Not ready, you say?  Well the Riverfront Athletic Club has the answer!  They are offering a Ski Conditioning (this includes you snowboarders as well) class to all of its members on Saturdays at 10am.  Be sure to take advantage so that you spend more time out in the powder than sitting in the lodge!

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Surprisingly, one such chef lives here in Riverfront Park.  Read on to learn more about our All-Star Kiwi Chef, Rutherford Maule.

For Rutherford Maule, Glass House owner, this is not a fantasy, it’s his job!  Beyond cooking for VIP unmentionables on said island, Rutherford has cooked all over the world including the French Alps, London, Australia, New York and Vail. 

Born and raised in New Zealand, Rutherford earned his Culinary degree in 1988 and soon applied his skills to several high-end restaurants.  Besides the great team of people you get the chance to work with in restaurants, he soon realized that the daily kitchen grind was not his cup of tea.  Like a good Kiwi, he hit the road for an ‘extended’ holiday and headed to the USA.  A quick stop in Vail turned into a permanent move as he was blown away with the natural beauty and heaps of outdoor fun. 

Back to the cooking…

When in Vail, a few friends asked him to cook at private parties, and before dessert, a new career was born.  As his clientele grew, so did his love for cooking.  Rutherford was able to create incredible meals in a fun and social environment.  For example, Rutherford describes cooking as the intimate relationship between cook and the ingredients.  To delve a little deeper, “cooking is like our inner beauty.  Gently, gently with a little love, it’s natural expression takes form.” I’m not a chef, but that sure smells good to me.

Beyond rocking your taste buds in the kitchen, Rutherford spends his time in the backcountry skiing, taking hut trips and practicing yoga.  His future includes teaching yoga in Denver and working on his current project, marketing himself for a TV cooking career.

This homeowner interview was skillfully crafted by your very own Riverfront Park broker, Brian Delaney!

The only other project in Denver’s history with a scale similar to Union Station is Denver International Airport, and, to be fair, the focus their was almost entirely efficiency.  How do we get planes in here, get people off of them, put new people on them, and get those planes back out?  At Union Station, there are 10 different types of “movement” that have to be accommodated: Amtrak, the Ski Train, commuter rail, regional buses, the 16th Street Mall Shuttle, the 18th Street Circulator, light rail, cars, taxis, and bicycles.

Oh, and people.  At its heart, the redevelopment of Union Station is really about people: How do they move through the space?  Where do they shop?  Where do they eat?  Where do they rest?  Where do they wait for their train?

Well, it’s this group’s job to figure it out.  So, over the next few days, I thought I’d blog up some of the latest thinking.  But, first, let’s talk about who the people involved in the whole actually are.

The transit program’s lead designer is Marilyn Taylor at Skidmore Owens and Merrill.  Marilyn is one of the world’s foremost master planners.  She and her team have led efforts at Dulles Airport, JFK Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Singapore’s Changi Airport.  But enough about airports, what about trains?  Marilyn led the design team on every one of the 15 intercity rail stations between Washington, DC and Boston.  Not too shabby.  And, she lad the redesign of Penn Station, the expansion of which is known as Moynihan Station.  Marilyn is also the former Chairman of the Urban Land Institute.  Pretty good.

Through a public process, one master designer of the Union Station public spaces was selected.  Hargraves Associates is one of the world’s leading master planners and public space designers.  The principal in charge of the Union Station project is Mary Margaret Jones.  Some of the small projects that Hargraves have led: the Pennsylvania Avenue Streetscape in Washington, DC and the Sydney Olympics Village.

There is no doubt that the public spaces are the face of Union Station.  Public feedback has been critical and their are two very involved public groups you should be familiar with: the Union Station Advisory Committee, which has worked on the station since it was just a germ of an idea, and the more recently formed Union Station Advocates.

And, of course, there are a couple of big boys in the deal, too: the City and County of Denver and the Regional Transit District.

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Several of our East West friends attended the 30th birthday of the Bar Awards this past Saturday.  They strolled in with black tie attire for a night of great food, great people and, apparently, great surprises.  The honor didn’t come without hard work.  As you all know, we have an impressive bunch that work and live in Riverfront so this award truly means the world to us.

Here, here!!

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The Riverfront Athletic Club will be hosting a Nutritional Seminar on November 17th at 7pm.  This will be open to all Riverfront Park residents and will take place within one of the studios at the Riverfront Athletic Club.  The guest speaker will be familiar to many of you because it is RAC’s very own Jessica Donatone. 

Jess has been apart of the Riverfront Park community for several years now as a personal trainer.  In addition, she is a nutritional expert and willing to pass along her knowledge to the community.  Don’t miss this opportunity to learn ‘Nutrition 101’ from one of the pros.

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I could hear the excitement in her voice the first time I spoke with Sarah Holmen.  She was taking the #15 bus home when her phone rang.  She pushed the button that alerts the bus driver to stop.  She didn’t want to miss this call.  You see, I was making calls to those folks who had filled out the Glass House surveys and quickly sent them back into us to establish their buying priority.  She was one of those that showed up on Easter Sunday to sign a contract on her first home.

Originally from Sacramento California, Sarah found herself in Denver visiting friends whom she had met while in the Navy, stationed in Japan. She was only supposed to be passing through, but a mishap with her cell phone (she ran over it with her car) caused her to extend her stay.  A world traveler, having been to Australia, Japan, China and London to name a few, found her home right here in Denver. After all, those of us who live here know that once you find yourself here, it’s pretty tough to leave.  She rented an apartment but had the urge to buy her first place.  It was a billboard near Metro State with the words “Own the Sky” that caused her to write down the web address on her hand and sign up to get “on the list”.

While she has loved living in Riverfront Park, she has found herself following her dream of going to medical school.  She was recently accepted to the inaugural class of Rocky Vista University’s, College of Osteopathic Medicine.  The college is located down in Parker, which is a pretty far commute from Denver.  She’s better off spending that drive time in the library studying.  She tells me it’s hard to say she lives in Parker.  She’s an urban girl at heart.  My guess is that when she graduates in 2012, she’ll find herself right back here.  In the meantime, she finds some comfort in knowing her investment here paid off pretty well.  Her student loans won’t be quite so steep.

The Built Green multi-family program is currently in a “pilot” phase.  A committee of Home Builders Association of Metro Denver “builder members” are on the multi-family board which meets weekly to work on creating a new set of guidelines and standards for the multi-family Built Green Colorado program.  It is based off of the established and successful single family residential program and currently undergoing changes in order to accommodate a multi-family building.

The multi-family board has made a complete run through of the set of guidelines/standards.  We continue to work on refining and defining the list of required items and optional items in the checklist with help from Xcel Energy, Energy rating consultants, and the Built Green program managers.  The next phase of check list development is to begin writing the guideline support manual which is a supplemental piece to the checklist which provides clear definition and explanation of the line items in the checklist.  We are also working with energy raters to help us define predicted energy savings under the multi-family pilot program.