In late Spring the opportunity to sell a complete container of Terrecotte San Rocco came our way. Kitchell Construction was managing the building and development of a large estate in the greater Denver area and because of Eye of the Day’s past and current collaborations with them, we were recommended by their Santa Barbara team.
Everyone knows it snows at a mile high in the sky and when you’re building a large Mediterranean style house and need frost-proof terracotta pottery, who do you call? Sound the trumpets please: Eye of the Day, of course. As an authority on clay, we were able to help them select a large and diverse range of Italian terracotta pottery made from Galestro clay which comes with a ten-year warranty to minus 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Many people, including design professionals, incorrectly refer to this Italian clay as “Impruneta,” a village commune near Florence, Italy.
It has been 35 years since I was last in Denver, Colorado—what a vibrant and exciting place. I arrived to meet the container of our great Italian terracotta pottery for the project and took public transportation into the city center for far less than a shuttle, cab, or using Über. Two stops after stepping on the bus, I stepped off at the new, super organized terminal right in downtown, not far from the ballpark where the Rockies play. Across the street I stepped on the free Mall Shuttle, which took me to the other end of 17th Street and dropped me off outside the Sheraton Hotel. Because I got there a day before the container was being delivered from the port in Houston, I walked the downtown, my pedometer said almost seven and a half miles in a day and a half which is about what I walk each day at the store.
The mixture of old and new architecture is very simpatico in Denver. I’ll bet there are dozens of brick buildings that are made from Gladding McBean bricks and they look even more beautiful today almost a hundred years later.
The development of downtown Denver looks more like Manhattan than Los Angeles with multiple high-rise residential buildings and projects throughout the city. Gleaming steel and glass buildings shadowing older low-rise buildings like a six-foot grandson might put his arm around his grandpa. They go together well in Denver. The ballpark on one side of downtown and Mile High Stadium on the other with an extreme amount and variety of great microbrews in between.
Here’s to being a Mile High!
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