DENVER -- Denver City Council members voted unanimously to allow Shea Properties the right to tear down two 1960s buildings some believed should have been preserved.

The buildings are in the "Usonian" style popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission urged officials to preserve them.

The developer, however said the buildings are in the way of a 32-acre redevelopment project on the site of the former University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Shea Properties had threatened to pull out of the project if the company was required to keep the buildings in its design.

"(The two buildings) do not fit with the grand plan," said Peter Culshaw, of Shea Properties.

On Monday, the Denver City Council listened to a couple dozen speakers during a public hearing. After three and a half hours, the council voted to not give the buildings a protected status. The Denver Planning Board has already signed off on the redevelopment plan and said the former child development center and psychiatric day care should be torn down.

Jamie White, the son of one of the building's architects told 7NEWS the designation is important. He said it's important to preserve buildings from every decade.

"It is important to save certain buildings for posterity, for the culture of Denver," said White. "Of course there is a sentimental component, but it is much more than that. We want to save certain decades of history."

Council members said voting to allow the demolition of the two buildings was not easy.