Envisioning a new future for the Colfax-Federal Clover

The intersection of Colfax Avenue and Federal Boulevard, known as the Colfax Clover, was intended to provide quick access for large numbers of fast-moving vehicles. But for anyone trying to access Denver’s west side on foot, bicycle, or transit, the interchange is a dangerous barrier that separates the area from the rest of the city. It consists of a large, grade-separated “cloverleaf” design, which community members will tell you creates dangerous conditions for pedestrians, cyclists, and transit riders, who must deal with high-speed traffic, unsafe crossings, and difficult-to-navigate connection points in order to reach daily destinations. Located only two miles from downtown Denver and adjacent to one of the city’s busiest transit hubs and two scenic trails, the outdated cloverleaf design also takes up about 29 acres of land in a growing urban community.

We teamed up with the West Colfax Business Improvement District to launch the Over the Colfax Clover project as an effort to bring together community members, local technical experts, and those who have control over the intersection to develop short and long-term design solutions for an intersection that is safer and easier to navigate for all users. We began community outreach by hosting a series of meetings and walk audits with community members. Local residents, businesses, and service providers from neighborhoods adjacent to the interchange all provided their input on a community vision for the future of the cloverleaf. This was followed by a design charrette where we organized to convene a group of engineers, urban planners, developers and agency officials to explore potential re-designs and land re-uses – a rare opportunity for industry experts and government agencies to efficiently workshop a critical equity issue.

In 2017, with multi-year funding from Kaiser Permanente, our team was able to engage an urban planning and community engagement team and began working with community members to describe their experiences on and around the intersection. Residents consistently described the intersection as “angry” and “dangerous.” Over a multi-year period, the community collaborated with the project team and technical experts to develop their vision for the intersection. That process included our “Over the Colfax Clover Neighborhood Festival.”