Burns Park's Sculptures Were Built to Come Down in 1968. Keeping Them Up Has Always Been a Request.

At 9:30 on Thanksgiving night in 1967, two sculptors named Roger Kotoske and Wilbert Verhelst rang Bev and Bernie Rosen's doorbell. By 3 a.m., as Bernie Rosen later told Westword, Kotoske was complaining that Denver had nowhere to show sculpture, and Bev Rosen said, "Let's vow tonight to have a sculpture park in Denver."

The following summer, nine artists built large minimalist pieces on the grassy triangle where Colorado Boulevard, Alameda Avenue and Leetsdale Drive meet. That triangle is Burns Park, and Denver Public Art puts it in Hilltop. The deal was that the sculptures would come down when the summer ended. Nearly six decades later, some are still there. That's because the people around them have kept asking the city to keep them, again and again, and the latest request is sitting in Denver's 2027 budget process right now.

A Park That Was Only Supposed to Host a Summer Show

The land came first. The city's 2015 Burns Park Master Plan says the parcel was donated to Denver and named in 1940 to honor Daniel C. Burns, a real estate developer, lawyer, University of Denver graduate and art enthusiast. His family gave the land after his death. For almost three decades after that, according to the plan, it was mostly open green space in a growing neighborhood.

The 1968 Denver Sculpture Symposium changed that. The nine artists were Angelo diBenedetto, Dean Fleming, Peter Forakis, Roger Kotoske, Anthony Magar, Robert Mangold, Robert Morris, Richard Van Buren and Wilbert Verhelst. All of them built their work on site. The materials explain everything that happened later. Westword reported that the pieces were made from donated plywood coated in fiberglass. Denver Public Art's record for the yellow semi-circle says work on it started June 12, 1968, and took about four weeks. Students from area colleges helped, and local businesses and trade groups donated the wood and paint.

DARIA, a Denver art criticism publication, cites a 1970 trade magazine account in which the artists said they chose cheap materials on purpose. They wanted people to touch the work, step on it and walk into and onto it. These were sculptures built for one summer, and they turned out to be permanent.

The First Save Came From City Hall

The show was popular. According to the master plan, the response led Mayor Currigan to formally add the sculptures to Denver's public art collection. That saved some of them. Westword reported that Bernie Rosen's contract with the city required removal at the end of the summer, and several pieces were taken down before the adoption took hold.

The rest of the story is the long life of plywood outdoors in Colorado. Here is how Westword tracked each original piece as of 2014:

So how many originals are left depends on how you count rebuilds. Westword's answer was two complete survivors, plus two more that count formally even though they were recreated. The city's 2015 master plan says four of the nine originals are still present. DARIA says six of the nine were kept after the symposium and three remain today. The three sources disagree because each one draws the line between original and replacement in a different place, and that line keeps moving every time a piece is rebuilt.

Two later works joined the originals. The master plan lists Jazz, a 1999 piece by Barbara Baer, and an Untitled work by Anthony Magar that was privately commissioned in 1968 and acquired for the park in 2010. Denver Public Art describes Jazz as alloy steel and paint. The yellow semi-circle was refabricated in concrete in 2004.

Up the Hill, a Sundial Neighbors Rebuilt Twice

Hilltop's other famous landmark has gone through the same cycle. In Denverite's coverage of its 2018 reopening, Denver Parks and Recreation said the Cranmer Park sundial was installed in 1941 on what was then the highest point in east Denver, at 5,434 feet. George Cranmer donated the sundial himself and lived at the edge of the park.

In 1965, vandals blew the sundial up with dynamite. Residents built a new, slightly larger one from Cranmer's plans, and it lasted about two decades. Residents tried to restore the terrace again in 1992. The most recent fix was a $2 million city renovation that restored the sundial, rebuilt the sandstone terrace and added modern drainage. The Sun Dial Committee and The Park People donated $830,000 of that, which is more than 40 percent of the total. Denise Sanderson, co-chair of the Save Our Sundial Campaign, told Denverite, "It took us about five years. There were a few years of planning before that."

The sundial had a named campaign, a nonprofit partner and a donor list behind it, and Burns Park has had none of the three. Hilltop's two landmarks were both built with care, but only one has had an organized group asking on its behalf.

The Plan That Stayed on Paper

Burns Park did get a plan. Denver Parks and Recreation and Denver Arts & Venues produced the 2015 master plan, which called for repairing the original sculptures and protecting the artwork from routine park maintenance. DARIA later reported that, almost ten years on, the plan still hadn't been carried out because there was no money for it.

That gap is behind this year's request. In its June 2026 newsletter, Council District 5 listed "Burns Park Statue Renovations (MLK Abstract Line Statue & Untitled Yellow Circle Statue)" among its 2027 micro-budget priorities. The office described it as a request "to support restoration of existing public art pieces not currently funded under other renovation programs." The two works named there are Anthony Magar's Untitled (black abstract line, dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr.) and the yellow semi-circle. Denver Public Art dates both to 1968.

As of now, the request hasn't shown up in the citywide documents. Burns Park doesn't appear in Mayor Johnston's September 10, 2026 proposed budget. It also isn't among the items in City Council's October 9 recommendations letter. Those recommendations went to the mayor and weren't formal amendments. The formal steps are still ahead. Here is the remaining calendar from City Council's budget update:

• October 26: Council held the required public hearing on the mayor's final proposed budget.
• November 2: Last meeting where Council can propose and vote on formal amendments.
• November 6 at noon: Deadline for the mayor to accept or veto any amendments Council passed.
• November 9: Council can override vetoes with nine votes and must pass a final budget.

A Denver Public Art record still shows the phrase "Slated 2025" above the yellow semi-circle's history, with no explanation. The newsletter request is the latest public word on the restoration, and it's still waiting on these dates.

Seeing the Sculptures This Weekend

The pieces are easy to drive past and harder to reach on foot. DARIA notes that the only pedestrian routes run along the park's Colorado and Alameda edges, with entry at a few corner crossings and a small parking lot. A short loop through the park:

1. Start at Anthony Magar's black abstract line, the piece dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. It's one of the two works named in the District 5 request, and Denver Public Art dates it to 1968.
2. Find the yellow semi-circle, the other piece in the request. It was built over four weeks in the summer of 1968 and recast in concrete in 2004.
3. Walk to Wilbert Verhelst's Untitled, the other complete survivor in Westword's count. Verhelst was one of the two sculptors at the Rosens' door that Thanksgiving night.
4. Finish at Barbara Baer's Jazz. Denver Public Art says it's made of 22 rolled steel plates formed into a looping coil.

The Denver Public Art records include each work's map location, so you can find any piece from your phone once you're in the park.

At Perfect Denver Homes, we keep track of Hilltop's landmarks, from the Cranmer Park sundial to the Burns Park sculptures, and what's happening with each one. If you'd like to know what your Hilltop home is worth right now, reach out to Stephen to get your free home valuation.