Durango Discovery Museum

It is a story of rivalry and risk, of enterprise and innovation. How did the smelting town of Durango end up with the oldest remaining alternating current steam plant in the world? And how did it happen that just a few years ago, Durango's once-handsome 1893 Power House sat abandoned and blighted on precious downtown riverfront, a community eyesore?

In 1892, the Durango Light and Power Company embraced a fledgling technology known as AC power, the object of both marvel and derision. Outlawed as too dangerous in some Eastern states, our founders' investment soon became the standard for powering the world. They installed this new technology in a building which was designed using Mission Style architecture, the first known use of this style on a commercial building outside of California. Once built, the plant provided AC power for street lights before AC was available in the great cities of the East.

The Power House was shut down in the mid-1970's still containing much of its early equipment. The building was boarded up and its site, which sits on the banks of the Animas River, was unused. It became a community eyesore. It was eventually acquired by the City of Durango. The City was unable to find a use for the building and considered tearing it down. Finding a viable use for the building was compounded by the daunting and expensive need to remove asbestos -- not to mention the decades of pigeon droppings! The Durango Power House was listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places and is one of Colorado Preservation, Inc.'s Most Endangered Places.

The Children's Museum of Durango, founded in 1994, has outgrown its 1,100 square foot attic facility. Needing space to serve older visitors and accommodate yearly growth, the Museum prepared a comprehensive business plan which proposed converting the Power House and its site to an interactive science museum which would use its historic role in energy innovation as the theme for the museum. In 2002, the Durango City Council passed a resolution supporting the rebirth of the Power House as the Durango Discovery Museum (DDM).

The cleanup, renovation, and restoration of the exterior of the building are complete, and the building now stands ready for its transition to the Durango Discovery Museum. The Museum's mission is to honor the region's rich history of human innovation from prehistory to the present — by asking visitors of all ages to explore a frontier of new ideas and make discoveries on their own. The museum seeks to inspire inventiveness, creativity, social responsibility, and scientific understanding of energy, past, present and future.

Since 2002, Earthly Ideas has participated in volunteer, pro bono, and paid capacities on a variety of projects and initiatives for the Durango Discovery Museum. Earthly Ideas co-organized and facilitated the 2003 Project Charrette. We provided sustainability input and oversaw the development of the project’s Architectural Program in 2003-2004. We registered the project with the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED-NC program in 2003. We assisted in application for and implementation of a Kresge Foundation Green Building Initiative grant. We assisted with the implementation of a Rebuild Colorado High-Performance Design grant. We served as the tenant liaison during the implementation of the City of Durango’s State Historical Fund Historic Preservation grant that replaced the building’s roof and restored the original light monitors. We assisted with the site’s Voluntary Cleanup Program implementation. We served as the DDM’s project manager during the implementation of its two State Historical Fund Historic Preservation grants that resulted in the startling exterior transformation of the Power House. The grants provided funding to remove hazardous materials, remove the exterior stucco and repair the brick facade, restore and/or replace the windows, and refurbish and rebuild the building’s towers. We administered the Department of Local Affairs Energy Impact grant that assisted and supplemented the historical renovation. We served on and coordinated various committees. We continue to provide input on the sustainability features of this exciting and worthy project.