The Tivoli’s history is being exposed as renovations continue, and the 16 different buildings that make up the Tivoli are beginning to show their different colors and ages of brick as paint removal continues.

The paint on the outside of the building does not contain traceable lead, but the process used to remove this paint will protect the building’s visitors regardless.

This process is a peel-away process that contains the paint as it is being removed.
If sandblasting had been the method of paint removal for this process, it would have caused the old paint to become airborne. Since the peel-away process is a liquid process, the old paint is kept out of the air visitors breathe.

The peel-away is not a caustic chemical product, but workers still wear extensive protective gear because of their constant exposure to it.

Barbara Weiske, director of Student Auxiliary Services, said about the peel-away process, “The trade-off is we have to use more water to do this.”

A higher amount of lead in the paint has been found on the wooden window frames. Weiske said that these windows will be removed using a containment process so the toxins do not contaminate the building.

The total renovation project will cost $28 million. Twenty million of this is actual construction. The other $8 million will go toward engineering and planning.

“The building will be a lot more efficient and a lot more comfortable,” said Weiske of the end result.

In 2000, Auraria students passed a referendum for the funding of this project.

Revenue bonds were then financed to complete the project in two to three years instead of the minimum of 10 years it would have otherwise taken.

“The more you break it down and spread it out, the more expensive it will get,” Weiske said.
The Tivoli began as 16 separate buildings. The original one was built in 1859 and housed Colorado’s first brewery, the Rocky Mountain Brewery.

By 1918, the building had become Tivoli-Union Brewery. This brewery stayed alive during prohibition by making “Dash,” a non-alcoholic cereal beer.

By the 1950s, Tivoli was producing 150,000 barrels of beer per year. In 1973, the Tivoli was put on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mostly unused from 1969 to 1985, the Tivoli building became a place for the homeless to stay.
Jeff Gosney, born in Denver in 1962, remembers walking past the fence surrounding the building and entering the historic landmark with a flashlight.

Gosney said he was concerned for his safety when he was in this building in the early 1980s.
He said the building contained mattresses, was full of junk, and was severely vandalized.
“You would accidentally wake people up with a flashlight just by nosing around,” Gosney said.
By 1994, after $27 million in extensive renovations, the Tivoli was reopened as a Student Union for Auraria Campus.