Civic Center Park

The formal green space between the gold-domed Capitol and the City and County Building is Civic Center Park, the ceremonial center of Denver. It started with Mayor Robert Speer, who took office in nineteen oh four with ambitions shaped by the City Beautiful movement he had seen at the eighteen ninety-three World Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Speer brought in Chicago planner Edward Bennett after his reelection in nineteen sixteen.

Bennett was a protege of Daniel Burnham, and he pulled together years of competing plans into one coherent design. He added the Greek amphitheater at the south end, the colonnade, the seal pond, and set the axis that runs east to west between the Capitol and City Hall. The park opened in nineteen nineteen, and the amphitheater began hosting performances almost immediately.

Today Civic Center fills up for the Taste of Colorado every Labor Day weekend, Denver PrideFest, and several other large public gatherings through the year. The City and County Building at the west end was completed in nineteen thirty-two. In twenty twelve the park was designated a National Historic Landmark, recognized as one of the finest examples of City Beautiful civic design in the country.

It is free and open every day.