Denver Infill Blog

May 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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May 31, 2006.  Might a look back into Downtown's past be a glimpse into Downtown's future?  You never know.  Way back in 1999, Brookfield Properties, owner of Denver's Republic Plaza building as well as the surface parking lot behind the movie theater side of the Denver Pavilions, announced plans to build a 25-story, 400,000 SF office building on the site of that parking lot, known as 425 15th Street.  But, like several other high-rise office proposals from the late 1990s/early 2000s, they fell by the wayside with the combination of 9/11 and the subsequent recession.  Now, with office vacancy rates quickly declining and lease rates inching upward, there's been a lot of chatter around Downtown lately about who might pull the trigger first on a new high-rise office building.  Could it be Brookfield with their 425 15th project?  What about Tabor II?  The development rights for that site have been on the market for several months now.  Might a deal be in the works?  Remember 1100 15th Street, the 42-story tower proposed by Hines for the corner of 15th and Arapahoe?  Wouldn't that look cool next door to the Four Seasons!

So, just in case one of these firms might be dusting off their plans for Downtown's newest high-rise office building, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at these projects, starting with Brookfield's 425 15th Street proposal.  This project is, after all, still listed on Brookfield's corporate website under their Development section.  Here are some images of the project:

425 15th Rendering1    425 15th Rendering2    425 15th Rendering3    425 15th Stacking Plan

Have a great May 31st and we'll see you next month.

May 30, 2006.  In Sunday's Denver Post was an article entitled "Parking Lots Curb Downtown, Says Urban Sage" that, as the title suggests, informed us that surface parking lots Downtown are bad.  Since that concept is one of the principal messages of this website, I guess that makes me a sage too.  Or just a planner who knows his job.  Or, most likely, it's just obvious to anyone who is perceptive of his or her surroundings that surface parking lots are anti-urban and, consequently, a bad thing for Downtown.  This seems like a good opportunity to repeat my mission statement from the DenverInfill home page, which is:

"To promote the restoration of central Denver's built environment through the eradication of surface parking lots and the construction of high-density urban development of quality design." 

That is my mission and if you love Denver and cities in general, that should be your mission too. 

May 28, 2006.  Today I've got the latest on an infill project in the Curtis Park-Five Points neighborhood.  In my May 11 blog below I mentioned that Talus Development is building several townhome projects in the neighborhood, one called Urbans@Stout and another called Urbans@Glenarm.  Details are now available on the third one called Urbans@Curtis.  Urbans@Curtis will feature 5 townhomes/live-work units, 2700 square feet in size with 800 square foot courtyards and roof decks 50 feet off the ground.  The project is being designed by Bothwell Davis George Architects.  The Urbans@Curtis will be located at 2312 Curtis Street, with construction planned to begin later this year.  Here are a couple of renderings of the project: Urbans@Curtis1, Urbans@Curtis2.

Talus is also undertaking a renovation project in the same area.  The bus station at the corner of Champa and Park Ave will be renovated into 5 live-work spaces known as the SnoWhite Lofts.  Those units will range in size from 1600 to 3200 square feet, with construction planned to be completed by late 2006. 

May 26, 2006.  In case you haven't been keeping up with what's going on in the development of the transit hub at Union Station, much progress has been made in taking the Union Station Master Plan and developing it into a phased implementation program.  While the final selection of the Union Station master developer is still a couple of months off, some of the technical aspects of Phase 1 of FasTracks construction at Union Station has been devised and refined.  I'm planning on creating a Union Station page in the Special Features section to track all of this since Union Station is such a long-term project, but today I thought I'd share with you a few images and an overview of what to expect over the next few years.

First, here's a bit of background about the Master Plan.  The long-term vision for the inter-modal transit hub at Union Station can be summarized rather simply as: light rail station underground, commuter rail station underground, and bus station underground (Lower Level Plan), lots of pedestrian spaces at ground level (Street Level Plan), and commercial development and parking above (Upper Level Plan).  But that's long term.  Phase 1 of FasTracks construction at Union Station focuses on putting the light rail underground and expanding and reconfiguring commuter rail (right now, just Amtrak and Ski Train) in its current at-grade location immediately behind the historic station.  Here's the plan to do that.

First, the passenger rail improvements: Right now there are two passenger rail platforms.  Over the next couple of years, three more platforms will be added and their tracks extended north between 20th and 23rd Streets through a mini switching yard known as the "track throat," where they'll become the future Boulder-Longmont, North Metro, and Airport commuter rail lines (Passenger Rail Improvements). This will then permit the removal of the tail tracks that currently cross 16th and behind the new EPA Building, and allow the last phase of the reconstruction and widening of Wewatta to occur to Cherry Creek (Final Wewatta).

The process of undergrounding light rail behind Union Station will occur in four stages.  The first stage will consists of building a light rail tunnel from the end of the current light rail station, beneath Wewatta, and below 18th Street out towards the freight tracks behind the Manhattan.  That construction will begin in October of this year.  Incidentally, the construction of that tunnel will be coordinated with East-West Partner's construction of the foundation of their W Hotel & Residences project which is right there along 18th Street between Wewatta and Chestnut.  Here's a cross section image of that light rail tunnel under 18th Street (18th Cross Section).  In the second stage, a temporary at-grade light rail station will be built on 16th Street between Wewatta and the Millennium Bridge.  That should occur by 2008 or so.  That will free up the space where the current light rail station is so that it can be dug up and the whole underground light rail station constructed as stage three, between 2008 and 2011.  Also during that stage, the 18th Street light rail tunnel will be extended as an open-air trench south along the freight tracks towards the light rail bridge over 15th Street to connect with the Southeast, Southwest, and West lines, and extended north to connect to the Gold line to Arvada (Light Rail Trench).  Finally, in the last stage, the temporary light rail station will be replaced with a tunnel that sends the tracks down to the new underground station.  Here's a diagram showing the four proposed phases to build the underground light rail station behind Union Station (LRT Phasing Diagram) and here's a "before and after" shot from the Millennium Bridge of the current light rail tracks and the future tunnel (LRT 16th Tunnel).

The underground light rail station will be "open air" in the middle, with some type of canopy over the two ends where the escalators/stairs/elevators will be.  This will be temporary until commercial development occurs on top of the station, which will permanently enclose it underground.  Here's a site plan showing how things will look after the underground station is complete (Light Rail Station Site Plan).  You'll note that the 16th Street Mall drop-off will be relocated and built as a simple turn-around right at 16th and Wewatta, since the area where the Mall Shuttles currently do their loop and drop-off is where the additional passenger rail tracks and underground light rail station will be.  Here's some other interesting images of one of the proposed temporary open-air light rail station options:  (LRT Station Cross-Section), (LRT View 1), (LRT View 2), (LRT View 3), (LRT View 4).

In later phases, the commuter rail will be undergrounded, the bus station will be put beneath the plaza in front of Union Station along Wynkoop, and 18th Street will be extended as a surface street between Wynkoop and Wewatta.  It will be fascinating to watch this incredibly complex construction phasing take place, all while high-rise commercial development will continue throughout the Central Platte Valley.  All images except for "Final Wewatta" are courtesy of the Union Station Project Team.    

May 25, 2006.  Here's a bit more information about the new Sugar Building... Cushman & Wakefield is handling the leasing of this project and now has a listing for it labeled as "16th St. @ Blake St." on their website, www.cushmanwakefield.com.  Here's a PDF of the building's flyer from their website, which provides total square footage, floor plate data, etc. (16th @ Blake).  But that's not all.  The same firm, the same broker even, is also handling the leasing for 1400 Wewatta, another LoDo mixed-use project (Block 012) on the threshold of approval by the city.  This project is listed by Cushman & Wakefield as having a possession date of 11-1-2007.  Here's the flyer for that project (1400 Wewatta).  Unfortunately, neither of these projects have a photo or rendering included as part of the listing.  

Meanwhile, as we wait for the formal announcement by East-West Partners of the W Hotel & Residences project for behind Union Station, here's some additional information about the project.  A fellow Downtown enthusiast, Len, tipped me off to the location of this W Hotel Future Projects list, which was found within a report buried deep within the Starwood Hotel & Resorts website.  We've known since the project was submitted to the city for development review that it would have 93 residential units (90, according to the above future projects list... close enough).  But the list also indicates that there will be 171 hotel rooms at Denver's W Hotel.  That's new information I haven't seen anywhere else yet.  So, since we believe the project will consist of three 9-story towers sitting on a 4-story base of parking, lobby, guest services, etc., then I suspect we're looking at one of those towers with 19 rooms per floor for a total of 171, and two of the towers with approximately 5 condominium units per floor, on average.  Sounds about right.  The list shows Denver's W with a 2008 opening date.  By then, East-West Partners should have their next condo tower under construction nearby as well.  

May 24, 2006.  John Rebchook has an article in today's Rocky Mountain News (LoDo Building to be Green, Tony) about one of the projects I've been closely tracking, the new Sugar Building at the corner of 16th and Blake.  As the article notes, the building has received its approval by the Lower Downtown Design Review Board, and has also recently cleared the hurdle of development review with the city.  So, everything looks good for a September groundbreaking, which is consistent with what the developer, Mr. McCargo, told me a few months ago. 

The elimination of a crappy surface parking lot from a key intersection along the 16th Street Mall is cause for celebration.  To really understand the impact of how surface parking lots suck the vitality from an urban place, try a little experiment: Next time you're walking along the 16th Street Mall and you get to Glenarm, mentally wipe out the entire two-block Denver Pavilions from your view and replace it with a surface parking lot and feel how you would experience that place as a result.  Then, do the same thing with the entire block across from Market Street Station where 16 Market Center is located.  Now that we've grown used to having these buildings be a part of how we perceive and relate to Downtown Denver, when we attempt to imagine how those sites would feel if those buildings were gone, it can open our eyes to the degree to which we currently tolerate (subconsciously at least) all the existing surface parking lots, and what we could be experiencing if only there were buildings there instead.  Later this year when ground is broken on the new Sugar Building, on 1400 Wewatta, on 1800 Market, on the Four Seasons, on Spire... go out and celebrate that Downtown has just lost another link in its shackle of surface parking lots.     

May 22, 2006.  Hanover, who's building the 16-story apartment tower at 816 Acoma, was reportedly looking to do a tower in Downtown Denver.  Now, the rumor is that instead of Downtown, they are planning to do another project similar to their Boulevard Lofts project, but this time in the Uptown neighborhood.  Sounds good to me.  Not that another tower Downtown wouldn't be nice, but Uptown, much like the Golden Triangle, still has a plethora of surface parking lots to take care of.  Removing the ring of surface parking lots from around Downtown and, as a consequence, providing a seamless and pleasant  transition from established historic residential neighborhoods to Downtown, should be our top priority. 

In other news, looks like the Strada Flats project at 11th and Grant in the Capitol Hill neighborhood has broken ground!  Also, the project's website, www.stradaflats.com, is now up and running.  Funny thing though, there's still no image of what the building is going to look like on their website.  Don't you think that would be an important consideration in selling units? 

Finally, the Denver Post's Margaret Jackson has a nice article today about developer David Zucker's latest project in the
Jefferson Park neighborhood, RiverClay.  The RiverClay project recently sailed through a rezoning with the Denver City Council.  During the public hearing before Council, a number of residents commented about how great of a developer Mr. Zucker is and how willing he has been to work with the neighborhood to produce a project that everyone can support and be proud of.  Fortunately, many of the developers working in this city have learned the same thing, that you'd better have the support of the neighborhood behind you if you want a successful project.  Unfortunately, developer A.G. Spanos apparently doesn't get it.  The latest I've heard about his big apartment project planned for the site of the the Chili Pepper and Baby Doe's restaurants is that they continue to ignore the requests of the neighborhood and insist on pushing their project through exactly the way they want it, period.  That is such a high profile location, it's in the city's best interests, not just the neighborhood's, to ensure that what gets built there is of exceptional design, and that it enhances the surrounding area by providing neighborhood retail and a mix of units affordable to all income levels.  You know, just like Mr. Zucker's RiverClay project.

May 19, 2006.  New project in the Golden Triangle!  It's not big, but it's another parking lot going away!  There's a proposed development at 1200 Delaware, the northeast corner of 12th and Delaware, that consists of 6 townhomes--big ones--over 2,500 SF each.  I don't have any renderings or other details yet, but it's good to see those ubiquitous surface parking lots slowly disappearing in the Triangle. 

May 18, 2006.  In case you've been wondering about the blog shortage of the last few days, it's been due to a major computer upgrade at DenverInfill world headquarters.  My computer now has 2 GB of RAM, an extra 200 GB of hard drive space, a new DVD burner, a new 256 MB video card, and a fresh installation of Windows XP.  That all takes a bit of time, but I'm happy to be back online, and I think I'm set for the time being.  Now on to the business of tracking all these infill projects...

Thanks to a tip from a DenverInfill visitor, I'm happy to share some new information about the last phase of the Museum Residences project next to the Denver Art Museum.  So far we've heard that the last phase would consist of a 17-story tower at the corner of 12th & Broadway plus a building wrapped along the Broadway side of the parking garage, and that it would include both condominiums and a boutique hotel.  Now a few more details:  The project will include a 100-room hotel and 32 luxury condos plus a glass atrium, spa/fitness area/pool, a restaurant/bar, and meeting rooms.  The first 5 floors will include the hotel rooms and related amenities, and the remaining 12 floors will include the 32 condominium units.  All together, the project will cost $60 million.  Construction is planned to begin late this year.   How about a few images?  OK.  First, here's the tower and the building along the Broadway side of the parking garage (Museum Residences 1), and here are two views of the tower plus the first phase currently under construction (Museum Residences 2) (Museum Residences 3).  Images courtesy of the architect's website: www.daniel-libeskind.com.

May 14, 2006.  There was an interesting article in today's Denver Post about a street car alternative proposed as part of the I-70 East Corridor Environmental Impact Statement currently underway under the FasTracks program. Here's the article if you haven't already read it (Street Car Plan Rolled Out).  To summarize, the FasTracks plan includes the extension of the light rail line which ends at 30th and Downing to 40th Street/40th Avenue where it would intersect with the East Corridor line heading to DIA. If light rail is used along this extension however, many homes along Downing would have to be acquired.  To avoid that, the new plan would run street cars not only along the Downing Street extension, but street cars would also replace the existing light rail along Welton Street and would continue down Lincoln and Broadway to Civic Center Station. Here's the graphic that accompanies the article (Street Car Map). 

Personally, I find this alternative very appealing.  Not only does it save homes along Downing, but there are many of us who have been eager to get a street car system back on Denver's streets. Denver had at one time the largest street car system in the western US before it was ripped out in the 1950s and replaced with busses.  While the linking of Denver and its suburbs with light rail and commuter rail under the FasTracks program is a great thing, the dense neighborhoods of central Denver also deserve a rail transit option, but light rail may be a bit too obtrusive along some of Denver's inner-city neighborhood streets. Street cars are the best alternative.  Colfax is currently the most talked-about corridor for a street car line, so this alternative would greatly help that proposal along.  Also, RTD will need to provide an alternative connection between the Broadway station and Downtown, and has proposed in the past a "Central Connector" transit line along Lincoln and Broadway to Civic Center.  While many of the businesses and neighbors along South Broadway and Lincoln objected to the Central Connector line, a street car system along that corridor would be easier for them to embrace, I would think, than light rail.  Street cars would also become the logical means of connecting Downtown with Cherry Creek, and future street car lines could go into northwest Denver and other inner-city neighborhoods.

May 12, 2006.  I've just added three new projects to the Curtis Park-Five Points page.  You'll now find the Glenarm Place Condos, the Urbans @ Stout, and the Urbans @ Glenarm projects complete with site photos.

The big news for this morning is that the Nichols Partnership, developers of Spire, the 41-story condominium tower at 14th and Champa (Block 131), submitted a building permit application for foundation work to the city on 5-10-2006!  This is consistent with their plans to break ground this summer.  Assuming Spire gets underway, that would be the second major new high-rise breaking ground this year, with One Lincoln Park being the first.  Interestingly, the developers of One Lincoln Park on that same day submitted a building permit application for the tower's superstructure. 

Next up should be the Four Seasons.  The Four Seasons sales office on the ground floor of the Performing Arts complex parking garage is progressing quickly now, so hopefully they will be in a position to break ground in late summer/early fall as promised. The best way to sell units is to have the building under construction... even if it's just foundation work. 

I highly doubt we'll see the Great Gulf Group's Murano tower, the North Broadway Tower, the Trump Tower, or the DAC Tower break ground this year, as none of them are far enough along in the process; although, it does seem probable that there will be a Murano sales office installed at their site at 14th and Lawrence this summer.  The one I'm wondering about is the 27-story Embassy Suites Hotel and 20-story Homewood Suites Hotel, which would be developed together as a single project.  Haven't heard much about that project since the developers, Whiteco Industries of Merrillville, IN purchased the site on 10-27-2005.

May 11, 2006.  Here's a bit of information regarding some of the new projects springing up in the Curtis Park-Five Points neighborhood: I mentioned the first one the other day as being the 8-unit Glenarm Place Condos.  The next two are being developed by Talus Development and both are 5-unit townhome projects.  One is called "Urbans @ Stout" and will be located at the corner of 28th Street and Stout.  A similar project called "Urbans @ Glenarm" will be located at the corner of 24th and Glenarm.  Both sites are currently vacant lots.  A third project by Talus is called "Urbans @ Curtis" and will be similar to the other two. I'm still working on a few details before I get them uploaded to the site, but you can check out the projects at the Talus Development website, www.talusbuild.com or at the project website, www.denverurbanlofts.com.

Speaking of Curtis Park-Five Points neighborhood, the big project called Welton Place that I mentioned in my blog of April 23 is now under development review with the city.  That project is being developed by Century Real Estate and includes 105 units in their first phase. Century is also developing the Blake Street Apartments, which is closing in on completion in the Ballpark neighborhood.

Finally, if you haven't checked the May 2006 issue of ColoradoBiz Magazine, you should.  Stephen Titus discusses the pending Downtown high-rise boom in his article "Who Owns Colorado: High Expectations."  He also has a few quotes from yours truly, and even mentions DenverInfill.com.  Here's a direct link to the online article. You should still buy the paper version at the newsstand, because what isn't featured in the online version is my "future skyline" image from the Big Picture page, but in high-resolution color with building labels and sharper renderings of a couple of the proposed buildings. 

May 8, 2006.  Last Thursday I attended the monthly meeting of the Lower Downtown Design Review Board, and was able to hear the latest on Hines' plans for the site at 15th and Wynkoop, the half block next to the EPA building that is under construction.  The project has changed significantly since the early 2000s when Hines proposed the 12-story condo building shown on Block 013 in Lower Downtown.  Now, the project will not look anything like the rendering on the Block 013 page, but will be an office building with ground-floor retail instead.  Although the building will have the same height and mass as before, it will have fewer floors because of the higher floor-to-ceiling distance in office buildings.  The building now will feature a 6-story elevation along Wewatta, 15th, and Wynkoop, with a shorter 4-story section immediately adjacent to the EPA building on the Wynkoop side.  Then the building steps back, with what looked to me to be about 2 or 3 more stories that will rise in the center of the building.  The facades along the street edge will be mostly brick and will have an organization that will be very compatible with the surrounding historic buildings.  The taller sections stepped back from the street edge will use modern materials, mostly glass and metal.  Overall, the building is following a design pattern used at the EPA building and a few others around Lower Downtown -- brick at the base, glass up top -- as a means of keeping the pedestrian experience and the architecture consistent with the historic context while allowing the building to "go modern" above that.

So far, the LDDRB seems to like what they see, although the developers and architects haven't gotten the design down to the point yet where they have asked the board to approve the building's facade articulation, fenestration, and materials.  That's the next step which should happen within the next couple of months.  What's interesting is to see how the market has changed over the past year or so, with these new LoDo construction projects like this Hines project at 15th & Wynkoop, the New Sugar Building, and the Opus project at 15th & Wewatta now incorporating a significant portion of the total square footage to office use.  Rumors are abundant about several other office projects in the works throughout the CBD, so it appears we could be heading into a period in the near future (2009? 2010?) where both residential and office high-rise construction could be booming in Downtown at the same time. 

May 7, 2006.  Today is Picture Day at DenverInfill.  First, after having the ceremonial groundbreaking over a month ago, actual breaking of the ground occurred at the One Lincoln Park site on Friday (Block 177, Northeast Downtown).  We now have one less parking lot in Downtown Denver!  One Lincoln Park

Work is coming along nicely on the first phase, Block 1, of new construction at the East Village redevelopment along Park Avenue West (Project #17, Curtis Park-Five Points).  To the right is the newly-renovated Thomas Bean Tower, also part of the East Village redevelopment:  East Village   

The Grant Park project at 20th and Logan (Block 033-B, Upper Downtown) is about done with the below-grade work and is ready to go vertical:  Grant Park

Demolition of the existing structures along the east side of the 800 block of Acoma to make way for Hanover's 816 Acoma project (Project #9, Golden Triangle) is well underway:  816 Acoma

The new Denver Art Museum's Hamilton Building (Block 044-E, Civic Center) is getting close to completion.  Here's an interesting angle, where only a small portion of its titanium skin still needs to be revealed:  Denver Art Museum

Not an infill project, but a very important renovation project for Downtown nonetheless, the 1600 Glenarm tower is nearing completion (Block 195, Upper Downtown).  Here's a close-up of the penthouses on the top two floors:  1600 Glenarm

Finally, here a photo of the new 1,100-room Hyatt hotel next to the convention center (Block 163, Central Downtown) which opened this past December: Hyatt Regency Denver

May 6, 2006.  Remember the proposed Denver Athletic Club Hotel & Residences project on Block 171 in Upper Downtown?  Well, I don't have any real news about the project... it's still apparently "in the works" but I do have a new rendering of the project!  This one (DAC Hotel & Residences) came from the website of the architect, TAAG Architects (www.taagdenver.com).  Pretty neat.  Hopefully we'll hear something about this project in the near future.

May 5, 2006.  The nice people over at the Nichols Partnership have sent me a high resolution image of their Spire project.  I normally scale these images down so they are well under 100 kb in size to keep from taking too big of a hit on my bandwidth. But today I'm throwing caution to the wind because the image is just so cool you have to see it at full size.  So here's a 400 kb file size image of Spire, the 41-story condo tower planned for the corner of 14th & Champa on Block 131 in Central Downtown.  The Nichols Partnership also confirmed they will be breaking ground on Spire this summer.  Finally, here's a logo they sent over which, I assume, is what they will be using when they launch their marketing campaign.  With the success of the Glass House at East-West Partners' Riverfront Park development, I would imagine Spire will do quite well, given they seem to be targeting generally the same buyer demographic.

May 4, 2006.  As promised, today I've got information about a new project in the Jefferson Park neighborhood.  The project will be located at the southwest corner of W. 28th Avenue and Clay Street, just a block south of Speer Boulevard and a couple of blocks west of Zuni Street.  The 28th & Clay Apartments will feature 55 apartment units aimed at the workforce housing market.  The project is being developed by Mary Dean Marshall and has been designed by Oz Architecture, and features a modern 4-story building with underground parking.  Thanks to the developer and the folks at the Jefferson Park United Neighbors, here are two renderings prepared by Oz Architecture: North (W. 28th Avenue) Elevation   East (Clay Street) Elevation

In yesterday's blog I also mentioned a new project at the corner of Glenarm Place and 30th Street in the Curtis Park-Five Points neighborhood.  Thanks to Mr. Buscarello, I'm happy to present a rendering of the Glenarm Place Condos as designed by Arcadea Architects:  Glenarm Place Condos

Hopefully, I get both of these projects added to their respective neighborhood pages and to the Infill Scoreboard page by this weekend.

May 3, 2006.  A couple of days ago I mentioned several new projects in the Curtis Park-Five Points neighborhood.  Today I have details on one of them.  A new project at 500 30th Street called Glenarm Place Condos is in the works.  The site is located at the western corner of 30th and Glenarm, just one block east of the light rail line along Welton and about one block south of the end-of-line 30th & Downing Station.  The project will feature 8 units.  Five will be market rate, and three will be affordable income-restricted units.  The project is being marketed by Danny Buscarello and was designed by Arcadea Architects.  The project is planned to be completed by September or October of this year.  I'm still working on getting a rendering for the project.  It's great to see more development occurring at the northern end of the Five Points area!

In a preview of tomorrow's blog... another new project for the Jefferson Park neighborhood!  Stay tuned.

May 2, 2006.  Today the Downtown Denver Partnership will be launching their new website, www.LiveDowntownDenver.com, promoting Downtown Denver as a great place to live.  The website will feature a searchable database of units for sale, profiles of the various Downtown neighborhoods, and even a link to DenverInfill.com!  Between this website and LiveDowntownDenver, there should be no excuse for anyone interested in Downtown living not knowing about all the new residential developments!

The weather has been so nice out lately, I just had to get out and take a few photos.  So, in case you don't get to Downtown Denver much, here are a couple of update photos:

The Glass House is looking great, with the elevator core for One Riverfront Park going up nearby.

A view down 18th Street from LoDo showing the continuation of the Downtown grid into the CPV.

Some of the brick facade is starting to go up on the new EPA building at 16th and Wynkoop.

Another view of the new EPA building, this time from the Millennium Bridge.

Chestnut Place and 17th Street under construction in the CPV.  The W Hotel will go right there on the opposite corner.

Finally, the CPV's three ped bridges in one shot: Millennium Bridge, Platte River Bridge, and Highland Bridge under construction.

May 1, 2006.  I made a few changes to DenverInfill over the weekend.  The "About This Site" section has been renamed as "Denver Infill FAQs" and the section no longer includes subsections on topics like "About the Projects" and "About the Images."  All those topics are now covered in the list of Frequently Asked Questions presented in the traditional FAQ format.  The page that used to be called "About the Blocks," which offers an explanation of the block numbers used Downtown and an historical overview of how Downtown was platted, has been moved and added as a new feature in the Special Features section.  Hopefully these changes will more quickly help answer your questions about this website.

Today is the groundbreaking for the new Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver.  For its entire life, the MCA has been housed in leased spaces.  Today they break ground on their first permanent home, a translucent modern cube designed by London architect Daniel Adjaye.  The semi-transparent structure made of glass and polypropylene should add even more visual appeal to the Central Platte Valley, and make that part of Downtown even better.  Here's a press release about the groundbreaking.  Congratulations to MCA for finally getting to this special day! I can't wait for the dedication of the new building in a year or so.

Regarding that corner of 15th and Delgany, let's hope the proposed mixed-use project across the street from the MCA's new home, known as 1490 Delgany (Project #31 on the CPV page) will get underway soon.  The current building at that corner leaves much to be desired.  Also, the city needs to install a stop light at the corner of 15th and Delgany by the time the museum opens.  If you've ever tried to cross 15th Street as a pedestrian at that intersection , you know what I mean.  No one will want to have to walk down to Wewatta just to cross 15th, particularly if they're headed to or from the new MCA.  With Wewatta's recent upgrade as the main street behind Union Station in the CPV, crossing 15th at Wewatta isn't that easy anyway, even with the light and crosswalk.  With no left turn arrow for either direction of Wewatta, cars on Wewatta waiting to turn left onto 15th jump at any break in the oncoming traffic and quickly make their turn over the crosswalk, right at the same time pedestrians are crossing 15th.  I've just about gotten run over a few times at that intersection.  Sounds a lot like Broadway and Colfax!