# @denverwestword on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DN5x2AYgLbF
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/33861206-denverwestword-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/2edd4a1c43.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-08-28T14:55:04.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Denver Westword (@denverwestword) — https://gondola.cc/denverwestword

## Caption

This is the summer of thesummeriturnedpretty, a Prime series based on the bestselling book by jennyhan whose action has been moving even more slowly than Denver’s 16th Street renovation project.

Proposed long before the pandemic, as the famous I.M. Pei tiles became infamous tripping hazards and other aspects of the infrastructure along the circa 1982 16th Street Mall began deteriorating, the $175 million project hosted an unveiling at the end of May — when a half-dozen blocks were still unfinished. Its real reveal is now set for October 4, more than forty years after the mall replaced a busy, mile-long stretch of road through downtown and three years after the renovation project’s construction began.

Along the way, the project has been criticized for overruns in both schedule and budget — when downtown Denver desperately needed this longtime tourist attraction and entertainment district to come back — and mocked for a $100,000 rebranding campaign that resulted in dropping the word “mall” and adding occasional references to “the Denver way.”

And now, as heading-for-the-altar Belly is still trying to decide between Conrad and Jeremiah (and the Mayor’s Office compares renovated 16th Street to that show), which way will this rejuvenated street take us?

Pretty is as pretty does, after all, so we set out one day in late August to determine just how sweet 16th can be.

🔗Head to the link in our bio to read about what’s in store on the newly renovated 16th Street.
Cover Illustration by monikaswiderski.art 

#denver #downtowndenver #16thstreet #thesummeriturnedpretty #denvercolorado

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## Tags

thesummeriturnedpretty, denver, 16thstreet, denvercolorado, downtowndenver

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