Lakewood
— — the city the mountains begin behind.
Not only on a wall.
“Lakewood sits at the western edge of the Denver metro, where the plains meet the first lift of the Front Range. Green Mountain rises in its western neighbourhoods; Bear Creek runs through the south. The light comes off the foothills copper late in the day. Most of the city was built in the second half of the twentieth century, and the foothills still belong to anyone who walks them.
Lakewood, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Lakewood is the most populous city in Jefferson County, Colorado, and the fifth-largest city in the state, with about 155,000 residents. It sits at roughly 5,680 feet of elevation along the western edge of the Denver metropolitan area, between West Colfax Avenue and the foothills of the Front Range. The city was incorporated in 1969, consolidating a string of postwar subdivisions that had grown west out of Denver after the Denver Federal Center opened in 1941. Its western boundary runs along the base of Green Mountain; Bear Creek crosses the southern third of the city before it joins the South Platte.
The light at Lakewood's western edge changes character through the day because the foothills run almost due north to south. In the morning the city faces the sun and the mountains stay in cool shadow; in the late afternoon the slopes of Green Mountain and Mount Carbon turn copper and amber, then violet as the sun drops behind the higher Front Range. The local altitude, roughly 5,680 feet, makes the sky read a darker blue at midday than visitors expect from Colorado postcards.
Two large public lands sit inside or against the city. William Frederick Hayden Park on Green Mountain covers about 2,400 acres with a 6.7-mile loop on the summit ridge, open to walkers, runners, and mountain bikers. Bear Creek Lake Park, on the south side, holds a 110-acre reservoir, a swim beach, and a network of trails along the creek. Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre, owned by the City of Denver, lies just over the western boundary in nearby Morrison, about a fifteen-minute drive from central Lakewood.