City officials paused the development of a new community Buddhist meditation space in Boulder to determine whether the building on the site can be demolished due to historical significance.
The Landmarks Board decided on Wednesday to stop demolition on a building owned by Naropa University until March 7. Naropa is seeking to sell to a potential buyer who intends to turn it into a Buddhist meditation space. The building is located across Naropa’s main campus at 2111 Arapahoe Ave.
The pause on demolition could cause the buyer of Naropa’s building to back out, potentially leading to loss of community space and loss of $2 million for Naropa to invest in programs for students.
“We’ll think about it and hopefully we’ll be able to see a way forward,” buyer and Boulder resident Rick White said.
The Landmarks Board can consider any building for landmarking if it is more than 50 years old. If a building is landmarked, it is recognized as historic, it can’t be demolished, and any changes to it must be approved by the board. The pause, or stay-of-demolition, allows the Board to explore alternatives to improving the building without demolishing it.
Naropa President Charles Lief said the building, built in 1963, does not meet criteria for landmarking and would be extremely expensive to bring up to code. Naropa has been unable to find a buyer willing to work with the building without demolishing it.
Naropa first put the building up for sale a few years ago and found a buyer in the fall of 2020 who wanted to build 10 units of residential housing. An application for a demolition permit for the building was submitted to the city. At that time, the Landmarks Board decided the building was worthy of further investigation and issued a six-month pause on demolition the following October.
That buyer also hired a consultant, Pinyon Environmental Inc., to conduct an evaluation of the property. Pinyon Environmental’s August 2020 report on the building said that it had no historical significance worth landmarking.
“2111 Arapahoe Avenue is not currently a Boulder local landmark, nor is it within the boundaries of an existing historic district,” the report said. “Based on a review of its characteristics with reference to the areas of significance for Boulder landmarks, it is unlikely that the building would qualify for landmark status due to its lack of demonstrable connection to historic events, major alterations to its architectural design and lack of connection to its surrounding environment.”
Ultimately, the first buyer got “cold feet” due to the Landmarks Board’s mandated six-month pause and left the project, Lief said.
Landmark officials expressed sympathy toward Naropa at its hearing Wednesday for having lost a previous buyer due to the process and risking losing an existing buyer.
White intends to purchase the property to create a Buddhist meditation space that will be operated by Nalandabodhi, an international Buddhist organization, complete with a library, spaces for classes and two apartments for visiting teachers. With Naropa being a Buddhist-founded and inspired university, Lief said the new building and its occupants would be a mutually beneficial and compatible neighbor to have.
“This is a really good fit, and I really enjoy that, but this job on the Landmarks Board is to make sure we explore everything we can do (for the building),” board member Renee Golobic said.
The building is a two-story structure built in 1963 that was a doctor’s office before Naropa acquired it in 1999. The Board is considering it for landmarking due to its midcentury modern architecture and connection to the first pediatrician’s practice established in Boulder and the architect who built it.
“I would like to explore every single possibility before (the building) might be lost,” chair and board member Abby Daniels said. “I would be very intrigued by (completing the two-month pause) sooner so Naropa would have a decision.”
The board scheduled a hearing for March 6 to consider approving a demolition permit or starting work on designating the existing building as a historic landmark.
Lief said the Board’s decision is a reasonable outcome.
“I do think that they’re accountable to the whole city … and I think a shortened stay is fine,” Lief said.
Naropa purchased the building in 1999 as the university was expanding and needed more space for faculty and administrative offices. It also housed two neuro-psychology research labs and in the last few years housed the student mental health counseling center.
However, as Naropa’s online programs expand, the space is no longer needed. Lief said Naropa is looking for ways to invest in a couple of student programs, and the money from the building sale can fund it.
“We really need the capital in order to invest in some new programs for our students,” Lief said.
Lief said the money from the building sale would be used to invest in expanding its interdisciplinary online bachelor’s degree and hire the faculty it needs to apply for an accreditation for its graduate psychology program. Lief said five states, not including Colorado, have passed legislation making such accreditation required for students to practice in those states.
With Naropa having the largest graduate psychology program in Colorado, Lief said, Naropa needs to find the funding to apply so its program can remain strong.
White said it’s discouraging to have a delay, and he intends to go through with the sale unless there’s a lot of conflict with the city.
“I appreciate how much the Board has engaged with the issues. I think the economics of the project are really compelling, the nature of the community benefit both to Naropa and the subsequent building are well served by allowing demolition,” White said, adding, “I appreciate the consideration they’ve given this, and I think it’s a very reasonable outcome.”
White said the development of a Buddhist meditation space, or any structure for religious practice or practice of a tradition like Buddhism, benefits the community. It creates diversity of thought, a place to develop values and access for people who don’t have a lot of money to explore contemplative practice.
“It’s part of what makes Boulder distinctive, and especially as we become such an expensive community, we risk shrinking what is already limited diversity,” White said.
White said that Boulder has become “an interesting place” for Buddhism in America. Naropa was founded in Boulder in 1974 by Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa, and there are many Buddhist communities in Boulder, he said. It seems whenever Buddhist leaders come to America, White said, they come to Boulder.
“Boulder is unusual in that it has this connection to Buddhist history,” he said.
A new Buddhist space would connect Boulder to that history, White said. Lief said he doubts the Board will ultimately decide to landmark the building because they rarely do so if the owner is strongly against it.
“They will almost never go against an owner’s wishes, and we are going to be crystal clear that we will be objecting to any landmarking of this building going forward,” Lief said.
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