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Letter: Hotel Aspen proposal part of a troubling trend

Hotel Aspen proposal part of a troubling trend

Su Lum’s recent column on the Hotel Aspen is deserving of a resounding “well said” (“Saving local lodges,” Feb. 19, The Aspen Times). The developer and their hired consultants can “ask for the moon;” the City Council doesn’t have to give it to them.

The request of such a huge amount of free-market development, on a site that adjoins the Main Street Historic District and our most historic neighborhood of the West End, should be required to be in keeping with the scale and character of the neighborhood. A few more affordable and renovated hotel rooms are certainly not worth the trade-offs the developer is requesting from City Council.



In response to Jason Lasser’s letter regarding the new building across from City Hall at the corner of Hopkins and Galena, I too was a bit surprised at the color choice of the exterior materials chosen for the new building. It certainly stands out amongst the context of the historic buildings that surround it. Surely, as a new building in the Commercial Core Historic District, these materials were subject to the review of the City’s Historic Preservation Commission. I’m wondering what discussion by HPC gave us this result.

If the trend in architecture continues downtown, as it has in the last few years with the new Art Museum and other massive and monolithic buildings, we will soon no longer recognize our once historic and very desirable downtown and our mountain views will be a thing of the past.




Lisa Markalunas

Aspen