4 Lakewood Sentinel
August 29, 2013
Adding a lot more color to Colfax New project brings brightness to buildings By Clarke Reader
creader@ourcoloradonews.com Colfax will be getting a lot more colorful in the coming months thanks to a new project from 40 West Arts, the West Colfax Community Association and the Lakewood-West Colfax Business Improvement District. Project COLorFAX aims to bring murals and paint jobs to buildings along the corridor to bring energy and vibrancy to the area. “The project is a great example of how these three groups are continuing to work on Colfax’s revitalization,” said Bill Marino, executive director of the Business Improvement District. “We’ve already done our first building, we’re hoping to do at least one more this year and five in 2014.” Marino said the project has been in the works for three months, after members of the organizations looked at the buildings and thought the idea of new paint jobs and
murals would be a good fit. The first mural appears on the westfacing wall of the King’s Rest Motel at 7013 W. Colfax Ave. The wall is now a sunshine gold background with luminous clouds and interwoven vines, blossoming flowers and the signature feature of each COLorFAX program, a bedazzled hummingbird. More than 20 volunteers from 40 West Arts worked on the project, using paints and supplies donated by Kwal Paints. According to Johanna Parker, a member of 40 West who has been a leader on the project, the bird symbolizes beauty, optimism, resilience and verve. “I thought the hummingbird logo could become really iconic, and is really inspiring,” Parker said. “It’s really fun to see the transformation of the property, and people who were passing by were really excited by what we were doing.” She also added that the buzzing sounds hummingbirds make fits perfectly with the projects goal to create “buzz” within the community. Businesses who are interested in having work done on their building go through an
Project COLorFAX’s first mural, on the King’s Rest Motel. The hummingbird is the symbol for the new project, which will add paint and murals to buildings along Colfax. Photo by Clarke Reader application process, and artists are always welcome to volunteer and participate. For more information about Project
COLorFAX, call 303-275-3430, visit www. WestColfax.org, or email info@WestColfax. org.
Indoor climbing facility finds a handhold in Golden By Amy Woodward
awoodward@ ourcoloradonews.com
Earth Treks construction site located on Golden Ridge Road, is anticipating an opening by Thanksgiving of this year. Photo by Amy Woodward
The steel-beam structure on the hill might not look like much just yet, but it will eventually be Golden’s newest, and the state’s largest, indoor climbing facility. For those who are unsure what the huge structure is, across Highway 6 from the Jefferson County building, at 700 Golden Ridge Road, the planned indoor climbing facility will be called Earth Treks. It will be the largest indoor
wall climbing center in Colorado with a total of 29,000 square feet and 25,000 square feet of that dedicated to climbing walls up to 48 feet high with more than 450plus routes and boulder obstacles. The facility is planned to open by Thanksgiving of this year. Earth Treks owner, Chris Warner, has three other Earth Trek facilities in Maryland. He considers himself more of a mountaineer than a rock climber, but has been active in the sport for 34 years. But Earth Treks, Inc. did not begin as an indoor climbing gym, and instead started as a company that
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lead climbing expeditions to the world’s most challenging and famous climbing sites such as the Himalayas, Mount KilimanjaroChi and Ecuador. Warner has been so active incon the sport, he has dabbled in just thro about all aspects of it at some level, from competitive climbing, Staff ice climbs and taking on K2, the second-largest mountain on earth Ar after Mount Everest. who “We just started growing as M opportunities presented themarres selves,” said Warner, who moved warr back to Golden in 2010 after iff’s O spending time in Maryland. Ac
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