heights campus, and here, as it signaled the first expansion of the campus after it gained accreditation as a college and ushered in the only collegiate gothic style structure on the campus. Pancras to Hull represents an established and familiar feature of the Harvey Park South and College View Neighborhoods, as well as the contemporary city of Denver due to its prominent location and physical characteristics. Located on the 71 acre, lot of the former Loreto Heights College Park Crucial Hall is the only collegiate gothic style building on the campus, thus giving it unique and prominent physical characteristics. A five story building of red brick and accented with coast excuse me cast stone lintels. The building is easily recognizable with Celtic crosses in the front gables, ornamental finials and pointed arched chapel windows on its front facade. Located northwest of the administration building atop the hill, that crucial hall has maintained its prominent location over the years, making it a visible staple of the surrounding neighborhoods and city. As the surrounding land has developed by the Sisters of Loretto over many years. They made thoughtful decisions on landscape design to maintain the prominence and distinction of an crucial hall, while the redevelopment of the property will remove some visibility of some crucial hall from several vantage points. Its prominent location atop the hill and physical characteristics will be preserved. And lastly, for the significance criteria ten, Croatia Hall is associated with the following social movements institutions that contributed significantly to the culture of the neighborhood, community and city women's education, Loreto Heights Academy in College and the Catholic Church. It represents the Catholic Church's commitment to education through the Sisters of Loreto and our mission to specifically provide education to women. At a time when society was advancing such that the sisters established this educational movement in the quickly growing city of Denver and Pan Crucial Hall helped advance and evolve this movement in the early to mid 20th century. Parish Hall also signal the permanence of the sisters in what would eventually become Southwest Denver, contributing to the growth and development of the neighborhood and city. In respect to change. Over time, the property retains a high degree of integrity. The building is in its original location. Most of the exterior materials and design are original, with minimal repairs and alterations over time. Most alterations occurred in the interior of the structure. It's rehabilitation and adapted for use as affordable housing has resulted in exterior alterations. However, the rehabilitation is a state and federal rehabilitation tax for the project and the alterations are therefore follow. The Secretary of the Interior Standards for Rehabilitation, as approved by the National Park Service and Colorado State Historic Preservation Office. The landmark design guidelines are based off these federal standards. Per the Landmark Preservation Ordinance. Therefore, the exterior alterations are sensitive to and compatible with the structure's original character and design and consistent with landmark preservation design review. The removal of Marian Hall, formerly attached to a small section of Pan Krishna Hall at its northwest corner, affects the setting that existed from 1957 to 1988, when Marian Hall existed. However, the removal of the attached residence Hall restores the original pan, crucial hall setting, feeling and association. The Marian Hall removal does not negatively impact the essential physical features that make pan crucial hall architecturally significant, while the site redevelopment will have considerable impact on commercial and crucial hall setting. The structural steel fans maintain a high degree of overall integrity. The structure meets several distort concepts and themes with a period of significance ranging from 1930 to 1988. The addition of Pan Crucial Hall to the Loreto Heights campus in 1938 signaled the expansion and growth of the systems of Loreto and Catholic Church's mission to provide education and religion to women in grade levels through the Loreto Heights Academy and at the collegiate level through the newly accredited Loreto Heights College Parish Hall assumed the Academy's high school curriculum and dormitory originally housed in the 1891 administration building to make room for college courses in the administration building. At the time of pancreas construction, this area was still relatively undeveloped and would largely remain so until the year surrounding World War Two. Loretta Heitz would not be annexed by the city and county of Denver until 1957. The early presence and gradual expansion of the Loreto Heights campus helped spur and reflected greater development in the area. On campus, the sisters steadily expanded development following the construction of a crucial hall with a major building campaign in the 1950s, led by a master plan designed by landscape architect Sacco Rink de Boer. This included the 1958 additional Marian Hall, the pan crucial hall designed by architect John Monroe. Like other college campuses in the United States, the sisters invested in notable architects and landscape architects to design their educational institution. And crucial Hall continued this trend. Patricia Hall served an educational use for the sisters letter of Loretto from its 1930 opening until Loreto Heights College closed in 1988. In summary, the property meets all criteria for historic designation. It is 91 years old. It meets five designation criteria. BCD maintains its integrity and relates to several historic contexts and themes. 14 individuals have submitted emails in support of the designation and none in opposition. So staff recommends approval for designation of Parish Hall as a structure for preservation.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. We have eight individuals signed up to speak this evening. The first two are in chambers. Any Levinsky is our first speaker. Grant Bennett will be after her. Thank you. And hello again, Annie Levinsky with historic Denver at 1420 Ogden Street. I'm here to support this designation and really exciting to see it come to fruition after a number of years of planning with Councilman Flynn and the community members. I want to thank Grant and Jim Hartman and Susan Eli and their team for the effort to rehabilitate and reuse this building. I recall that when the news broke back in 2017 that Loretto Heights would be sold. Jim was one of the first calls. I got already hopeful that he could replicate a sustainable, affordable project in this location and really one of the first to commit to doing so. I have toured the building during construction and can attest to the care that's been given to creating more than 70 affordable units in a building that will be sustainable and safe from demolition. In light of the conversation earlier this evening, I want to underscore the recognition and designation of this building made it eligible for preservation tax credits at the state and federal level, and those have been successfully paired with affordable housing credits. There are numerous other examples of this happening in our city. Preservation is a partner in building a sustainable and affordable Denver, and this is a great case study. Additionally, I want to note that this is a site that's associated with women's history. And as we work to the first of all, our landmarks, I think it's important to recognize the women that built this very special place. And at a time when this was truly the edge of the city, it honor Sister Pan Krysia and the sisterhood of women that contributed to educating generations of Denver. We're hopeful that this will be the first of several great rehabilitations at Laredo Heights, including the Administrative Field Administration Building next door, which is already on the National Register and the Bonfils Theater on the campus, as well as inspiration for other transitioning institutional sites all around our city, demonstrating how they can be used for housing as is planned currently for the former Johnson and Wells campus as well. So thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Grant Bennett.
Speaker 3: Evening. My name is Grant Bennett. I live at 1295 South Grape Street in Denver. And thank you councilmembers for having me this evening. I represent the ownership group at Crucial Hall. My business partners, Jim Hartman and Susan Neely run a firm, Hartman Ely Investments out of Boulder. And my firm is proximity green and we're just so excited for the building and the opportunity for the designation tonight. Thank you for your time. I think, you know, the process has been crucial. Hall starts with what's happened at Loretto Heights, which is a community driven effort to really cherish the history of that building. And it's so exciting to have been part of this small area planning process that came to this council by pre-COVID with a lot big crowd in this room many years ago now and in the creation of the hall plan to create affordable housing is significant or maybe as strong as the building appears right with its with its peaked roof and all the architectural details that Jennifer and and Annie talk about, I think what's probably more important is the history of the social movement of the building. Right. Women's education in Denver and really on the outskirts of town. And then the town coming up around it are more important. And what's great about the campus is that pattern gets to continue. So the history gets to repeat itself in that we're creating affordable housing in a historically and visually structure, visually apparent and in a grand structure. But then that gets to continue on for many generations. That's probably I think the story that plays out in my mind is how this is going to happen over time and repeat that that pattern. What are the Sisters of Loretto told us about how if you're on scholarship at Loreto Heights, you lived in Hall. And so again, that affordable housing is going to continue for families living on Loreto Heights campus in the future. So we're just so excited for those outcomes and and really this story that's going to create the next generation of housing on this campus. So I wanted to say a big thank you to Jennifer and her staff for all the hard work. Thank you to Councilman Flynn for his support. And if you have any technical questions on any parts of the building, I can speak to this. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Our next set of speakers are online. We will first go to Jim Hartman, whose name we don't see in the queue. But if you are on the phone, if you wouldn't mind raising your hand and we'll get you promoted. We will move on next while we're waiting for that, too. David Hagan.
Speaker 3: All right, Counsel, thank you for having me on again tonight. 1/2. I didn't know I was coming on that, but this is I just I'm curious and this is kind of off the topic about. But it's on topic. Have we looked around this property under the dirt anywhere to see about anything? Because if we are going to designate this place, we should probably make sure there's no skeletons in the closet. I also wanted to talk about history, a couple of different types of history and how I'm going to get back to the castle here with this one. So there's like the history. Like historically, every time Gandhi votes, city votes for the people, like historically. And then there's other people like swear that never votes for the people, that they bring the tobacco bill and they vote for the people and they use excuses as to why we want it doesn't make any sense because she doesn't vote for the people. That was a personal reason. Just want to say that. And that's all I have to do. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Our next speaker is Martha Kilpatrick. Hello. My name is Martha Newland Kirkpatrick. I live at 2339 East Floyd Place in Inglewood, Colorado, and I am a graduate of the Red of Heights College. Thank you to the Denver City Council for this opportunity to speak on behalf of and in advocacy for the proposed landmark designation. Increase your haul on the Right of Heights Property. I have a very long relationship with Loretta Heitz and Pancreas Hall. I grew up in Bear Valley and could see the campus tower from my bedroom window. Loretta Heitz has been part of my life for my entire life. It was my dear mother's dream to send me to Loretta Heights College. I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1982. Pancreas Year Hall was the very first building on the campus that I entered in the late summer of 1978. It was the home of the financial aid office at that time. I was struck by how welcoming and warm that dark red brick building was. The vision launched by Mother Pancras, Siobhan fees in educating young women in a significantly modern way. Amidst beautiful architecture surrounded by nature and the incredible view atop mount, Loretto was honored in the naming of the first new building constructed on the campus property. 39 years after the administration building was completed. Pancras year hall was designed by Harry Edgar, nephew of Frank Edgar Brooks, who designed the administration building. Harry Brooks Design of King Creation Hall was a sweeping, graceful rendition of collegiate, gothic architecture and creature. Hall provided dormitory rooms, classrooms, a gymnasium and a chapel for the Academy students and later for the college students. Pay Increase. Your hall is being thoughtfully and lovingly restored to its former glory, where it will provide housing for deserving families and individuals who are an integral part of the Southwest Denver community. Landmark designation for this building in particular would honor many who came before. I fully support and request you approving the designation of Increase Your Hall. Thank you. Our next speaker online is Mary Gage.
Speaker 2: I am Mary Nell Gage, a sister of Loretto, residing in Lakewood and working in Denver. I respectfully request the Denver City Council.
Speaker 1: To affirm the.
Speaker 2: Landmarking of Pan Crucial Hall on the Loreto Heights.
Speaker 1: Campus in southwest Denver.
Speaker 2: As a college student in the 1960s, I was a resident of Penn Hall as the sister of Loretto. I have learned about the history of Penn Hall and about the sister of Loreto, for whom the building is named Sister Pan Krisha Boniface, one of the pioneers sisters who came to Denver in the 1800s to.
Speaker 1: Teach.
Speaker 2: First in downtown Denver at 14th in California, and then when another school was needed, founding the Loretto Heights Academy. Your action to Landmark in Croatia. Hall affirms the importance of what took place within those.
Speaker 1: Walls.
Speaker 2: The transmission of values, emphasizing knowledge, faith and service. The education of girls and women. And later man made substantial contributions to Denver.
Speaker 1: To Colorado.
Speaker 2: And beyond. Nurses. Teachers. Artists, business persons. Wives and husbands, mothers and fathers. We're educated. In the behind those walls. Fortunately, Jim Hartman and Susan Ely are repurposing the building.
Speaker 1: For affordable housing.
Speaker 2: And simultaneously honoring the interior and exterior features of this historic structure.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker online is Jesse Paris.
Speaker 3: Yes. Good evening. Um. Those watching at home. Those in the council chambers. My name is just Allyson Pierce and I represent four black stars and move for self defense, positive action, commercial social change as well as the East Denver Residents Council, the Unity Party of Colorado and frontline black males. And I'll be the next mayor of Denver in 2023. I'm in favor of the preservation summits. I, too, attended a class at Loretto Heights in the late 2000. I tend to some math courses when I was gone from my undergrad at Michigan State University, and I'm in full support of the preservation tonight. I'm glad to see that there's going to be affordable housing on the sites of pancakes. Huh. That is awesome. I'm glad to see that this is going to be a preservation that won't have any unintended consequences. Won't increase the land value of the area while displaced people. I'm very happy to hear that. So I'm in full support of this preservation. To make a good Joplin, you should have this. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Jesse. Our next speaker online is Test D.
Speaker 2: Council. Thank you for having me. I wanted to I would want to say quickly that. I. I really think that with the displacement in this one, the the issue is just like the way that we are talking about these things. And the issue is that the process itself and like the qualifications that I do believe that the last one, the the the House needed to be preserved. But but I just I think that I'm just curious about like what equity measures are in place because, you know, it's a little unsettling that that like the word pioneer was just used respectfully to the system. But, you know, Pioneer is is is there it was a word for that. A lot of people associate with colonizers and settlers who have effectively pushed indigenous folks off of their their land that they had stewarded for tens of thousands of years. So I'm just I'm just kind of curious about where we are with all this because and I also resent the fact that I'm the former housing historic district preservation professor man, that he that he suggested that a landing knowledge meant does not actually take into account the the people of people future generations because it actually does part of the land acknowledgment is actually that's embedded in them and that's part of land acknowledgment. It's not just about the past landing on or about the future, but we're not even acknowledging what's happened in the past. And how the hell are we supposed to go forward to the future anyway? I support this land acknowledgment. I do think that it would be great to see some more intentionality around indigenous land and land that historically black and Latino neighborhoods have been pushed out of has been forcibly removed from all of those. It would just be great to start historically preserving that history and not erasing it. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Okay. That concludes our speakers questions from members of Council on Council Bill 1429. Give us a minute. We'll clear. No questions from council. Okay. Public hearing is closed. Comments by members of Council on Council Bill 1429. Councilman Flynn.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Madam President. Pro-Tem, I saw that Jim Hartman was on the speaker's list, and so I texted him and he said he was not able to get on the meeting or didn't have the invite. But I want to acknowledge that he was watching the meeting. Jim and Susan. Jim Hartman, Susan Neely are working with Graham Bennett to accomplish this pretty amazing project as as Jennifer mentioned, this was one of the first projects. I'm sorry, Annie. Annie mentioned this was one of the first projects to come forward on the on the campus after the college to take the group closed and and sold it. And Jim Hartman came forward with his partners and said, we would like to. And they approached the owner of West Side and said we would like to take Parish Hall and make it an affordable housing project that fit hand-in-glove with the vision of my community when they were still in the small area planning process. And as Grant and Jim and Susan will well remember, in fact, we got maybe a little too far ahead of the, you know, the cart before the horse on some of this. And it caused quite a bit of struggle to get this thing across the finish line. The fact that this building will be used for affordable housing. One of the speakers mentioned is really a tribute to Sister Pancras, to Bonfils and this hall, and to the Sisters of Loreto. Because the spirit of Loreto. While the college does not exist anymore. We'll continue in perpetuity, not just through this landmark designation, but for the repurposed use of it as housing for working families, multi bedroom housing. More than half the units in here of the 74 units are multi bedroom. More than half of them are are restricted income restricted to households earning 60% or less. And of those, half of those are restricted to 30% or less of area median income. Embedded in this campus. So no matter what else happens here. And this will not be the only affordable housing on the campus. But whatever else happens here, this will be a tribute to the legacy of the sisters of Loreto and to Loreto Heights College and what it meant to my community. If I could take a moment to answer one of the questions that came up, I believe David Hagan asked if there if they found any skeletons on the property. And I can affirm that there are at least 62 skeletons on the property because the Sisters of Loreto Cemetery is on this property, including the remains of Sister Pan, Siobhan fees and in place of honored remembrance that will be treated most respectfully in the redevelopment. I also think it is. Wonderful that this will be, I think, the second. Denver landmarked building to be part of our affordable housing program. I think Tammany Hall over here on 19th Avenue is also landmarked. I don't know if I missed any that are in the affordable housing program. I got it. Thank you, Amy. And you know, no disrespect to Tammany Hall, but for my money, Pan Crucial Hall is just a remarkably beautiful building, a work of a tremendous architect who had great influence on Denver. Obviously, in my view, it meets all of the criteria and it will not be the last structure on this campus to be landmarked . We look forward to receiving more landmark applications for the other some of the other structures that were outlined in the development agreement, particularly the what they call the administration building, what I call Loretto Academy, the original building on the campus with the bell tower. I want to close my remarks, Madam President, pro tem, if we did not hear from her in person tonight, but we did receive written support from a constituent of mine, Jackie Martinez Wells. Who wrote to us that for her? No, she didn't go to the college here. She didn't have any association with the institution except for one day that sticks with her over the decades when she was a nine year old girl living in near the Platte River. On a afternoon in June of 1965, she clearly remembered Denver police going down her street with an announcement to evacuate the river bottoms because a flood was coming on the South Platte. And a lot of folks remember the great South Platte flood of 1965. Jackie and her family were evacuated to Pancreases Hall and to the campus where the Red Cross already had set up space for evacuees along the river. And she wrote to us that for her, this building, which she now lives within two, three blocks of, she lives just to the west of the campus. She and David. To her. This represents safety and security. And she has never forgotten that weekend, that week in 1965 when she was evacuated to Panama. My point in raising that is that this site is meaningful not just to the women who went there, not just to the sisters of Loreto and not just to the many alumni over the years. This site is significant to my entire southwest Denver community because of its prominent site on the Hilltop. And because of the legacy that it creates and for the future that the site represents. So for all those reasons. Madam President, I would ask for the support of all my colleagues in approving this designation. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilman Flynn. With no others in the queue. Just want to offer my support on this. And congratulations on finally putting a landmark in between sixth and Hamden, west of I 25. We have an absolute dearth of landmarked locations in West and southwest Denver, so congratulations and I look forward to supporting. Madam Secretary, roll call on Council Bill 1429.
Speaker 3: When I heard him, I heard my.
Speaker 1: Classmate Kenny Ortega. I swear I block. I see the Barca, I. Madam President, I. Madam Secretary, close the voting and announce the results tonight. Ten Eyes Council Bill 21 1429 has passed pre adjournment announcement on Monday, January 10th, 2022.
A bill for an ordinance designating Pancratia Hall at 3001 South Federal Boulevard as a structure for preservation.
Approves an individual Denver landmark designation for property located at 3001 South Federal Boulevard Building 7, known as Pancratia Hall, in Council District 2. The Committee approved filing this item at its meeting on 11-30-21.