Windmills could add new spin to DIA
Thom Wilkerson
By Jeffrey Leib
Denver Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 06, 2002
- Windmills could help light the way to DIA if a landscape architecture
team gets its way.
The team's proposal would install windmills on Pen~a Boulevard to power
new lights that would herald the entrance to Denver International
Airport's terminal.
The lights would be mounted on polished stainless steel poles of varying
height along the rolling topography of Pen~a Boulevard's median and
shoulder - the lights on top would all be at a uniform elevation of
5,380 feet on the airport approach. That is deliberately 100 feet above
Denver's elevation.
The design, Plainscape, is meant to evoke an 1850s surveyor's grid, with
the poles bringing "a legibility to the prairie landscape," according to
the plan's creators, Philadelphia design firm Field
Operations and RNL Design of Denver.
The firms are competing with another landscape design team to win a $5
million contract for reshaping the landscape along the 4 miles of Pen~a
Boulevard from E-470 to the airport terminal.
The competing team is led by Hargreaves Associates of San Francisco and
Denver's Wenk Associates.
Their proposal calls for using up to 1.2 million cubic yards of fill
dirt to construct shaped earthen berms along Pen~a Boulevard that would
help shield motorists from acres of parking lots that line the airport
entrance.
DIA's terminal is "a dramatic structure and powerful form on the
landscape," said University of New Mexico architecture school dean Roger
Schluntz, and the winning landscape design proposal will help
"celebrate" the Pen~a Boulevard approach to the terminal.
Schluntz is an adviser to a committee of architects, designers, and city
and airport officials who will choose the winner, possibly as early as
Tuesday.
mrtravel
> height along the rolling topography of Pen~a Boulevard's median and
> shoulder - the lights on top would all be at a uniform elevation of
> 5,380 feet on the airport approach. That is deliberately 100 feet above
> Denver's elevation.
Stupid reporter
Denver's elevation is not 5280 feet.
A Guy Called Tyketto
How true. http://www.airnav.com/airport/kden
DEN - DENVER INTL AIRPORT
DENVER, CO
AIRPORT INFORMATION AS PUBLISHED ON 18 APRIL 2002
Location
Lat/Long: 39-51-30.269N / 104-40-01.207W
(39.8584081 / -104.6670019)
(estimated)
Elevation: 5431 ft. / 1655.4 m (surveyed)
Variation: 11E (1995)
From city: 16 miles NE of DENVER, CO
*sigh*
BL.
--
Brad Littlejohn | Email: tyk...@wizard.com
Unix Systems Administrator, | tyk...@ozemail.com.au
Web + NewsMaster, BOFH.. Smeghead! :) | http://www.wizard.com/~tyketto
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R J Carpenter
>
> mrtravel <mrtr...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >> The lights would be mounted on polished stainless steel poles of varying
> >> height along the rolling topography of Pen~a Boulevard's median and
> >> shoulder - the lights on top would all be at a uniform elevation of
> >> 5,380 feet on the airport approach. That is deliberately 100 feet above
> >> Denver's elevation.
> >
> > Stupid reporter
> > Denver's elevation is not 5280 feet.
>
> How true. http://www.airnav.com/airport/kden
>
> DEN - DENVER INTL AIRPORT
>
> DENVER, CO
>
> AIRPORT INFORMATION AS PUBLISHED ON 18 APRIL 2002
>
> Location
>
> Lat/Long: 39-51-30.269N / 104-40-01.207W
> (39.8584081 / -104.6670019)
> (estimated)
> Elevation: 5431 ft. / 1655.4 m (surveyed)
> Variation: 11E (1995)
> From city: 16 miles NE of DENVER, CO
>
> *sigh*
>
DENVER's elevation really is 5280 feet - in downtown Denver on Capitol
Hill IIRC.
DALing
Survey) (and probably a few others as well - but UNIFORMLY a "mile high"?
duh....)
"R J Carpenter" <rca...@erols.com> wrote in message
news:3CD720...@erols.com...
ERIKG3
>team gets its way.
How about windmills to power the airport instead of some silly lights?
>Their proposal calls for using up to 1.2 million cubic yards of fill
>dirt to construct shaped earthen berms along Pen~a Boulevard that would
>help shield motorists from acres of parking lots that line the airport
>entrance.
Which were not envisioned in the original plan!
Pena was full of hot air, so why not have him stand next to the windmills?
R J Carpenter
>
> sure, at the ONE SPOT where the CGS medallion is (the Coast and Geodetic
> Survey) (and probably a few others as well - but UNIFORMLY a "mile high"?
> duh....)
Right, since you can look __down__ from Capitol Hill, Denver, it should
be obvious even to a reporter that it isn't all the same elevation. Cub
reporter, first story????
Steve Murray
> DALing wrote:
>>
>> sure, at the ONE SPOT where the CGS medallion is (the Coast and
>> Geodetic Survey) (and probably a few others as well - but UNIFORMLY a
>> "mile high"? duh....)
>
> Right, since you can look __down__ from Capitol Hill, Denver, it should
> be obvious even to a reporter that it isn't all the same elevation.
> Cub reporter, first story????
However, the reporter (or at least the original quoted text) never said
Denver was of a uniform elevation. It, in fact, implies the converse. It
said the new poles along Pena Blvd. would be cut to a uniform elevation of
5,380 ft. This would imply that the contour and elevation of the land
will vary, and the length of the poles will vary, but the elevation of the
tops of the poles will be uniform.
The reporter's mistake isn't that the elevation varies, but that the
elevation along Pena Blvd is probably well above 5,380 ft to begin with,
so that the poles will have to be dug into pits.
Steve M.
Seattle, USA
R J Carpenter
That wasn't ruled out, was it ;=)) Enough, enough!
Steve Murray
With Denver you never know!
;-)
Steve M.
Seattle, USA
mrtravel
ERIKG3
>said the new poles along Pena Blvd. would be cut to a uniform elevation
>of
>5,380 ft. This would imply that the contour and elevation of the land
>will vary, and the length of the poles will vary, but the elevation of the
>
>tops of the poles will be uniform.
Is this a good idea near an airport?
I don't want to have a jet landing on Federico Pena or his Boulevard.