Wednesday, May 07, 2008
1800 Larimer Lands Xcel Energy, Officially Breaks Ground
The moment many of us have been waiting for has arrived. Westfield Development has just officially announced that Xcel Energy has agreed to lease approximately 350,000 square feet of 1800 Larimer's total 500,000 square feet.
Site prep work has been taking place at the 18th and Larimer location on Block 066 for several months now, but until today Westfield had not made any official acknowledgement that construction had started. With today's announcement, it will be full-steam ahead for 1800 Larimer toward its 2010 completion.
Here's the full press release issued moments ago by Westfield: 1800 Larimer Press Release and in case you haven't seen the rendering lately, here's what the 22-story tower will look like:
1800 Larimer has been pre-certified as LEED Platinum and will be one of the city's most green/energy-efficient buildings.
We now officially have a 22-story building under construction to join the Four Seasons, Spire, and our other high-rises in the works.
Congratulations, Westfield!
Site prep work has been taking place at the 18th and Larimer location on Block 066 for several months now, but until today Westfield had not made any official acknowledgement that construction had started. With today's announcement, it will be full-steam ahead for 1800 Larimer toward its 2010 completion.
Here's the full press release issued moments ago by Westfield: 1800 Larimer Press Release and in case you haven't seen the rendering lately, here's what the 22-story tower will look like:
1800 Larimer has been pre-certified as LEED Platinum and will be one of the city's most green/energy-efficient buildings.
We now officially have a 22-story building under construction to join the Four Seasons, Spire, and our other high-rises in the works.
Congratulations, Westfield!
Block 162 Update
Over the past several months, developer Evan Makovsky and his project team have been busy rehabbing the Building Formerly Known as Fontius on Downtown Denver's Block 162. Now called the Steel Building after the original occupant, Steel's Department Store in the early 1920s, the building is really starting to look good. If you've already forgotten how blighted the building had become under the previous owners, check out my Fontius Building Part 2: The Neglect blog from March 2007, and certainly visit my Inside the Fontius special feature.
Anyway, I was out taking a few photos last weekend and thought I'd share with you how the Steel Building's renovation is coming along. First of all, even though the Steel Building is just a shell at this point, with the old windows gone and all the interior walls removed, it already looks 1000% better.
You may recall the Great Window Controversy of a few months ago. Basically, the Landmark Preservation Commission wanted Makovsky to restore the building's original historic windows and Makovsky wanted to install new energy-efficient windows that looked the same as the original ones. Thankfully, in the end, a compromise was reached. New energy-efficient windows that are identical to the historic windows are being installed, and they'll even use some of the original window hardware. Here's an article about it by John Rebchook at the Rocky: Fontius To Get 76 Energy-Efficient Windows. The first few of those new windows are now going in:
The restoration of the exterior terra cotta tiles is mostly finished on the upper floors... and it looks awesome. The old gal is really cleaning up nicely. Take a look:
There's still much more work to do. The original exterior materials on the ground floor were removed decades ago to give the Fontius a more "modern" street-level facade. Artists are now handcrafting terra cotta tiles that match the rest of the building so that the ground floor will return to its original 1920s glory. Here's another Rebchook article about the restoration process: Ugly Duckling Fontius Revealing Its Handsome Self.
Finally, you may recall that Makovsky and the Downtown Denver Partnership asked the community for ideas for temporary uses for the vacant parcels behind the McClintock Building. A decision on that has just recently been made: We're getting a mega-tent!
Construction of a 20,000 SF white vinyl tent is starting this week where the old Republic Hotel and Bank of Denver buidings used to stand along California. The tent will be operated by Wright Group Event Services, will include flooring, lighting, air conditioning and restrooms, will seat 1,500 to 2,000 people, and will host all kinds of events this summer and fall (and possibly longer). It will particularly come in handy during the DNC. Here's where the tent will go, with a construction fence for it installed this past weekend:
Between the new tent and the restoration of the Steel Building, Block 162 is finally starting to show signs of life. Hopefully, in a few years from now, we'll see a tower crane or two erecting Makovsky's permanent legacy to the revitalization of Central Downtown.
Anyway, I was out taking a few photos last weekend and thought I'd share with you how the Steel Building's renovation is coming along. First of all, even though the Steel Building is just a shell at this point, with the old windows gone and all the interior walls removed, it already looks 1000% better.
You may recall the Great Window Controversy of a few months ago. Basically, the Landmark Preservation Commission wanted Makovsky to restore the building's original historic windows and Makovsky wanted to install new energy-efficient windows that looked the same as the original ones. Thankfully, in the end, a compromise was reached. New energy-efficient windows that are identical to the historic windows are being installed, and they'll even use some of the original window hardware. Here's an article about it by John Rebchook at the Rocky: Fontius To Get 76 Energy-Efficient Windows. The first few of those new windows are now going in:
The restoration of the exterior terra cotta tiles is mostly finished on the upper floors... and it looks awesome. The old gal is really cleaning up nicely. Take a look:
There's still much more work to do. The original exterior materials on the ground floor were removed decades ago to give the Fontius a more "modern" street-level facade. Artists are now handcrafting terra cotta tiles that match the rest of the building so that the ground floor will return to its original 1920s glory. Here's another Rebchook article about the restoration process: Ugly Duckling Fontius Revealing Its Handsome Self.
Finally, you may recall that Makovsky and the Downtown Denver Partnership asked the community for ideas for temporary uses for the vacant parcels behind the McClintock Building. A decision on that has just recently been made: We're getting a mega-tent!
Construction of a 20,000 SF white vinyl tent is starting this week where the old Republic Hotel and Bank of Denver buidings used to stand along California. The tent will be operated by Wright Group Event Services, will include flooring, lighting, air conditioning and restrooms, will seat 1,500 to 2,000 people, and will host all kinds of events this summer and fall (and possibly longer). It will particularly come in handy during the DNC. Here's where the tent will go, with a construction fence for it installed this past weekend:
Between the new tent and the restoration of the Steel Building, Block 162 is finally starting to show signs of life. Hopefully, in a few years from now, we'll see a tower crane or two erecting Makovsky's permanent legacy to the revitalization of Central Downtown.
Sunday, May 04, 2008
Four Seasons, Spire Construction Updates
Here's a quick update on the status of the two tallest buildings currently under construction in Downtown Denver. Both photos are from yesterday.
First, the 45-story Four Seasons project at 14th and Arapahoe is now a couple of floors above ground level:
The 41-story Spire project at 14th and Champa is now up to Floor 9:
Won't it be fun watching these two towers race each other into the sky over the next year or so? Assuming one floor per week, the Spire should be up to about Floor 25 and the Four Seasons up to about Floor 18 by the Democratic National Convention in August.
The 41-story Spire project at 14th and Champa is now up to Floor 9:
Won't it be fun watching these two towers race each other into the sky over the next year or so? Assuming one floor per week, the Spire should be up to about Floor 25 and the Four Seasons up to about Floor 18 by the Democratic National Convention in August.
New Jefferson Park Project: HiVu 29
A new development in the popular Jefferson Park district has just been announced: HiVu 29. The project is located on the south side of W. 29th Avenue just west of Eliot Street overlooking Viking Park. HiVu 29 consists of 12 flats and 10 townhomes in a 4-story building. Units range from 775 SF to 1,500 SF and priced from the low $200s to the high $400ks. The project is being developed by Bill and John Seward of HiVu Partners, with BlueSky Studio as the architect. Here's a rendering of the project, courtesy of BlueSky:
A sales office is currently located at the site. To sign up for more information, please visit the project website: www.HiVu29.com.
A sales office is currently located at the site. To sign up for more information, please visit the project website: www.HiVu29.com.
Saturday, May 03, 2008
DenverInfill Gets Colorized!
It was Spring 2004 when I started building DenverInfill. I didn't finish it until July 2005 with the launching of the blog, but some of the earliest block pages and street photos are now four years old. At that time, the 2000 black and white aerials were not only the only ones available to me, but I liked the fact that they were taken in the same year as my baseline year for tracking infill projects.
But by 2007, I had grown tired of the black and white aerials, so I knew it was time for an upgrade. In January of this year, I started replacing the Center City district aerials with color aerials from 2004 and mentioned my progress in doing so several times in the blog. I got about three-quarters of the district maps converted, then I stopped. Those 2004 aerials were taken in the winter where everything is a glorious shade of brown, but along came new 2007 aerials taken in the spring of that year, where everything is nice and green. Much better! So I started over, using the new 2007 aerials instead. Here's a comparison of the 2000, 2004, and 2007 aerials:
As part of the process of integrating the new aerials, I also made a few other changes. I added existing and future transit lines to the maps wherever applicable. I also tweaked some of the boundaries to my Downtown and Center City districts--most notably, I moved the blocks between Larimer and Blake, 20th and Park Avenue, from Northeast Downtown (now called Arapahoe Square) to the Ballpark district, and I created a new Union Station district from part of the Central Platte Valley. With the pending Union Station redevelopment and projects like 1900 16th Street, it's clear that the area behind Union Station is really not a Downtown-adjacent, primarily residential district like Highland or Curtis Park, but really an extention of Downtown proper. So Union Station is now its own Downtown district and the Central Platte Valley district is now just the area between the railroad tracks and I-25. You can see it all here on the new Center City District and Downtown main maps. For now, the Union Station page is still in the format that I use for the Center City districts, but eventually each block in the Union Station area will get its own page, just like the rest of Downtown.
Another change I made is in the page design itself. I've taken the vertical black text box on the left and have switched it to a horizontal black text box at the top. This allows me to use the entire page width for the aerial photo which, along with the switch to the new color aerials, dramatically improves the overall experience. I've even changed the Downtown block pages. With some rearranging of the page elements, the aerial photo is now nearly twice the size as before. Here's a comparison:
So anyway, over the past couple of days when you weren't paying attention, I uploaded all new Center City district pages, overview map, and Downtown main map, and all new block pages for Arapahoe Square. The block pages for Lower Downtown, Central Downtown, Upper Downtown, and Civic Center still have the old black and whites, but those will all get converted over the next month or two.
Just like Downtown Denver, DenverInfill is a work in progress.
But by 2007, I had grown tired of the black and white aerials, so I knew it was time for an upgrade. In January of this year, I started replacing the Center City district aerials with color aerials from 2004 and mentioned my progress in doing so several times in the blog. I got about three-quarters of the district maps converted, then I stopped. Those 2004 aerials were taken in the winter where everything is a glorious shade of brown, but along came new 2007 aerials taken in the spring of that year, where everything is nice and green. Much better! So I started over, using the new 2007 aerials instead. Here's a comparison of the 2000, 2004, and 2007 aerials:
As part of the process of integrating the new aerials, I also made a few other changes. I added existing and future transit lines to the maps wherever applicable. I also tweaked some of the boundaries to my Downtown and Center City districts--most notably, I moved the blocks between Larimer and Blake, 20th and Park Avenue, from Northeast Downtown (now called Arapahoe Square) to the Ballpark district, and I created a new Union Station district from part of the Central Platte Valley. With the pending Union Station redevelopment and projects like 1900 16th Street, it's clear that the area behind Union Station is really not a Downtown-adjacent, primarily residential district like Highland or Curtis Park, but really an extention of Downtown proper. So Union Station is now its own Downtown district and the Central Platte Valley district is now just the area between the railroad tracks and I-25. You can see it all here on the new Center City District and Downtown main maps. For now, the Union Station page is still in the format that I use for the Center City districts, but eventually each block in the Union Station area will get its own page, just like the rest of Downtown.
Another change I made is in the page design itself. I've taken the vertical black text box on the left and have switched it to a horizontal black text box at the top. This allows me to use the entire page width for the aerial photo which, along with the switch to the new color aerials, dramatically improves the overall experience. I've even changed the Downtown block pages. With some rearranging of the page elements, the aerial photo is now nearly twice the size as before. Here's a comparison:
So anyway, over the past couple of days when you weren't paying attention, I uploaded all new Center City district pages, overview map, and Downtown main map, and all new block pages for Arapahoe Square. The block pages for Lower Downtown, Central Downtown, Upper Downtown, and Civic Center still have the old black and whites, but those will all get converted over the next month or two.
Just like Downtown Denver, DenverInfill is a work in progress.
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Uptown Apartments Construction Update
Construction on the Uptown Apartments project at E. 19th Avenue, Washington, and Park Avenue in the Uptown district is coming along. Thanks again to Vicki from Uptown, here's a good overview photo of the construction site:
More construction update photos coming over the next couple of weeks.
More construction update photos coming over the next couple of weeks.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
One Lincoln Park Milestone
One Lincoln Park, the 32-story condominium building being developed by Osborn Development at 20th and Welton, is topped off and the tower crane is starting to come down. It was October 2006 when the tower crane for One Lincoln Park was installed:
To celebrate the tower's progress, here's an awesome photo, courtesy of Vicki from the Uptown district, of One Lincoln Park and our nicely densifying Downtown area:
To celebrate the tower's progress, here's an awesome photo, courtesy of Vicki from the Uptown district, of One Lincoln Park and our nicely densifying Downtown area:
Monday, April 28, 2008
1515 Wynkoop Update
Hines' 1515 Wynkoop office project on Block 013 in Lower Downtown Denver is going vertical! After about a year of digging a big hole and filling it up with four levels of underground parking, the project recently reached ground level. Then, in just a few days time, the project has already started to rise. That's the advantage of building the superstructure out of steel instead of reinforced concrete--construction goes a lot faster. Anyway, here's a photo from this morning of the 1515 Wynkoop site:
Friday, April 25, 2008
New Prospect Project in the Works?
A rezoning application was recently filed for the Mail Well Envelope property at 3500 Rockmont Drive in Downtown Denver's Prospect district. The property is located immediately north of City of Cuernavaca Park along I-25.
According to DenverGov.org, Alliance Realty Partners is seeking to rezone the industrial site to RMU-30, which allows for residential mixed-use development with maximum building heights of 140 feet. The Denver Planning Board approved the application on April 16 and, on April 23, City Council's Blueprint Denver Committee agreed to forward the rezoning to the full Council. A specific date for the public hearing and final consideration by Council has not yet been scheduled.
Denver-Cityscape reports that the proposed project will include 700 to 800 residential units, 90,000 SF of office space, 30,000 SF of retail, and 180,000 SF of hotel uses.
City of Cuernavaca Park is a great Downtown amenity, but its somewhat-isolated location makes it an underutilized asset. Residential development along the north edge of the park is a great idea and will bring added vitality to the area. The site's biggest challenge is access. Right now, Rockmont Drive (Platte Street past 19th Street) provides the only vehicular access to the site, and I-25, the Platte River, and a tangle of rail lines separates the Mail Well site from the rest of the Prospect district and adjacent districts. I think a new street connection east over to Park Avenue West and perhaps a pedestrian bridge or two will be in order. One other nice apsect about this site: it lies only 0.4 miles south of the 38th & Inca transit station on the proposed Gold Line and about 0.7 miles from Union Station.
According to DenverGov.org, Alliance Realty Partners is seeking to rezone the industrial site to RMU-30, which allows for residential mixed-use development with maximum building heights of 140 feet. The Denver Planning Board approved the application on April 16 and, on April 23, City Council's Blueprint Denver Committee agreed to forward the rezoning to the full Council. A specific date for the public hearing and final consideration by Council has not yet been scheduled.
Denver-Cityscape reports that the proposed project will include 700 to 800 residential units, 90,000 SF of office space, 30,000 SF of retail, and 180,000 SF of hotel uses.
City of Cuernavaca Park is a great Downtown amenity, but its somewhat-isolated location makes it an underutilized asset. Residential development along the north edge of the park is a great idea and will bring added vitality to the area. The site's biggest challenge is access. Right now, Rockmont Drive (Platte Street past 19th Street) provides the only vehicular access to the site, and I-25, the Platte River, and a tangle of rail lines separates the Mail Well site from the rest of the Prospect district and adjacent districts. I think a new street connection east over to Park Avenue West and perhaps a pedestrian bridge or two will be in order. One other nice apsect about this site: it lies only 0.4 miles south of the 38th & Inca transit station on the proposed Gold Line and about 0.7 miles from Union Station.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Two Tabor Applies for Building Permit
On April 21, Callahan Capital Partners, the new owner of Downtown Denver's Tabor Center, submitted a building permit application to the city for Two Tabor!
The second office tower at the Tabor Center complex, planned for the corner of 17th and Larimer on Block 068, was originally scheduled to be built following the completion of the first Tabor tower. Construction did begin on the second tower in the mid-1980s but then the oil bust put the project on ice. The developers back then got the elevator core for Two Tabor installed before they stopped construction in 1986. The core was capped with the gold-colored metal panels that still remain at 17th and Larimer, just north of the Tabor Center's plaza along 17th Street. Not having to dig a big hole and spend a year putting in underground parking should be a big time and cost savings for Callahan--just peel off those metal panels and start going vertical! Here's an aerial shot that shows One Tabor in the lower left and the covered elevator core for Two Tabor in the upper right:
The design of Two Tabor has also changed since the 1980s. The original design for the second Tabor tower was to be a duplicate of the first, just a bit taller. Here's a rendering, courtesy of denverskyscrapers.com:
Callahan has a new design for Two Tabor. Designed by the internationally prominent architectural firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox, Two Tabor will rise 43 stories, contain approximately 840,000 SF of rentable space, and be LEED Gold certified. Here is what Two Tabor will look like now:
Based on those renderings, I'm guessing Two Tabor will be about 630 feet tall. The Four Seasons tower currently under construction on Block 074 will be 640 feet tall to the top of its spire, so it may be a battle between Two Tabor and the Four Seasons for the new fourth-tallest tower in Downtown.
Two Tabor should start construction this summer and is scheduled to be completed first quarter 2011.
The second office tower at the Tabor Center complex, planned for the corner of 17th and Larimer on Block 068, was originally scheduled to be built following the completion of the first Tabor tower. Construction did begin on the second tower in the mid-1980s but then the oil bust put the project on ice. The developers back then got the elevator core for Two Tabor installed before they stopped construction in 1986. The core was capped with the gold-colored metal panels that still remain at 17th and Larimer, just north of the Tabor Center's plaza along 17th Street. Not having to dig a big hole and spend a year putting in underground parking should be a big time and cost savings for Callahan--just peel off those metal panels and start going vertical! Here's an aerial shot that shows One Tabor in the lower left and the covered elevator core for Two Tabor in the upper right:
The design of Two Tabor has also changed since the 1980s. The original design for the second Tabor tower was to be a duplicate of the first, just a bit taller. Here's a rendering, courtesy of denverskyscrapers.com:
Callahan has a new design for Two Tabor. Designed by the internationally prominent architectural firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox, Two Tabor will rise 43 stories, contain approximately 840,000 SF of rentable space, and be LEED Gold certified. Here is what Two Tabor will look like now:
Based on those renderings, I'm guessing Two Tabor will be about 630 feet tall. The Four Seasons tower currently under construction on Block 074 will be 640 feet tall to the top of its spire, so it may be a battle between Two Tabor and the Four Seasons for the new fourth-tallest tower in Downtown.
Two Tabor should start construction this summer and is scheduled to be completed first quarter 2011.
