City Park Alliance

Beginning June 6, 2009 join the City Park Alliance, Denver Parks & Rec and the Tattered Cover Bookstore for Saturday morning Story Hour in City Park.  Local community leaders will read and share stories.  Children, grandchildren, nieces/nephews, and neighbors should all come along!  After the stories kids can enjoy cookies and lemonade.  Each week one lucky family can win a copy of one of the books read.  Parking is available in the Park and along 21^st Avenue.

2009 marks the fourth year City Park Alliance has presented Story Hour, and each year the program’s popularity grows.  Past readers included Colorado First Lady Jeanne Ritter, City Councilman Michael Hancock, City Councilwoman Carla Madison, School Board Member Jeanne Kaplan as well as other local leaders.  Be sure to join us this year to see what’s in store!

Story Hour Flier 2009

The City Park Alliance is pleased to invite all Denver City Park enthusiasts to its second annual Open House the evening of Thursday, May 21, from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m.  at the Denver Pavilion in the Park’s center.  Neighbors, patrons of the Zoo and Denver Museum of Nature and Science, and frequent visitors of City Park are invited to help celebrate the Alliance’s tremendous accomplishments this year.

The City Park Alliance fundraised an initial $372,000 for the Mile High Loop, a recreational trail that allows joggers and walkers to experience the Park’s vast interior on a 5K – or 3.1 mile crusher fine path, built with the tremendous support of hundreds of volunteers coordinated by Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado.   The Alliance also celebrates, together with the Friends for the Electric Fountain, the reconstruction of the electric fountain in the center of Ferril Lake.  Guests of the Open House will experience a sneak preview of the lighted fountain show played to the patriotic tunes from members of the Denver Municipal Band.

The City Park Alliance would not be able to accomplish these projects without the dedication of several volunteers and strategic partners, such as Denver Parks & Recreation, Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado, the Denver Zoo, the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, among many others who will participate in the festivities.  Come learn about the City Park Alliance’s new ventures, such as rehabilitating Duck Lake, and share your feedback on areas that you would most like to see improved in Denver’s largest and most beautiful, historic park.

Food and beverage will be provided by City Park Alliance with help from the local businesses surrounding the Park.  Alliance Chair, William Bowman, promises a diverse offering of exhibitors and guests and a fantastic experience to be had by all.

Fountain shows of the Electric Fountain will begin again on Friday, May 22, 2009 and continue throughout the summer. The new fountain on Ferril Lake in City Park was dedicated August 19, 2008 in time for the 2008 DNC and just over 100 years after the original fountain was completed on May 30, 1908. The original fountain was supported by Mayor Robert Speer’s City Beautiful plan and the Democratic National Convention coming to Denver during the summer of 1908. The fountain was a centerpiece of life in Denver, drawing thousands of visitors to watch the water and light shows while listening to concerts in City Park. The fountain, which predates the Disney and Las Vegas era of show fountains by over sixty years, was created by engineer Frederic W. Darlington. It was called the Prismatic Electric Fountain because of the rainbow of colored lighting effects created by the special apparatus patented by Darlington in the late 1890’s.

Toward the end of the 20th century, necessary repairs became too frequent and the fountain shows were discontinued. After multiple attempted repairs, the deteriorating fountain was torn down and a 20-month project to build a historically accurate replica of the original fountain began in January 2007. The original Darlington Electric Fountain in City Park was the last known surviving, relatively intact example of Darlington’s work when it was demolished. Denver is the only city with a Darlington Electric Fountain to undertake the daunting task of creating a historically accurate yet modern version of his original work.

The new Electric Fountain vault was designed to match the dimensions of the original fountain based on measurements taken before the demolition. The new fountain vault is constructed with re-bar and a special mix of concrete for strength. The new fountain features the 12 water display effects of the original fountain, but there are now three times as many automatic valves to give dramatic new flexibility in controlling the displays. The new fountain, constructed at a cost of $3.2 million, is run by computer software. In keeping with Denver’s greener image, the fountain uses LED lights that consume about 80 percent less energy than incandescent lighting would require. These state-of-the-are lights are saving over 40,000 Watts of power during the peak demand point of a fountain show.

The fountain recycles between 600 and 4,000 gallons of Ferril Lake water per minute, depending on which water features are active and how high they shoot. The center geyser is designed to shoot to a height of 90 feet. Along with providing visual entertainment, operation of the fountain also aerates the lake water, which reduces algae growth and is good for the fish stocked in the lake.

The Prismatic Electric Fountain shows will be every 5 -10 minutes from 7p.m. to 11p.m. with lighted shows starting at dusk. During the day, the fountain will change patterns every 5 minutes with short fountain shows on the hour.

The Parks Department Arbor Day planting volunteer slots are now full, but you can still participate on April 25th when City Park neighbors, coordinated by Montview Presbyterian Church, plant trees around the Park.