Transit Alliance envisions a balanced transportation network as the heart and soul of metro Denver’s coming regional renaissance. With the advent of FasTracks, our mass transit system, the Denver region now has the chance to orient itself toward its people as well as their automobiles.

That is why Transit Alliance is working on a groovy thing, an Apr. 6, 2006, workshop that will have community leaders planning metro Denver’s new pop culture. In this case, pop stands for “people-oriented places.”

Metro Denver’s New P.O.P. Culture, Making Our New Spaces People Oriented Places, which will be held at the Colorado Convention Center will be attended by elected officials, planning professionals, builders, developers, business, civic and environmental leaders and grassroots organizations. Member rates of $50 and Non-member rates of $100 will allow you to learn new useful information about how to create people oriented places and hear from one of the world’s gurus on “placemaking,” Dr. Jan Gehl of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ground Breaking Research!
   
     

Professor Jan Gehl

  

Born 1936. Architect, Professor of Urban Design, Director of Centre for Public Space Researches at the School of Architec¬ture, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen.

Partner GEHL Architects** ApS – Urban Quality Consultants, Copenhagen.

International teaching includes universities in Edinburgh, Toronto, Calgary, Melbourne, Perth, Berkeley, San José, Oslo, Dresden, Wroclaw, Hanover, Guadalajara, Vilnius, Cape Town and Costa Rica, and consultancy compromises cities in Europe, North America, Australia, Middle East and the Far East.

Previous publications include “Life Between Buildings – Using Public Space” published in 12 languages, “Public Spaces Public Life, Copenhagen 1996“, winner of the Edra/PLACES Research award, USA, 1999 and “New City Spaces“, Architec¬tural Press, Copenhagen 2001.

Jan Gehl has been awarded the Sir Patrick Abercrombie prize for exemplary contributions to town planning by the International Union of Architects as well as an honorary doctorate from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh.
     
    **GEHL Architects - Urban Quality Consultants is a consulting firm in the field of architecture, urban design and urban planning offering expertise concerning the human dimension in city and site planning. The character and vitality of public spaces are seen as an important key to urban quality. Our planning and design solutions are based on extensive research on how people use public spaces and experience urban quality. We base our work on the close relationship between well-functioning, well-designed and lively public spaces and people’s perception of quality in cities. GEHL Architects works in Scandinavia and abroad with improvement of existing public spaces, strategies and consultations in relation to the development of city centres, city districts and housing areas as well as with the development of new city areas.

     
     
    Panel Moderator

Marilee A. Utter
Citiventure Associates
ULI Colorado

   Marilee A. Utter is President of Citiventure Associates LLC, a Denver-based real estate advisory and development firm specializing in mixed-use projects with particular expertise in Transit-Oriented Development, failed mall sites, large scale masterplanning, and public-private transactions.

Marilee’s unique background in both public and private real estate has led to nationally published articles and numerous engagements focused on innovative approaches to community redevelopment and urban issues. Projects of note include leading the TOD efforts on the T-Rex project and over 25 other sites in the Denver region; redevelopment of a failed regional mall, Cinderella City, and the Denver Dry Building.

Previously, she was Transit-Oriented Development Specialist for the Regional Transportation District (Denver), Regional Vice President for Trillium Corporation, a real estate development company, Director of Asset Management for the City and County of Denver, and Vice President of First Interstate (now Wells Fargo) Bank.

Professional affiliations include the Counselor of Real Estate designation; Chair, Urban Land Institute Colorado District Council, CU Real Estate Center, CREW and the International Women’s Forum.

     
     Panel Members in Alphabetical Order
   

Frank Cannon
Continuum Partners, LLC

  

Frank Cannon is a Development Director with Continuum Partners, LLC a Denver based real estate development company born from the belief that there is a connection between long-term, sustained property value and high-quality urban design. Frank has significant experience from both the private and public sectors in the planning, design and implementation of urban redevelopment and transit oriented development projects. Prior to joining Continuum, Frank was a Principal with Civitas, Inc., a national planning, urban design and landscape architecture firm. His portfolio of experience includes directing redevelopment planning efforts for an area of downtown Brooklyn, New York, redevelopment planning for Lowry, Stapleton and Fitzsimons, master planning and design for Denver Union Station, and planning, design and development of Belleview Station, a 50-acre TOD on the new RTD Southeast Corridor.

     
     

Tom Clark
Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation

   Tom Clark is Executive Vice President of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. He has over 30 years of economic development experience at the state, regional, county and city levels. Tom's career spans four decades from Director of Commercial and Industrial Development for the Illinois Department of Commerce and Community Affairs, through positions with the Fort Collins, Colorado Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Denver Corporation, the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, the Jefferson Economic Council, and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. He holds bachelors degrees in speech and psychology from Minnesota State University and a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Illinois. Tom was the founder and first president of the Metro Denver Network, the Metro Denver region’s first economic development program, for which he received the Arthur D. Little Award for Excellence in Economic Development. He was chosen as one of the nation’s top economic development professionals by the Council on Urban Economic Development.
     

Larry Fullerton
Fullerton & Company

  

Larry Fullerton, past President of the Home Builders Association of Metropolitan Denver, is one of the leading developers of for-sale multi-family buildings in the region. A lawyer by training, he has enjoyed twenty eight years of building and developing in the Denver area, including pioneering days in LoDo and Curtis Park in the late 1970s, Genesee in the 1980s, and as President of The Fullerton Company since 1993. His award winning company has developed successful loft/condominium buildings in the Golden Triangle, Uptown, Congress Park, Stapleton and Lowry neighborhoods of the Denver metropolitan area. He has served three Denver mayors in appointed positions, including four years full-time for former Mayor Frederico Peña.

The Fullerton Company performed sales and marketing for Denver’s premiere Transit Oriented Development, Louisiana Station Lofts, which sold out before ground breaking. Emphasizing the exciting new trend of new urbanism, a mix of land uses (residential, office and shopping), the convenience of walkability to the new light rail station and the excitement of a TOD as an energetic village-like neighborhood made Louisiana Station Lofts a great success.

     

Clarence W. “Cal” Marsella
 Regional Transportation District

   Clarence W. “Cal” Marsella, a 30-year transit veteran, was hired as the General Manager of the Regional Transportation District (RTD) in August 1995. He manages 2300 employees and an annual operating budget of $330 million. Mr. Marsella began his transportation career as a highway engineer with the State of Connecticut Department of Transportation in 1975. He then served as the Director of Transportation Services for the City of Hartford, Connecticut from 1976 through 1979. From 1979 through 1992, Cal served as the Chief of Contracted Services for Miami’s Metro Dade Transit Agency. Cal was selected by the Colorado Association of State Transportation Agencies as the Transportation Professional of the Year in 2000. He serves on the National Academy of Sciences Transportation Research Board, and sits on the Board of Directors of the Intermodal Transportation Research Institute at the University of Denver. Mr. Marsella holds a Masters Degree in Public Affairs and a Bachelor of Arts Degree, both from the University of Connecticut.
     

Barry Molk, MD
Chief of Cardiology, SkyRidge

  

Dr. Molk completed his internship and fellowship in Denver and started practicing with Aurora Denver Cardiology in 1976. Throughout the years Dr. Molk has maintained many positions of leadership at The Medical Center of Aurora, Rose Medical Center, and the University of Colorado Health Science Center. With the opening of the Sky Ridge Medical Center, Dr. Molk leads the cardiovascular medical staff.

Dr. Molk is well respected as a teacher, speaker, and maintains many oversight positions with nationally known companies. He has maintained a teaching appointment with the University of Colorado Health Science Center as an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine. Dr. Molk is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Cardiovascular Diseases. He is also a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology.

     

Nancy N. Sharpe
Denver Regional Council of Governments

   In November of 2003, Nancy Sharpe was elected to a four year term as Mayor. Nancy serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Southeast Business Partnership; Chair of the South I-25 Urban Corridor Steering Committee; Board President of the Southeast Transportation Authority; President of Colorado Women in Government; Chair of the Denver Regional Council of Governments; and former board member of Girls Incorporated of Metro Denver and the Development Advisory Board of St. Anne’s Episcopal School. She is also a Denver Ballet Guild member and an auxiliary member for Colorado Ballet.

Nancy is a project management consultant and earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology from Louisiana State University. When she is not working or volunteering, Nancy enjoys spending time with her family, attending her daughter’s sports games, skiing, reading, and playing golf.