COLUMNS & COFFEE: 
CHIEF HOSA LODGE + THE DENVER MOUNTAIN PARKS

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 12, 2026

9:00 am Gather & Coffee
9:30 am Tour of Exterior & Interior
11:00 am Departure

CHIEF HOSA LODGE
27661 Genesee Lane
Golden, CO 80401

REGISTER HERE
$20 Members, $25 General, Free for Students
Registration is Required, Space is Limited!

Join the ICAA Rocky Mountain Chapter for a special Columns & Coffee tour of Chief Hosa Lodge, one of the defining architectural landmarks of the Denver Mountain Parks. This behind-the-scenes experience will include coffee followed by a guided exploration of the lodge’s exterior and interior architecture.

Opened in 1918, Chief Hosa Lodge was designed by Jules Jacques Benedict as Denver’s first mountain lodge. Conceived as an affordable restaurant and resting house for mountain day-trippers, it offered Denver residents a welcoming place to gather, dine, and enjoy expansive views toward the Continental Divide.

Benedict nestled the lodge into the west-facing slope of Genesee Mountain rather than placing it upon a summit. Its low, sheltering rooflines, rusticated stone walls, peeled timber railings, and broad porch mirror the colors and textures of the surrounding rocky hills and pine forests. Inside, exposed timber beams, stone walls and a large fireplace continue the building’s close relationship with its setting.

The lodge anchors the larger story of the Denver Mountain Parks, an ambitious civic undertaking that extended Denver’s tradition of public landscapes from the city into the foothills. Beginning in 1912, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. developed a comprehensive plan to secure scenic mountain lands and connect them through a carefully designed network of roads, making the restorative experience of the Rockies accessible within a day’s journey of the city. As the system developed, scenic drives, trails, overlooks, shelters, and lodges guided visitors through the landscape, framed its most memorable prospects, and joined recreation with the preservation of natural beauty.

This program is part of the ICAA’s ongoing mission to promote the classical tradition in architecture, urbanism, and the allied arts, offering insight into how architecture can respond to the particular materials, climate, and natural character of a place.