Lower Downtown District, Inc.

Loft at First Sight

Nov 19, 1999

LoDo Loft Tour Patron Party
By Laurie Rachkus Uttich, LoDown Editor

I like to think that I'm relatively hip. I used to live in the city. I took the bus, worked downtown, went to El-Chapultepec's for cocktails and the Tattered Cover for cappuccinos. I know my way around a wine list, a tight parking spot and a long line at the theater.

So I was prepared to enjoy the LoDo Loft Tour Patron Party. I wasn't prepared to be so, well, interested.

The shuttle dropped my husband and me off at the doors. The doorman nodded us in and we took off our shoes (literally) and walked into other people's lives.

We saw sliding doors, black vanities, mirrored walls, and lots of metal beds. We checked out wine collections, tall bookshelves, fake fireplaces and great decorators.

But while it was fun to be back in the land of high ceilings and hardwood floors, the best part was the loft space. It was the living space.

I wanted to know about the people who collected painted pigs. The couple with three completely full wine racks. The owner of those great black-and-white photos of a mother and child.

It seemed a little voyeuristic being in someone's home I didn't know, searching for clues to piece together lives. And, I'm embarrassed to admit it, that's what I liked the most about the Loft Tour ?… seeing how someone took more or less the same type of space and created something completely unique. Something completely theirs.

For the last stop of the Patron Party, we went to Dana Crawford's loft. The elevator opened and we were there. In the loft. Just like that. And while I'd love to be blas?© about it, it was pretty darn cool.

We had drinks and lasagna and two desserts and we mingled and chatted and left longing for what lies inside the buildings we drive by and say, "Here's where we'd live if our life was different. If we didn't have a child or a big dog or a three-bedroom house that we needed every square foot of."

So, we're making plans to buy a loft. In just 15 years when our son moves out.