![]() ![]() The architects are clear: Carla Madison is the only urban rec center in Colorado. Inside, bold bright colors … including orange!” “And how she celebrated herself in bright colors? That influenced our palette. This is where people can stop, engage, mingle … “What we did was take the front of the building and pull it away from the street - just a bit - to create a covered porch. ![]() With her name, the word ‘connect’ always came up. “But talking to people who did, her values inspired us. “We didn’t know Carla,” says Craig Bouck, CEO of Barker Rinker Seacat (BRS), the Denver architecture firm that designed the new center. She’d finished her first term and was running unopposed for her second when Madison succumbed to the cancer she’d been battling and died at age 54. ![]() But her greatest work of art was her life, where she shaped each day with such joyful sincerity, cynicism faded in her presence. Madison - who worked as a mapmaker and physical therapist before entering politics - considered herself an artist. “If I was having a bad day,” said Hickenlooper, “I would seek Carla out for the tonic of her company.” Madison stood out in this way, too: I could not find one word spoken against her - a rare phenomenon in politics.Įven before her death brought out the accolades, politicians of all persuasions praised Madison’s kindness and generosity. He added, “There is and never was anyone like her.” Her approach to policy, said Governor John Hickenlooper, was “thoughtful and pragmatic.” “Once she wore c at ears to a meeting!”īut representing her district was no joke to Madison, who worked 16-hour days and cared deeply about health care, historic preservation and zoning. “We all looked forward to seeing what she would have on,” said a colleague, recalling Madison’s outrageous headgear. Nor - beaming at all and sundry as she dashed about town on her orange scooter - did she act like one. With her bright orange hair and costume-like outfits, Madison didn’t look like a politician. How Carla Madison - City Council representative for District 8 from 2007 until her death in 2011 - would have loved it! Soon, roughly 30,000 monthly visitors will enjoy this state-of-the-art haven in Denver’s urban core. Multi-leveled and multi-colored, the 62,000 square-foot building features: two swimming pools (leisure and lap) a rooftop deck a gymnasium with full-size basketball court cardio-weight and exercise rooms a child watch area classrooms and gathering spaces - as well as an outdoor plaza complete with picnic and ping pong tables, a bouldering wall, bike station and slackline area. Like its namesake, the center intends for a wide variety of citizens to have the very best. Parikh said construction on the center will be completed this fall.The Carla Madison Recreation Center, under construction for two years at the corner of Josephine and East Colfax, will officially open mid-December. Among its indoor facilities are two swimming pools, a fitness area, classrooms and a multicourt gym. Denver Parks and Recreation purchased the 2.56 acres in 2009 for $6 million. The Carla Madison Recreation Center, named after the woman who served as council representative for District 8 from 2007 until her death in 2011, is a 69,000-square-foot recreation center at 1530 Josephine St. Parikh said the climbing wall is fully funded, the climbing boulder is close to being funded and the other amenities - including the slackline park - still need funding. “This recreation center is going to promote the outdoor opportunities that are there, and make the outdoors and the indoors work together,” Parikh said. Other plans for the outdoor plaza include setting up poles for a slackline park in the grass, as well as picnic tables, four pingpong tables, and game tables for chess and checkers. “It would not require somebody to go through the center to access it,” Parikh said. She hired Oregon-based Entra-Prises USA to design the wall.Īn outdoor bouldering rock resembling red sandstone is also in the works, and will be as tall as 11 feet and 20 feet long. Climbers can access the climbing facility’s outdoor balcony via the second floor of the recreation center near the gym, Parikh said. The climbing wall will include four to six routes with auto-belay devices that lower a climber without needing a person to belay.
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