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Denver Infill Blog
July 2006
Here's
where I will regularly share news, observations, rumors, ideas, or
anything else about urban redevelopment, infill projects or Downtown
Denver.
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July 2005
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July
30, 2006. After razing the three buildings at their 8th
and Acoma site, the word is that Hanover has just started construction on their 16-story 816 Acoma tower next door to their
Boulevard Lofts project. It will be nice to watch that project
rise up along Speer Boulevard over the next year or so.
The new EPA Building is
coming along quickly. Here's a shot from yesterday, taken from the
Millennium Bridge, of the building's new presence on the LoDo skyline:
EPA Building
I've been told that the
contractors building the new Highland Bridge across I-25 will be
installing the main arch across the freeway next weekend, August 5 - 6.
So, in anticipation of the big event, here are a few Highland
Bridge-related photos: From the Highland side (Highland
Bridge 1), from the Platte Street side (Highland
Bridge 2), the remaining pieces waiting to be installed (Highland
Bridge 3), from the Millennium Bridge (Highland
Bridge 4). Finally, one last shot from the Highland
side: this one captures what I love about cities and downtowns in
particular--the complexity of geometries, textures, and color--so this
photo gets to be twice as big (Highland
Bridge 5).
Speaking of Highland,
I've also heard that funding has been secured for a major streetscape
project along Central Street, from in front of the Dakota Lofts all the
way over to 20th Street. The streetscape project will feature a
bike path, in addition to lighting, trees, etc. Along with the
Highland Bridge and the new Highland Bridge Lofts planned for the corner
where the bridge lands on the Highland side, the gateway to the
Highland
neighborhood from Downtown will really be looking good.
July
26, 2006. How about another new infill project for the
Jefferson Park neighborhood? This one is called Diamond
Hill Condominiums and it is planned for 2727 W. 24th Avenue, on the
south side of W. 24th roughly mid-block between Clay and Decatur
Streets. The project is envisioned as a 51-unit development, and
it recently was submitted for review to the Denver Planning office.
That's about all I know at this point (no rendering yet) but I'll see
what more I can find out about this project.
This project is further
evidence that the "Cherry Creekification" of Jefferson Park is underway.
By that, I mean that just like the Cherry Creek North and Cherry Creek
East neighborhoods, the existing housing stock and character of the
Jefferson Park neighborhood is about to be substantially replaced.
The original homes in Cherry Creek were quite modest, particularly in
Cherry Creek East where most of the original structures could be fairly
described as shacks. Over the past 20 years, virtually all of that
original housing has been replaced with the urban townhome equivalent of
the suburban McMansion (McTownhomes?). In the case of Cherry
Creek, this transformation has been generally regarded as both desirable
and inevitable, given the relative low quality of the original housing
and the strong demand for larger, upscale urban housing at higher
densities. Jefferson Park is similar in many ways to what Cherry Creek
East was about 10 years ago. Much of the housing stock in
Jefferson Park today is very modest in size, in poor condition, or both.
Jefferson Park is also one of the few historic Denver neighborhoods
where you can still find tiny single-family detached dwellings on
25-foot lots. And just like in Cherry Creek East, where its
proximity to the trendy retail district made the land more valuable than
the existing homes, Jefferson Park's proximity to Downtown and the
Central Platte Valley makes the land beneath a run-down 700 square foot
home built in the 1890s very valuable. Plus, much of the Jefferson
Park neighborhood is currently zoned R-3, so developers already have the
right to develop at a density that will make their project profitable
without a costly rezoning. So, unless the Downtown housing market
totally tanks, I predict that in 2016, Jefferson Park will look a lot
like what Cherry Creek East does today. Is this a good thing?
Given how this affects issues like affordable housing and ethnic
diversity, that is a valid question that should be debated. But
the market forces at work in Jefferson Park may make such a debate
academic. Take a neighborhood within walking distance of Downtown
with great transportation access and great views, add strong demand for
Downtown-area housing, and factor in an existing housing stock generally
regarded as expendable, and you have yourself a recipe for a total
neighborhood makeover.
July
24, 2006. Back in my
June 30
blog, I featured a rendering of the new Sugar Building on
Block 019 in Lower Downtown, known as
Sugar3. If the historic Sugar Building is, by default,
Sugar1, then where is Sugar2 you might ask?
That would be the little infill building planned as part of this project
on Wazee Street. While the new 10-story Sugar3 at the
corner of 16th and Blake may get all the attention, the "slot" building
that extends from the main structure over the alley to fill the narrow
parking lot site fronting Wazee is still an important development.
The Sugar2 building will make that half of the block complete
and will give the 1500 block of Wazee a solid street wall on both facing
blocks... a rarity in LoDo. So, here's to the little Sugar2
building and its role in eradicating the anti-urban surface parking lot
from one of our most urban places, Lower Downtown. Oh, and in case
you're wondering, here's what Sugar2 will look like: (Sugar2
Rendering).
July
22, 2006. Now that I'm back from a 4-day business trip to
the east coast, I'm happy to share renderings of a new infill project
with you. I first talked about Welton Place and provided project
details in my
April 23 blog. Welton Place will
occupy almost the entire block bounded by Park Avenue West, Welton,
24th, and Glenarm in the
Curtis Park-Five Points neighborhood
(see Project #11 on that page). Thanks to Matt over at Century
Real Estate, the firm that's developing Welton Place, here are some
images to give you an idea of the exciting things about to happen on
that block.
First, here is the
Welton Place site plan showing the
entire block. The Welton Place project consists of five
developments to be completed in three marketing phases. The first
phase consists of the developments shown on the site plan as "A1" and
"B." The building at "A1" will be known as 2300 Welton and will be
a 7-story mixed-use building covering about two-thirds of the half block
along Welton, anchored at Park Avenue West (23rd Street). It will
feature 105 condominiums including several with a two-story townhome
design which wrap the front and side of the building, as well as
structured parking and office space along Park Avenue West. The building at
"A2" (to be completed in the second phase) consists of an additional 30
condominiums and townhomes and ground-floor retail at the corner of
Welton and 24th. Here's a preliminary rendering showing the entire "A1"
(right) and "A2" (left) buildings: (Welton
Street elevation). These buildings along Welton have
been designed by Shears Adkins Architects.
Also included in the
first phase are 12 townhomes labeled as "B" on the site plan at the
corner of 24th and Glenarm. These townhomes will feature the
contemporary style of Sprocket Design Build and will look like this: (Glenarm
Townhomes).
A sales office is being
built on site and should be ready for marketing of the first phase in
September. This project is a great step forward in the continuing
revitalization of the historic Five Points area, and represents more
homes and businesses within walking distance of a light rail station
too. Overall, this is exactly the kind of development we need to create
a vibrant and attractive transition between the Downtown neighborhoods
and the core Central Business District.
July
17, 2006. Hey, if you're an infill junkie, Denver history
buff, or general Downtown enthusiast, you'll appreciate what I have to
share with you today. Way back in 1984, under the leadership of
Mayor Federico Peña, the City of Denver was looking to build a new
convention center. Several sites were evaluated, including one in
the Golden Triangle (a site between Broadway and Cherokee, 13th and
11th), a site next to the then-existing Currigan Hall (where the
Colorado Convention Center is today), and a site behind Union Station in
the Central Platte Valley. After much debate and evaluation, the
site behind Union Station was selected by the Denver City Council in
January, 1985. But, on October 16, 1985, Denver voters soundly
rejected the Union Station Convention Center proposal, and so it was
back to the drawing board. The next time around, Denver voters
approved a new convention center to go next door to Currigan Hall and,
thus, we had the Colorado Convention Center which opened in 1990 and, in
2004, was expanded to include the site formerly occupied by Currigan
Hall.
Now, back to that Union
Station Convention Center proposal. Recently I was fortunate
enough to obtain an original of the
"Denver Convention Center Feasibility Report" document dated August
1985, prepared by the architectural firm of Thompson, Ventulett,
Stainback & Associates. The document describes in detail the
proposal that the voters ultimately rejected two months later. I'm
happy to share with you six images from that document. Keep in mind,
this proposal was several years before the creation of the Lower
Downtown Historic District and the development of the Central Platte
Valley Plan. At that time, the Central Platte Valley and LoDo was
just a gritty industrial area known for its graffiti, boarded up
buildings, rusty viaducts, weeds, litter and vagrants. Even John
Hickenlooper was still a few years away from opening his Wynkoop
Brewery.
Nevertheless, there was a
vision even at that time that the Central Platte Valley could become a
vibrant extension of Downtown, anchored by the Convention Center and a
"Denver Commons Park." First, here is the site plan. Take
note of a few things: there was a street envisioned as "Central Platte
Valley Parkway" that would have run from about Wewatta on the east,
angling up to an alignment near what is today Little Raven, and across
Speer into an area that today is Elitch Gardens. There was also a
plaza-like area that was an extension of the 16th Street Mall that went
all the way to the Platte River. The planned focal point of the
area, 16th and Central Platte Valley Boulevard, was located near what
today is the Millennium Bridge. Also of note are the massive Phase One
and Phase Two parking facilities stretching all the way over to 20th
Street. Union Station as a hub for a metropolitan-wide transit
system wasn't even on the horizon at that time. (Site
Plan).
Next, here's a plan of
the convention center's layout. The main exhibit halls would have
been located directly behind Union Station, with a Phase One and Phase
Two Convention Center Hotel towers located about where the Gates
Headquarters building is today. The plan also envisioned an
extension of the 16th Street Mall with its terminus at a terraced
entrance to the convention center. (Floor
Plan).
Here are two cross
sections showing that the proposed convention center would have
incorporated both the tracks immediately behind Union Station beneath
the complex, as well as an extended 16th Street Mall pedestrian
corridor. (North
Cross Section), (South
Cross Section).
This is perspective of
what the complex would have looked like from what today would be roughly the top
floor of the North Tower of the Glass House (Perspective).
Finally, here's a
rendering
of a close-up of the main entrance off of Central Platte Valley Parkway.
(Entrance
Detail).
I hope you enjoyed
today's look back at what could have been the Central Platte Valley of
today.
July
14, 2006. Here's another possible site for the Trump
Tower Denver: How about the surface parking lot at 17th and California (Block
161)? It's a great site and would share many of the
same locational characteristics as the 17th and Welton site I spoke
about a few days ago. In my opinion, this corner is one of the
best corners along 17th Street. The open plazas in front of the
Johns Manville and Marriott City Center buildings on the one corner, and
the Well Fargo and First Interstate towers on the other corner, create a
"room" of sorts that gives you just enough space to view the surrounding
towers while still feeling like you're in among them. The plazas
at that corner are quite activated during the day, but go pretty quiet
at night. A Trump tower at that corner could help change that.
(As an aside, I think the
recent redesign of the plaza in front of the Wells Fargo building is
horrible. The white "light saber" lighting feels out of scale for
the space, and what are those ugly black "bumper" things at the bottom
of each light pole? There's not enough "green" and the whole space
feels cold. And speaking of the "light saber" lighting... enough
already! I like their use along Skyline Park because the perfect
verticality of the light pole works well with the perfect linear
alignment of the lights along the street edge. They're also OK in
front of the new Convention Center as they match with the futuristic
geometry of that building's design. But their style and placement
just don't work in front of Wells Fargo, and two examples of that
lighting style in Downtown is more than sufficient. How about some
originality, OK?)
But while we're talking
about Block 161, why stop with just the parking lot at 17th and
California? The program of a Trump tower may require a larger
footprint than what the parking lot site would provide. Block 161
would still work. Adjacent to the parking lot, at 16th and
California, is the California Food Court building, which is mostly
vacant except for the Chipotle and a few other small spaces along the
Mall. The two-story concrete block structure, while not that old,
is hardly an architectural gem, and is certainly not the highest and
best use for that corner by a long shot. A Trump Tower could
occupy the entire California Street frontage between 16th and 17th.
That would make a big difference in the perception of the corner of 16th
and California by the light rail station, and provide a big jolt of
upscale activity to a stretch along the Mall that could really use it.
July
13, 2006. This is an exciting time for Downtown Denver.
We've made tremendous progress over the past decade and have invested
billions of dollars of public money in improving the infrastructure and
public facilities in the Downtown area. Now the private sector is
stepping up and infusing Downtown with dozens of projects featuring
hotel, residential, office, and retail uses, and eliminating surface
parking lots in the process. Thanks to the Downtown Denver
Partnership's business improvement district, the streets and sidewalks
of Downtown are swept clean every day, flowers are planted, and the
general Downtown environment is well maintained and attractive. It
seems like even the number of homeless has decreased a little lately.
Overall, the future for Downtown Denver looks bright. But where do
we go from here? What do we want Downtown Denver to be like 20
years from now? That, of course, is the question to be answered by
the Downtown Area Plan. If you're not familiar with the Downtown
Area Plan project, check out the website at
www.DowntownDenverPlan.org.
Some of the key
challenges facing Downtown can be identified by the six working groups
that have been created as part of the planning process:
Pedestrian Environment
& Neighborhood Connectivity: Like many other cities, Denver's
Central Business District is surrounded by highways and major arterial
roadways, railroads, rivers, large-area uses like stadiums and
convention centers, industry, and surface parking lots--all of which
serve as barriers to the pedestrian in his or her attempt to walk to the
Downtown core from the adjacent residential districts. The
completion of the Highland Bridge in a few months represents the final
piece in solving the pedestrian connection puzzle to northwest Downtown.
Soon, anyone will be able to walk from the beautiful tree-lined streets
of historic Highland right into the heart of Downtown and have the
experience be easy and enjoyable. How do we make the pedestrian
experience to and from Curtis Park, Uptown, the Golden Triangle, River
North, and La Alma/Lincoln Park equally as easy and enjoyable? How
do we enliven the sidewalk environment everywhere Downtown to maximize,
from the pedestrian's perspective, the unique intensity of the urban
center?
Economic Role of
Downtown/Job Creation: During the 1990s, tens of millions of square
feet of office space was built in the suburbs, and virtually none built
in Downtown. For the past 20 years, the number of Downtown workers
has stayed flat at about 110,000 while employment growth in suburban
office parks has steadily increased. How can we make Downtown more
competitive with the suburbs in capturing new or relocating office
users? How do we bring more corporate headquarters to Downtown?
How do we create new jobs Downtown that offer a livable wage?
Retail: With
Cherry Creek only a few miles away, Downtown is not likely to see a
return of multiple department stores any time soon. But what kind
of retail is desirable and sustainable Downtown? How do we move
beyond the t-shirt and souvenir shops along the 16th Street Mall?
How do we bring retailers of every-day items like groceries, hardware,
consumer electronics and general merchandise to Downtown? How can
Downtown and Cherry Creek work together to offer the Denver visitor and
resident a unique and unmatched one-two retail combination?
Downtown Living:
At first, residential development of any type, anywhere Downtown was
welcome. But as Downtown living continues to evolve and mature and
as the number of developable sites Downtown is slowly but steadily
reduced, it will be important for us to identify areas Downtown where we
want to focus residential development, and in what form and number.
How many residential units can we accommodate Downtown, and where should
they go? What kind of amenities do we need to add Downtown to
support and attract more residential development? How can we
direct residential development in a manner that will result in the
greatest diversity of the Downtown resident population?
16th Street Mall:
The Mall is undeniably the spine of Downtown and its focus of human
activity, and has been a great success over its 25 years of existence.
But is the design of the Mall still right for Denver in 2006 or will it
still be in 2026? Should the shuttle busses be replaced with a
trolley? How do we improve the quality or mix of the uses along
the Mall? How will we address the long-term maintenance of the
Mall?
Linking Downtown with
the Auraria Campus: Over 40,000 students attend school at one of the
three higher education institutions at Auraria, and yet the physical
connection between the campus and the rest of Downtown does not
encourage interaction between the two. Speer Boulevard and Cherry
Creek, along with the siting of buildings on the campus itself, make the
journey feel much longer and more difficult than it should be. How do we
capitalize on the proximity of the campus and help integrate the
students and their energy into the rest of Downtown? How do we
make the pedestrian connection between the campus and the core Downtown
quick, safe, and engaging?
So, while Downtown Denver
in 2006 is doing pretty darn well, we clearly have our work cut out for
us if we want Downtown to reach its maximum potential. Downtown
Denver serves, in many ways, as the symbol for the entire metropolitan
area to the rest of the world. Its vitality and attractiveness
reflects what kind of a community we are. Therefore, we all have a
vested interest in making Downtown Denver the best place it can be, and
the Downtown Area Plan will be the roadmap to get us there. Get
involved!
July
11, 2006. Today I'm happy to share the latest on an
exciting infill project in the
Curtis Park-Five Points neighborhood.
The project is at 30th and Lawrence and so far has been going by the
working name of "Village Flats on Lawrence." Now that the
developer (Village
Flats LLC) is ready for the start of construction, the project is
taking on its official name of "2999 Lawrence" along with a new website,
appropriately named
www.2999Lawrence.com. The project
features 12 condominium units in a 5-story building with a cool
retro/industrial design and prices
starting in the mid-$200s. Here's a few more of the final design
images: (Entry
Detail), (Corner
Detail), (Roof
Detail). Groundbreaking is planned for late September,
with the next unit to go under contract receiving a free kitchen upgrade
and the last of the pre-construction pricing. What's amazing is
how this upper part of the Curtis Park-Five Points and Ballpark
districts continues to transform into a great walkable urban
neighborhood.
By the way, one of my pet
peeves is visiting an urban infill project website that doesn't give you
the information you need to know if that project is right for you.
You've seen them... the websites that feature annoying music, flashy
images of "happy urban people doing happy urban things" and a
requirement that you telephone or email them to get basic information like unit
pricing, square footages, floor plans, or even what the building is
going to look like. I really doubt
anyone is going to buy a half-million-dollar condo unit just because
they've been shown pictures of beautiful people sipping chardonnay from
oversized wine glasses. Give me the
prices, the square footages, and the floor plans and, as an intelligent
adult, I'll make a decision to investigate the project further, or not.
That's one of the things that impressed me upon visiting
www.2999Lawrence.com
for the first time: they give you renderings of the building,
floor plans, unit-specific pricing, which units are still available, a
site plan, and
a lot more. That's the way it should be done.
July
9, 2006. Here's another possible location for Mr. Trump
to build his tower in Denver: the Two Tabor Center site. Granted,
it isn't an ugly parking lot; in fact, it isn't a parking lot at all but
the entombed foundation of the never-built second Tabor Center office
tower. The yellowish
metal-clad form that sits at the corner
of 17th and Larimer hides the elevator core of the Two Tabor Center
tower that was cancelled due to the mid-1980s real estate bust even as
its foundation was being constructed. Here's what the complex
would have looked like if the
second tower had been constructed.
Since then, whenever the Downtown office market heats up, the Two Tabor
Center plans are dusted off, such as in the late 1990s when Equity
Office considered a
redesigned version of the tower (both
renderings courtesy of denverskyscrapers.com). Then, last
November, the Post's Margaret Jackson reported (Expectations
Running High for Vacant Lot) that Equity is now marketing the
development rights to Two Tabor Center. The article even mentions
Trump.
Anyway, the Tabor site
offers a lot of advantages. It sits at that cusp between LoDo and
the the Central Business District with easy convenience to both.
It offers a 17th Street address and would have the benefit of proximity
to the retail portion of the Tabor Center. The immediate
surroundings are pretty vibrant already, so a Trump Tower at that corner
would really make it a hot spot in Downtown.
July
8, 2006. In today's Rocky Mountain News, John
Rebchook has an article (Trump
Looks for Land to Build Hotel, Condos) that informs us that
Trump and his development partner, the Bayrock Group, are no longer
planning their Denver tower for the El Jebel site on
Block 035 in Upper Downtown.
Apparently, they were not able to close the deal with the land owners,
who now have the site up for sale with CB Richard Ellis Hotels.
Nevertheless, Trump is still very interested in pursuing a hotel/condo
project in Denver and is actively scouting Downtown for suitable sites.
While I'm disappointed that this delays the timeline of the Trump
project, the small surface parking lot between the historic El Jebel
temple and the Wells Fargo parking garage is hardly the site in Downtown
most desperate for development. So, in that regard, I'm happy that
this will allow the possibility that a more visible (and offending)
vacant site will be developed by Trump. The article notes that
local brokers have presented Trump with about 20 Downtown sites so far,
with three or four of them gaining Trump's serious consideration.
I don't know the location of those three or four sites, but with a
plethora of crappy surface parking lots Downtown, I can think of several
where a tower like Trump's would be a huge improvement over what's there
now.
I assume Trump is going
to want to select a site in the B-5 zone, which allows for the highest
density (Floor Area Ratio) in Downtown. I also assume that Trump
will want to avoid a site with a building height restriction caused by
one of the three Overlay Districts in the B-5 zone: OD-3 has a 400-foot
height limit, OD-4 has a 200-foot height limit, and OD-2 has a height
limit based on the amount of shadow cast upon the 16th Street Mall.
Here's a map (Downtown
B-5 Zone) showing the boundaries of the Downtown B-5 zone and
the three Overlay Districts. The area on the map with the maximum
allowable Floor Area Ratio and no height restrictions is the area
colored blue inside the yellow dashed line. (By the way,
this map is from the
Downtown Buildout Scenarios page in the
Special Features section.) So, with these assumptions in place,
let's take a look at some of the undeveloped Downtown sites that might
make a great location for a Trump tower. What I'll do over the
next week or two is profile (in no particular order) a different site,
starting today with the undeveloped parcel at the corner of 17th and
Welton.
The lot at 17th and
Welton (Block
174) is the site of the former Kenmark Hotel, which was razed
in late 1995. Yep, for over a decade now, a prime corner in the
center of the "Wall Street of the Rockies" has sat undeveloped.
For some background on the old Kenmark Hotel building, here's a good
article by Stuart Steers (Rubble's
Back in Town) from the 1-03-1996 issue of Westword.
Also, here's a
photograph of the Kenmark Hotel in 1917
(scanned image from the book "Denver, A Pictorial History" by William C.
Jones and Kenton Forrest, copyright 1993 by Colorado Railroad Historical
Foundation, Inc.). The current owner of this vacant parcel in the
heart of our city, according to the Denver Assessor's records, is "1632
Welton LLC" which, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's
records, is owned by Gary R. Cook. Yes, that's right, the very
same Gary Cook who owns the Fontius Building a block away at 16th and
Welton.
The vacant parcel at 17th
and Welton is approximately 25,000 square feet, a nice size for the
footprint of a hotel/condo tower like the one Trump would build (the El
Jebel parcel covers about 17,000 square feet). A Trump tower at
this site could also capitalize on its location in the heart of the
Financial District and target the business/corporate market and
differentiate itself from the Four Season, which will probably appeal
more to the theater/lifestyle crowd. Also, that stretch of 17th
Street really goes dead once all the offices close for the evening, so a
hotel/condo tower there with a ground-floor restaurant/lounge or two
would add a spark of activity to that part of 17th Street in the evening
and on weekends, much like how the Hotel Monaco and Magnolia Hotel do
down the street. The 17th and Welton location is also conveniently
close to the Convention Center, the Performing Arts Complex, the 16th
Street Mall, and it's roughly halfway between Civic Center and Lower
Downtown. Finally, that corner of 17th Street could really use a
dose of fresh architecture and a little glitz.
So, Mr. Trump, there's
one option for you. Do us all a favor and build your tower on the
vacant lot at the corner of 17th and Welton. Next time, we'll
explore another site where a Trump tower might be a good fit.
July
6, 2006. A few weeks ago I reported that a sales office
was being built in Larimer Square with a sign that will read "You Are
Here," which just happened to be the marketing slogan for the Nichols
Partnership's Spire project. I've just received confirmation,
however, that the Larimer Square space is not for Spire, but for
East-West Partners' Riverfront Park development.
I then just noticed that the website home page for the Spire project (www.spiredenver.com)
has recently changed and no longer has the "You Are Here" slogan.
Interesting.
Speaking of sales
offices, the big Four Seasons sales office that has been under
construction behind papered windows at the Performing Arts Complex for
several months seemed like it's been making little progress as, a few
weeks ago, I peeked in there and it looked like virtually nothing had
been done. Well, just the other day I noticed the entire space now
has a brand new drop ceiling, so apparently progress is being made.
It's only been 20 months since the project was announced... good to see
things are zipping right along with the Four Seasons.
Does anyone know what's
going on at 17th and Franklin in the
City Park West neighborhood? There's definitely a new
infill project being constructed at that location. Just south of
17th on the west side of Franklin, a
3-story condo building is under
construction with an address of 1649-1657 Franklin. One building
is up and it looks like there's space for another. Then right
next door at the corner of 17th
and Franklin is an older commercial building that is all boarded up and
fenced off
and appears to be awaiting demolition. So what is the name of the
project and how many buildings and total units? If you have any
information on this project, please let me know so I can give it a
proper inclusion here at DenverInfill.com.
July
5, 2006. Today is the one-year anniversary of the
DenverInfill blog! It's been fun, and I've been surprised by
how popular this little blog has become. Not only have the
mainstream media picked up on it, but also so many of you have written to
tell me that you look forward to reading the blog every day and that
it's your favorite part of DenverInfill. Thank you. I
must admit that because of your emails, sometimes I feel a bit guilty if
I don't have a blog for a day or two... but I get over it pretty
quickly. Nevertheless, I do hope you'll forgive a few days here
and there that are blogless. The first entry was July 5, 2005 and
it dealt with One Lincoln Park. That day, I was speculating as to
the project's location along Lincoln Street because the developers
hadn't announced the exact site yet, and here we are one year later with
the 32-story tower already under construction. During that first
year, I had 199 blog entries. The best month was February, with 24 of
the 28 days with blog entries. The low point was September (only 3
entries) and October (a slightly better 7 entries), but a new job, a
vacation to Hawaii and the start to the class I teach at UCD sort of
consumed my time. I'm hoping to be more consistent this fall,
although you will be without a DenverInfill blog for a week or so
when I'm in London. Let's just hope there's not a big
high-rise announcement while I'm gone!
Today I have no grand
news, but just a number of miscellaneous items and a few photos:
The Emerson Uptown Lofts
project in the
Uptown district is now under
construction. That's the project at the site where the Ethiopian
Orthodox Church used to stand. The church is gone and the
foundation work is well underway.
Also in Uptown, a new
infill project! A 6-unit project called Emerson House at Swallow
Hill is proposed for the 1600 block of Emerson, across the street from
the Swallow Hill project. Here's a rendering: (Emerson
House at Swallow Hill).
More projects starting
construction: There's a construction fence now around 2229 Blake, the
7-story, 36-unit project at 22nd and Blake next to Coors Field.
The project also has a new name: Zi Lofts, and they have a website (www.zidenver.com),
but I haven't tracked down a rendering yet.
There's also construction
fencing now up around two more major projects near Coors Field: the
Broadstone Lofts project which is next to (and includes) the historic
Piggly Wiggly Building at 21st and Market, and the 24 Walnut Townhomes
project at, you guessed it, 24th and Walnut (www.24walnut.com).
Finally, the first
section of the dramatic white arch of the Highland Bridge is now in
place. Here's that first piece on the Platte Street side (Highland
Bridge 1) and here's a shot taken from the top of the hill at
16th and Boulder next to
Lola, the muy trendy Mexican restaurant
and tequila bar that moved to Highland from Old South Pearl this spring
(Highland
Bridge 2). Sweet!
July
4, 2006. Hey, how about a rendering for another new
project? This one is on
Block 046-E in the Civic Center area of Downtown. I
first mentioned this project in my blog of
May 19. It's called 1200 Delaware
and is located on the northeast corner of 12th and Delaware where
there's currently a surface parking lot. The project consists of 6
modern, very upscale townhomes. Here's what they will look like: (1200
Delaware 1), (1200
Delaware 2). The 1200 Delaware project is being
developed by Jet Real Estate Group, and the architect is BDG.
Here's a link to the project website:
www.1200delaware.com.
By the way, this project
is located at the same corner as a former infill project that never made
it out of the ground. Do you remember the Argyle? It was a
17-story, 46-unit condominium tower proposed in the early 2000s by Barry
Hirschfeld. The tower was cancelled during the post-9/11 economic
slump, although if you go to the little vacant gray building immediately
north of the parking lot at this corner, you can still see the sign
taped to the door that says the Argyle sales office is closed until
further notice. Anyway, here's a couple of images of the Argyle,
courtesy of the project architect, Humphries Poli: (Argyle
1), (Argyle
2). Too bad it never was built. It would have
provided some balance to the faux-European architecture of Nassi's
Golden Triangle towers.
July
2, 2006. Today I've got renderings of a new project that
I mentioned for the first time in my
February 28 blog. The project is Rue 32 and it is being
developed by Centex Homes on Blake Street between 32nd and 33rd, across
the street from Urban Ventures' Fire Clay Lofts project in the
Ballpark
neighborhood. The project includes 40 modern townhomes in five
buildings. First, here's the
site plan showing the arrangement of
the buildings on the half block. Next, here's the
Blake Street elevation. Finally,
here's a
perspective looking at the 32nd and
Blake corner. This project, along with Fire Clay Lofts, Blake 27
Brownstones, Blake Street Apartments, and the Rail Yard Lofts conversion
project is really starting to transform Blake Street from gritty
industrial to eclectic urban residential. If you haven't driven
down Blake Street lately, you should.
I've recently updated
several neighborhood pages with new infill projects that I had blogged
about but hadn't yet added permanently to their neighborhood page.
There are five new projects I've just added to the Jefferson Park page
and one new project in Highland. Within the next few days I'll be
adding several more new projects to Ballpark (such as Rue 32), Curtis
Park-Five Points, Capitol Hill, City Park West, and Civic Center.
Then I'll need to update the Infill Scoreboard and then the Big Picture
Maps... there's always so much to do! But I'm happy to do it, and I
hope you share in my enthusiasm for the great things we're seeing take
place in the Downtown area. Slowly but surely, we are eradicating
the scourge of the surface parking lot from our Downtown!
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