News

The Mayor’s Office of the National Western Center has been a part of ongoing discussions with our historic and community partners, including History Colorado, Historic Denver and the National Western Center (NWC) Citizens Advisory Committee, about the building currently located at 4701 Brighton Boulevard. Multi-modal improvements and reconstruction of Brighton Boulevard will not allow the building to remain in its current location, and collaboratively discussed proposals to move the building west have proven to be economically unfeasible.

We recognize the significance of this building to the historic Elyria neighborhood, as well as its alignment with NWC campus placemaking and design goals to provide a welcoming interface with the neighboring community. As such, and in cooperation with our historic partners, the NWC capital build team will proceed with carefully disassembly of the building’s brick facade, windows and doors (as detailed below). These elements will be securely stored, and land in the approximate vicinity of the current building will be held vacant, for the future Construction of a new building structural frame that allows reuse of the stored historic materials to reconstruct the historic facades once a funding and programming partner for the building has been identified.

The process for the deconstruction of the building will include the following steps:

• Carefully removing non-historic elements (plywood and wood siding)
• Providing accurate measured drawings of the existing building and openings
• Carefully removing exterior windows and frames
• Removing exterior doors and frames
• Deconstructing the brick superstructure
• Carefully removing non-historic elements (plywood and wood siding)
• Providing accurate measured drawings of the existing building and openings
• Carefully removing exterior windows and frames
• Removing exterior doors and frames
• Deconstructing the brick superstructure

This work will take approximately 3 weeks to complete and will have oversight by the historic architect that prepared the Historic Structures Assessment for this structure.

The NWC team is committed to preserving and embracing the historical character of the site, adding to the interest and fullness of the campus and preserving an important piece of Colorado’s history. On behalf of the National Western Center capital build program, our team would like thank History Colorado (State Historic Preservation Office), Historic Denver, Inc., Denver Landmark Preservation, and the NWC Citizens Advisory Committee for their collaboration and support to preserve an important community asset.