AUGUST 13 - AUGUST 19, 2020

Planning THE Meadows

FOOD HIGH WINE INK MATTERS COUNTRY A BUCKET LIST MAKING JERKY AT SHOPPING AT HOLA PAIRING DINNER BAMBOO BEAR P. 09 P. 05 P. 04 A woman walks her dog in Anderson Park, which connects the Aspen Meadows and campuses, on Aug. 7.

Campus Life How the Aspen Meadows campus came to be

by Carolyn Sackariason for the Aspen Times Weekly

s the Aspen Institute prepares to A ‘SPECIAL’ AREA character named Hans Cantrup, who break ground on a building to house Paepcke established his real estate firm, the went bankrupt, as did the next buyer. a museum and research center Aspen Company, and bought the land for back In 1984, Savannah Limited Partnership, run by Ahonoring , the architect taxes and began constructing with Bayer and developer Mohamed Hadid, had snagged a creditor’s of the storied Aspen Meadows campus, the new local architect Fritz Benedict in the 1950s. rights to several Aspen properties that were in development will be the first one in 45 years to After Paepcke’s death in 1960, several developers, foreclosure — beating Trump, who had a contract to be designed with a nod to his style. including Donald Trump, unsuccessfully buy the land from the bank that was repossessing it. The building will pay homage to Bayer, whose attempted to pave the sprawling property Ultimately, the future preservation of the vision for the campus was in lockstep with with a large hotel and private homes. campus landed at the feet of the Aspen City Aspen Institute founder Walter Paepcke, the Robert O. Anderson, who was the president of the Council in the early 1990s when it approved the father of Aspen’s renaissance in the 1940s. Institute at the time of Paepcke’s passing, had first Aspen Meadows Specially Planned Area. Their vision and the campus remain intact 70 proposed a large-scale development with a hotel in “It went on for months,” said former years after they set eyes on this vast landscape the late 1970s but he couldn’t get the city’s approval. City Councilman Michael Gassman, who on the west end of town that was once home Following his dispute with the city, voted in favor of the master plan. “They to a horse track. A close look at the history of Anderson planned to move the Institute to were very contentious meetings.” development on campus since Bayer and Paepcke’s a new home near Crestone, Colorado. The SPA secured a permanent home for day, however, shows its preservation and relative The Institute eventually moved its headquarters three major educational and cultural nonprofits purity were often threatened and never guaranteed. on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay in that began there in the 1950s and ’60s — The “This has very well stood the test of time,” said Jim Maryland and later to Washington, D.C. Aspen Center for Physics, the Music Associates Curtis, a land-use planner for the Aspen Institute. Anderson sold the land off to a local of Aspen and The Aspen Institute.

8 Aspen Times Weekly • August 13 - August 19, 2020 KELSEY BRUNNER BELOW, CLOCKWISE: The construction of the pool at the Aspen Meadows, 1955; Marcella Abramowicz, left, and her son Ward, 13, relaxing on campus; A biker riding through campus with the Boettcher and Aspen Center for Physics buildings visible in the background.

The council voted 4-1 approving the SPA, John Sarpa, who represented Hadid, recalled him of the rich he was exposed to growing up with Frank Peters as the lone dissenter. that the nonprofits on the campus, which also in D.C. “I really, really hate tasseled loafers.” As the owner of the 80-acre property, included the International Design Conference, Regardless, under the SPA, each nonprofit Hadid was at the council table asking for were looking for places to move, and had been at identified their expected needs, and approval development rights for single-family homes. odds in trying to save the languishing property. to develop new facilities was granted. “When Hadid was trying to ransom the Anderson summoned him from his Washington, Aspen Meadows, we said, ‘We are going D.C., office to the Meadows shortly after Hadid’s PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE to master plan it,’” Peters said. “I think it group assumed ownership of the land. FROM THE PAST shocked Hadid and the nonprofits.” Anderson had all the players from those Curtis, the land-use planner representing the The consortium of nonprofits, Savannah Limited nonprofits in the room when Sarpa arrived. Institute for the new Bayer building, said the SPA Partnership and council haggled back and forth “I noticed there was a fair amount of animosity allowed 60 acres to be subdivided into three pods for years, with a compromise finally reached that among them, and an hour or two into the meeting so each organization had its own distinctive area. Hadid could build three single-family homes on someone pulled up the Aspen Idea book. ‘Do But it was already, in a sense, planned the south end of the race track, now named “Amy’s you even know what this is?’ I said, ‘No sir, I do that way by Bayer and Benedict. Meadow,” along with other residential development. not,’” Sarpa told the Times in 2019. “He threw it “What’s impressive is that the basic concept The nonprofits got their land at a nominal price, across the table and said, ‘you read that damn is still here: you’ve got three nodes and Bayer which secured their future and created a campus book and come back tomorrow and we’ll talk’ and Fritz set the template in the ’50s,” he said. that is world-renown as a cultural mecca. and we ended the meeting right there. “You’ve got the lodging, you’ve got the academics When it was time to vote on the plan, Peters “I took my little book home and I read it and the conference area with the tent and a said he remembers looking around the council and I went, ‘Oh my God,’ because what they node with Boettcher and physics (buildings).” chambers from the dais and seeing the audience had obviously was already there and it was in The SPA also allowed the nonprofits made up of residents, all of the nonprofits and jeopardy,” Sarpa said. “But overnight I sure got a certain amount of development rights their lawyers — the “real estate and cultural it. It was like the lights went on and this was a that they could act on immediately. powerhouses,” as he described them. whole lot more than a piece of real estate.” Thirdly, it created a check and balance “I just could not blanking do it,” he said of He said he convinced Hadid and his investors, system as all of the nonprofits have to agree voting in favor of the plan. “Compromises who planned on building high-density homes there, to any new development on the campus. were made that I didn’t agree with.” to give the land back to the nonprofits for $10. “The ’92 plan created the rebirth that you see In the end, though, the SPA locked in what is However the SPA came to be, Peters said it was a today,” Curtis said. “I think the property looks arguably the most significant piece of post-war politically charged time as Benedict was threatening better physically today than it ever did.” Aspen history and the birthplace of Paepcke’s to move the music tent to Snowmass and developers The Institute had used all of its development Aspen Idea of nurturing the mind, body and spirit. were asking for too much, in his opinion. rights under the SPA when it recently built the “I’m glad the council halted that ransom “What was on the table was the 10 years I aged Albright Pavilion, according to Amy Simon, play and protected the public’s interest,” when I heard Fritz said we’ll move to Snowmass. ... the city’s historic preservation officer. Peters said. “There was enough on the I was crushed by that and angry,” he said, adding the New development has occurred over the table that everyone got something.” developers’ attire also bothered him as it reminded years, like the Doerr-Hosier building.

PHOTO MARGARET DURRANCE/ASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, DURRANCE COLLECTION; KELSEY BRUNNER aspentimes.com/weekly 9 BELOW, CLOCKWISE: The remodeling construction of the Aspen Meadows in 1992; An aerial view of the campus in 1955; Walter Paepcke at the groundbreaking of the Aspen Health Institute on the Aspen Institute grounds with Dr. Martin Stevens and Fritz Benedict.

City Council this past February approved the to 1960, the year when the Paepcke Auditorium and spiritual values, which might benefit their 7,536-square-foot Resnick Center for Herbert was built as a memorial following his death. companies, and ideally society, according to Simon. Bayer Studies, along with a renovation of Bayer’s architecture of simple rectilinear and It’s where the is held and a the adjacent Boettcher Seminar Building. geometric shapes, flat roofs, cinder blocks and place where world leaders and dignitaries gather. The center will display, collect, archive, the use of primary colors, white and grays, still But for the majority of the year, it’s a campus preserve and educate on Bayer’s works and dominate the landscape throughout the campus. open to the public with Bauhaus architecture influence in the Bauhaus movement, as well as the Bayer’s landscape architecture and earthwork dotting the landscape with Bayer’s influence. development of the Aspen Meadows campus. is just as notable, with Anderson Park connecting “He felt strongly about having these spaces that As part of the Bayer Center approval, the the Aspen Meadows campus to the music tent. would encourage interaction and the exchange of Boettcher building will be historically designated. The use of streams, which serve as irrigation ideas whether they be inside or outside and that Situated on the southeastern side of the campus, ditches and meander throughout the property, was such an important aspect of his earthworks and Boettcher was built in 1975 by Bayer and Benedict. along with earth mounds with panoramic views outdoor sculptures,” said Lissa Ballinger, art curator of the surrounding mountains provide a place at the Aspen Institute. “This would have been more BUILDING THE BAYER WAY for contemplation, reflection and serenity. than he could have ever imagined, however he Land-use approval was a bit simpler when Paepcke “The campus is a total work of art,” said Aspen was specific in everything that he said and wrote and Bayer began developing the campus in the Institute President and CEO Dan Porterfield at the about maintaining things on a human scale.” 1950s. The first Bayer-designed Aspen Institute Feb. 25 meeting, referring to the Bauhaus concept. building is known today as the Koch Building. Paepcke founded the Institute in 1949 with Most of the buildings and works of art that the goal of creating a forum where business [email protected] define the campus were constructed from 1953 leaders could reflect on the intellectual, ethical

10 Aspen Times Weekly • August 13 - August 19, 2020 ASPEN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, RINGLE COLLECTION AND DURRANCE COLLECTION