Monday, August 27, 2007

Hangar 61 - Another Historical Landmark near Work

To go with my previous posting of the old Control Tower belonging to the Stapleton Airport, I went by this building:

View from the SW

A Historical View

A View from the NE

It had caught my eye before, as I explored different routes to/from work. It's located on Mountview and was built as a cement company's corporate jet hangar back in the day when Stapleton was the main airport for Denver.

As you can see, it's seen better days, but now it's been designated a historical landmark and there's work being done around it as part of the Stapleton Development Projects I believe. It and I are the same age apparently, I'd like to think I've aged better that it has. : )

More info here about this landmark. I was drawn to it as an unusual background for Maria, turns out its historical as well!

A blurb from Google:

Hangar 61

The one-of-a-kind, diamond-shaped, thin-shell concrete former hangar out at Stapleton on Friday was placed on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties by the Colorado Historical Society.

The 1959-vintage structure, an engineering and architectural showpiece that sits on land optioned by Forest City for other development, is being studied now by developer Larry Nelson for reuse. And there is a potential tenant, Temple Micah, whose representatives attended a Feb. 17 meeting at which the State Register Review Board recommended the new status.

The bottom line: Properties on the state register are eligible to seek grants from the State Historical Fund for structural assessments and repairs.

Hangar 61, built at 8695 Montview Blvd. as a corporate hangar by Ideal Basic Cement Co., is in a rapidly developing area of the Stapleton development. But it also is a rare remaining bit of aviation architecture, designed by Fisher and Fisher and Davis, with engineer Milo Ketchum. It is a showpiece for an era, a technique and a material.

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