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D-Town Buildering

posted by dpm on 03/02/2010

Denver is known for its mountain culture. A clash of commerce and outdoor adventure, people come from all over the country to live on Denver’s Front Range. What people don’t know about D-town is that in addition to its proximity to many amazing climbing areas, its architecture is a different kind of climbers’ playground. 


Thomas Parker in Millennium Park
Photo courtesy of and copyrighted by Mike Sakas

During the early nineteenth century, Denver’s Mayor Robert Speer visited Paris and returned with a vision to create a “Paris on the Platte.” Implementing his plan, Speer transformed the city to “the queen of the plains,” complete with parks and buildings replete with ornamentation. A century later, that transformation has led to a new and tiny subculture of climbing: climbers who walk past these buildings everyday and decide that their beauty and size calls to be climbed as much as any rock. 


The author climbing another neat feature
Photo courtesy of and copyrighted by Mike Sakas

Their perfect geometry is as aesthetic as any Indian Creek splitter, and their sheer vertical angle is without comparison. The same way the great climbers in our past stared through telescopes looking for weaknesses up a mountain’s face in order to gain the summit, Denver’s modern climbers gaze up from street level at some of Denver’s tallest buildings and think that their features are climbable.


Matus Soblic takes a monster fall at Waterworld  
Photo courtesy of and copyrighted by Danny Madson

Buildering started as something to do at night when my energy got the best of me. It has transformed to a point where I go out on reconnaissance missions with a ladder and a camera, sneaking up fire escapes and past lobby security in order to find the next line. 


Matt lloyd in LoDo Denver
Photo courtesy of and copyrighted by Mike Sakas

The thrill of climbing is something that people walk past everyday it incredible. It allows you to alter perceptions of what is possible by reimagining how people normally interact with their surroundings. Like nature’s rock, buildings were not designed to be climbed. Yet, while buildering shares many similarities to rock climbing it has one large difference: buildering is illegal. These climbs are done while avoiding the law, usually by executing a chosen route under the cover of darkness.


Photo courtesy of and copyrighted by Daniel Madson

I have been threatened by cops and chased by security guards. Climbing certain lines means waiting until 5am on a Saturday morning when the whole city sleeps, or climbing when it’s pitch black out, or going for it in broad day light and hoping that you can run faster than they can. At the end of the day, smart may have the brains but stupid has the balls.
-Matt Lloyd