RiNo Art Park Community Hub, a $4.5 million three-acre cultural center located at 35th and Arkins Court, will celebrate its grand opening with a three-day community celebration September 24-26. The park will become a hub for recreation, creativity, learning, dining and entertainment for all of the downtown Denver neighborhoods that surround it.
In 2019 RiNo Art District engaged Tres Birds, a full-service planning, architecture and general contracting firm based in Denver, on the design for ArtPark Community Hub. Like many of the original buildings in this neighborhood, the existing building was industrial in nature and not intended for community use.
“On behalf of the many artists who call RiNo Art District home, we appreciated the Tres Birds team’s ability to see the potential inherent in this building, which was originally slated for demolition,” said John Deffenbaugh, projects director at RiNo Art District. “They brought out the beauty of the raw, industrial elements and helped us realize an incredible level of functionality and a strong connection to place. We could not be more excited to open this new space to the community.”
The structure was originally presented as one large, imposing mass. Carefully removing a section at the center of the single building, the design creates two distinct wings with a plaza at the center that serves as an active gateway between the river and Arkins Park.
The east wing will house a first-of-its-kind branch of Denver Public Library, an art gallery space and eight affordable artist studios made possible in partnership with RedLine Contemporary Art Center. The library will have space for a small collection and collaboration spaces that can serve as conference rooms or maker spaces, as well as storage and private offices.
The west wing will house Focus Points Family Resource Center’s café and restaurant, also featuring a large commissary kitchen and food incubator to enable small businesses to prove their concepts before transitioning to more costly commercial kitchens. Tres Birds is also adding a new 900-square-foot building with seating in a spacious new transparent structure that will accommodate indoor seating and a 400-square-foot outdoor patio.
The plaza at the center of ArtPark includes an extensive public art installation featuring large metal hoppers reclaimed from a neighboring concrete plant that have been repurposed as sculpture by artists Jaime Molina and Pedro Barrios of The Worst Crew, along with Tres Birds.
Funding
Collegiate Peaks Bank is the primary lender to the park, providing funding to refurbish the existing vacant buildings located at the RiNo Art Park Community Hub in River North. Collegiate Peaks Bank completed a loan in the amount of $3 million last year to support the refurbishment of the buildings. The bank also contributed a $20,000 sponsorship to the creation of the park.
“Collegiate Peaks Bank has been a proud member of and contributor to the RiNo Art District since 2013, and it’s our honor and privilege to be part of this important effort,” said Liam Girard, president of Collegiate Peaks Bank. “The park will provide a place of learning and engagement to the entire community and we will do all we can to support its success. Our hard work and community-minded approach have made Collegiate Peaks Bank a sought-after banking partner by Colorado businesses and is helping all of our customers to grow their businesses and thrive in the communities they serve.”
There are several opportunities for people and companies to support the park. For more information regarding these opportunities, contact: Marian Pulford, development director – marian@rinoartdistrict.org
