Schedule & Presentations
Enduring Legacies & Forgotten Landmarks:
The Built Environment of the Pikes Peak Region
Can't attend this year’s Symposium? You can still watch via live stream at facebook.com/PikesPeakLibraryDistrict
Reserve your seats for this free event!
Reserve your seats for this free event!
Saturday, June 10, 2017, 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m.
8:30 a.m.—Doors Open at East Library, 5550 N. Union Blvd., Colorado Springs, CO 80918
9 a.m.—Welcome & Opening Remarks
9:15–10:45 a.m.
Architects
Leah Davis Witherow--Defining an Aesthetic for Colorado Springs: The Work of Thomas MacLaren
Thomas MacLaren viewed architecture as an art form. He worked diligently to combine his clients’ wishes with a timeless artistry that resulted in an enduring statement of contemporary values and culture. As MacLaren stated in 1901, “Domestic architecture [is] directly expressive of the lives of the people.” His broad use of styles reflects the broad range of his client’s opinions as to what constituted good design. Nevertheless, MacLaren buildings are easily recognizable and when viewed as a whole, constitute a unique vision for the built environment of the west.
Volker M. Welter--California Under the Kissing Camels: W. S. White, Architect, in Colorado Springs
In 1960, the Californian designer and architect Walter S. White (1917–2002) moved to Colorado Springs where he designed many of the early homes in the Kissing Camels Estate, and buildings for the Kissing Camels Golf Club and the Garden of the Gods Club. During the 1960s, White developed partially pre-fabricated mountain cabins, a concept that he successfully translated in the following decade into permanent houses that still exist today in Colorado Springs. While in Colorado, White became fascinated with passive solar residences, an idea he took back with him to California when he returned there in the early 1980s.
Kathleen F. Esmiol--The Wright Vision for the West: Elizabeth Wright Ingraham, Architect
Elizabeth Wright Ingraham, a pioneering force for modern architecture, was a visionary, an educator, a noted lecturer, author, community activist, and a champion for environmentally responsible architecture during her 64 years as an architect in Colorado.
Elaine Freed--Modernist Architect Jan Ruhtenberg: His Work in Colorado
Jan Ruhtenberg, trained in Berlin by renowned modernist architect Mies van der Rohe, designed 14 residences in Colorado Springs, as well as institutional and commercial buildings. His widely publicized work included a prize-winning but never-built opera house that appeared in Progressive Architecture in 1957. Julie Penrose, his first and most important client, commissioned him to design the Broadmoor’s carriage house museum. His modern residences stand out still in Colorado Springs amid the more conventional and ubiquitous ranch houses from the post-World War II housing boom. After a near eclipse, his work is gaining renewed attention.
Mike Olsen--Questions & Answers
10:45–11 a.m. Break
11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Legacies
Donald Sanborn & Eric Swab--The Changing Façades of the Pikes Peak Summit
Since 1873 the summit of Pikes Peak has been the focus of physical improvements. This presentation will document the history of the buildings, memorials, monuments, and pathways that have been constructed to reach its summit, and the important personalities connected with them.
Katherine Scott Sturdevant--Still Rising From the Ashes: The Victor Miners Union Hall
The Victor Miners Union Hall, built by Western Federation of Miners Local No. 32 in 1899–1901, is one of the most important historic buildings in the state, and for American and global labor history. It stands presently, after a devastating lightning fire, as a shell of four brick walls and a façade that still contains labor-war bullet holes. This is the story of its dramatic and violent heritage, its pathetic decline, and the passionate but tenuous campaign to save it. Regardless of its fate, its enduring legacy as a witness to history must survive through sharing its story.
Steve Ruskin--A ‘Grand Wigwam’ of Science: The Forgotten Legacy of Colorado College’s Palmer Hall
Colorado College’s Palmer Hall was built in order to make the school one of the American west’s premiere scientific research institutions. It had the most advanced laboratory equipment and lecture facilities money could buy, including a massive central natural history museum. In fact, in its early years it was simply known in Colorado Springs as “the Science Building.” When it opened in 1904 the celebrations lasted three days, and included political and academic guests from around the country. For nearly 15 years Palmer Hall fulfilled its purpose, until a philandering college president and a world war changed everything.
Rick Sturdevant--The Cheyenne Mountain Citadel: Its Construction & Enduring Legacy
Construction of the NORAD Combat Operations Center inside Cheyenne Mountain answered immediate cold war requirements for survivability in the event of nuclear war. Innovative techniques used to carve out a cavern for this facility became useful in subsequent large-scale excavation projects. Within that cavern, a virtually self-sufficient community occupied windowless, multi-story steel buildings. After five decades (1965–2016) of round-the-clock operations, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex (CMC) remains an architectural megastructure vital to the security of both the United States and Canada.
Mike Olsen--Questions & Answers
12:30–1:15 p.m. Complimentary Light Lunch
1:15–3:15 p.m.
Landmarks
Michael L. Olsen--Are We There Yet? Highways, History & Heritage
This presentation will trace the evolution of U.S. Highway 350 between La Junta and Trinidad, Colorado, from the use of this corridor by Native peoples through its development as the Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail, as a stagecoach link between Missouri River towns and Santa Fe, New Mexico, an official Colorado “wagon road,” and as a state and then federal highway.
Matt Mayberry--To Power a City: Coal Mining in Colorado Springs
From the 1880s through the 1950s, coal mining was a major part of the Colorado Springs economy. Over 75 mines produced more than 15 million tons of coal during this period. Most of this coal provided fuel for heating homes and buildings. It also supported the city’s emerging electrical power generation system, its electric streetcars, and the gold mills operating in Colorado City. The lecture examines this largely forgotten industry.
Ruth Obee--Colorado Springs’s Dilemma: The Built Versus the Natural Environment
This presentation will be a discussion of the dilemma Colorado Springs faces in balancing the pressures caused by growth and development in the effort to preserve our unique natural environment. It will cite example of developers’ plans that disregard the natural environment, citizens’ needs and interests, and those of fragile ecosystems. It will also describe the heavy industrialization that took place in one of the city’s premier open spaces, Red Rock Canyon. Obee will review two outstanding examples of citizen-led triumphs that led to the preservation of iconic open spaces and will describe the ongoing struggle over one of our most beautiful forgotten landmarks, Strawberry Fields.
Fawn-Amber Montoya, Judy Baca, Kellie Cason O'Connor, Dawn DiPrince, Deborah Baca Duran, Vera Estrada, Sophia Healey, Jose Ortega--The Salt Creek Memory Project
This presentation will be an overview of the Salt Creek Memory Project. Installed at the El Pueblo Museum in Pueblo, Colorado, in the fall of 2016, the project included photographing community residents, collecting oral histories, and the painting of a mural about the community of Salt Creek, Colorado, based on these images and interviews. Panelists will briefly discuss their experiences recording and displaying this history and share how history and art were combined to create museum quality images and art that reflected the vibrancy of a Colorado community founded in the late 1800s.
Mike Olsen--Questions & Answers
3:15–4:30 p.m.
Reception & Dianne Hartshorn--Evergreen Cemetery: Virtue Lives Beyond the Grave, How a Prairie Became a Park
Portraying a “visible disembodied spirit,” who witnessed the cemetery’s founding, Hartshorn will narrate the cemetery’s significance to the community, including its creation at a time when church graveyards moved to rural park settings. Gen. William Jackson Palmer, aided by well-known landscape architect John Blair, created a restful and serene built environment worthy of a visit by the living, while memorializing the contributions of the people who lived the region’s past and whose final resting place became the cemetery.
8:30 a.m.—Doors Open at East Library, 5550 N. Union Blvd., Colorado Springs, CO 80918
9 a.m.—Welcome & Opening Remarks
9:15–10:45 a.m.
Architects
Leah Davis Witherow--Defining an Aesthetic for Colorado Springs: The Work of Thomas MacLaren
Thomas MacLaren viewed architecture as an art form. He worked diligently to combine his clients’ wishes with a timeless artistry that resulted in an enduring statement of contemporary values and culture. As MacLaren stated in 1901, “Domestic architecture [is] directly expressive of the lives of the people.” His broad use of styles reflects the broad range of his client’s opinions as to what constituted good design. Nevertheless, MacLaren buildings are easily recognizable and when viewed as a whole, constitute a unique vision for the built environment of the west.
Volker M. Welter--California Under the Kissing Camels: W. S. White, Architect, in Colorado Springs
In 1960, the Californian designer and architect Walter S. White (1917–2002) moved to Colorado Springs where he designed many of the early homes in the Kissing Camels Estate, and buildings for the Kissing Camels Golf Club and the Garden of the Gods Club. During the 1960s, White developed partially pre-fabricated mountain cabins, a concept that he successfully translated in the following decade into permanent houses that still exist today in Colorado Springs. While in Colorado, White became fascinated with passive solar residences, an idea he took back with him to California when he returned there in the early 1980s.
Kathleen F. Esmiol--The Wright Vision for the West: Elizabeth Wright Ingraham, Architect
Elizabeth Wright Ingraham, a pioneering force for modern architecture, was a visionary, an educator, a noted lecturer, author, community activist, and a champion for environmentally responsible architecture during her 64 years as an architect in Colorado.
Elaine Freed--Modernist Architect Jan Ruhtenberg: His Work in Colorado
Jan Ruhtenberg, trained in Berlin by renowned modernist architect Mies van der Rohe, designed 14 residences in Colorado Springs, as well as institutional and commercial buildings. His widely publicized work included a prize-winning but never-built opera house that appeared in Progressive Architecture in 1957. Julie Penrose, his first and most important client, commissioned him to design the Broadmoor’s carriage house museum. His modern residences stand out still in Colorado Springs amid the more conventional and ubiquitous ranch houses from the post-World War II housing boom. After a near eclipse, his work is gaining renewed attention.
Mike Olsen--Questions & Answers
10:45–11 a.m. Break
11 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Legacies
Donald Sanborn & Eric Swab--The Changing Façades of the Pikes Peak Summit
Since 1873 the summit of Pikes Peak has been the focus of physical improvements. This presentation will document the history of the buildings, memorials, monuments, and pathways that have been constructed to reach its summit, and the important personalities connected with them.
Katherine Scott Sturdevant--Still Rising From the Ashes: The Victor Miners Union Hall
The Victor Miners Union Hall, built by Western Federation of Miners Local No. 32 in 1899–1901, is one of the most important historic buildings in the state, and for American and global labor history. It stands presently, after a devastating lightning fire, as a shell of four brick walls and a façade that still contains labor-war bullet holes. This is the story of its dramatic and violent heritage, its pathetic decline, and the passionate but tenuous campaign to save it. Regardless of its fate, its enduring legacy as a witness to history must survive through sharing its story.
Steve Ruskin--A ‘Grand Wigwam’ of Science: The Forgotten Legacy of Colorado College’s Palmer Hall
Colorado College’s Palmer Hall was built in order to make the school one of the American west’s premiere scientific research institutions. It had the most advanced laboratory equipment and lecture facilities money could buy, including a massive central natural history museum. In fact, in its early years it was simply known in Colorado Springs as “the Science Building.” When it opened in 1904 the celebrations lasted three days, and included political and academic guests from around the country. For nearly 15 years Palmer Hall fulfilled its purpose, until a philandering college president and a world war changed everything.
Rick Sturdevant--The Cheyenne Mountain Citadel: Its Construction & Enduring Legacy
Construction of the NORAD Combat Operations Center inside Cheyenne Mountain answered immediate cold war requirements for survivability in the event of nuclear war. Innovative techniques used to carve out a cavern for this facility became useful in subsequent large-scale excavation projects. Within that cavern, a virtually self-sufficient community occupied windowless, multi-story steel buildings. After five decades (1965–2016) of round-the-clock operations, the Cheyenne Mountain Complex (CMC) remains an architectural megastructure vital to the security of both the United States and Canada.
Mike Olsen--Questions & Answers
12:30–1:15 p.m. Complimentary Light Lunch
1:15–3:15 p.m.
Landmarks
Michael L. Olsen--Are We There Yet? Highways, History & Heritage
This presentation will trace the evolution of U.S. Highway 350 between La Junta and Trinidad, Colorado, from the use of this corridor by Native peoples through its development as the Mountain Route of the Santa Fe Trail, as a stagecoach link between Missouri River towns and Santa Fe, New Mexico, an official Colorado “wagon road,” and as a state and then federal highway.
Matt Mayberry--To Power a City: Coal Mining in Colorado Springs
From the 1880s through the 1950s, coal mining was a major part of the Colorado Springs economy. Over 75 mines produced more than 15 million tons of coal during this period. Most of this coal provided fuel for heating homes and buildings. It also supported the city’s emerging electrical power generation system, its electric streetcars, and the gold mills operating in Colorado City. The lecture examines this largely forgotten industry.
Ruth Obee--Colorado Springs’s Dilemma: The Built Versus the Natural Environment
This presentation will be a discussion of the dilemma Colorado Springs faces in balancing the pressures caused by growth and development in the effort to preserve our unique natural environment. It will cite example of developers’ plans that disregard the natural environment, citizens’ needs and interests, and those of fragile ecosystems. It will also describe the heavy industrialization that took place in one of the city’s premier open spaces, Red Rock Canyon. Obee will review two outstanding examples of citizen-led triumphs that led to the preservation of iconic open spaces and will describe the ongoing struggle over one of our most beautiful forgotten landmarks, Strawberry Fields.
Fawn-Amber Montoya, Judy Baca, Kellie Cason O'Connor, Dawn DiPrince, Deborah Baca Duran, Vera Estrada, Sophia Healey, Jose Ortega--The Salt Creek Memory Project
This presentation will be an overview of the Salt Creek Memory Project. Installed at the El Pueblo Museum in Pueblo, Colorado, in the fall of 2016, the project included photographing community residents, collecting oral histories, and the painting of a mural about the community of Salt Creek, Colorado, based on these images and interviews. Panelists will briefly discuss their experiences recording and displaying this history and share how history and art were combined to create museum quality images and art that reflected the vibrancy of a Colorado community founded in the late 1800s.
Mike Olsen--Questions & Answers
3:15–4:30 p.m.
Reception & Dianne Hartshorn--Evergreen Cemetery: Virtue Lives Beyond the Grave, How a Prairie Became a Park
Portraying a “visible disembodied spirit,” who witnessed the cemetery’s founding, Hartshorn will narrate the cemetery’s significance to the community, including its creation at a time when church graveyards moved to rural park settings. Gen. William Jackson Palmer, aided by well-known landscape architect John Blair, created a restful and serene built environment worthy of a visit by the living, while memorializing the contributions of the people who lived the region’s past and whose final resting place became the cemetery.