North  ä

Auraria District

Click on a yellow project number on the aerial to jump to that project.  Click on a thumbnail to view the image.  Images are numbered 1 - 4 from left to right.  Images not credited to another source are original to DenverInfill.com.

This district includes two distinct areas. North of Auraria Parkway is the heart of Denver's sports and entertainment scene. Here one will find the Pepsi Center, home to four major league sports teams (NBA Denver Nuggets, NHL Colorado Avalanche, Arena Football Colorado Crush and Lacrosse Colorado Mammoth), as well as the Children's Museum, the Downtown Aquarium, and Elitch Gardens amusement park. 

South of Auraria Parkway is the Auraria Campus, home to three institutions: the University of Colorado at Denver, the Metropolitan State College of Denver, and the Community College of Denver, with almost 40,000 students among them. 

Connecting the Auraria district with the rest of the city are two, soon to be three, RTD light rail lines.

1
Centennial Gardens

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Denver's Centennial Gardens is one of the many new parks that line the banks of the South Platte River near Downtown Denver. Here, the very formal Centennial Gardens serve as an oasis to the busy hardscape of the Pepsi Center and Six Flags Elitch Gardens, and as a counterpoint to the more natural and informal design of Commons Park.  The Centennial Gardens are maintained by the Denver Botanic Gardens.   

2
Pepsi Center  Elitch's Station

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The Pepsi Center/ Elitch Gardens light rail station is located in between those two facilities, with a glass-enclosed pedestrian bridge to carry passengers over the tracks.                        

3
Invesco / Mile High Station

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The Invesco Field at Mile High light rail station is situated immediately across the South Platte River from the home of the Denver Broncos and the Colorado Rapids.  Passengers cross a new pedestrian bridge over the river to access the stadium.                                                                        

4
1450 5th Street

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Kroenke Sports Enterprises and developer Jim Neenan are planning to build two, 5-story, 150,000-square foot office buildings in the southwest corner of the Pepsi Center parking lots across from the Invesco Field light rail station. The buildings will be constructed in two phases. The general contractor will be M. A. Mortenson and Oz Architecture is doing the design.  See DenverInfill Blog March 30, 2007.  Image credits: 1: Oz Architecture.

5
Campus Village 1

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Campus Village is a student housing project located at the former Atlas Metals Company property.  The project contains 230 dorm-like units totaling 685 beds. The project was designed by AR7 HooverDesmond Architects and is being co-developed by Urban Ventures and the Univ. of Colorado Real Estate Foundation.  Construction began in Spring 2005 and completed in August 2006. Archived photos: 1.  Image credits: 1: http://myownapartment.com.

6
Auraria West Campus Station

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The Auraria West Campus light rail station serves, as its name implies, the western part of the Auraria Campus.  The west campus is where most of the new growth for academic facilities will occur in the future, and is also where the West Corridor light rail line to Lakewood and Golden will connect with the rest of Denver's expanding light rail network.   

7
Metro State
Parking Garage

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The Auraria Higher Education Center commissioned the construction of an 850-space, 5-level parking garage next to the Tivoli Student Union.  The parking garage construction was completed in Summer 2005.  Image credits 1: www.mscd.edu.          

8
Auraria Science Bldg.

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The new Auraria Science Building is a 5-story, 181,000 SF structure that will be shared by all three institutions at the campus. The new building will connect to the existing Science Building via a short passageway. The project cost is $111 million and will be LEED certified. The project broke ground in December 2007 and is scheduled to be completed in 2009. The project architect is Anderson Mason Dale. Image credits 1-3: AMD       

9
Campus Village 2

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The second phase of Campus Village will be located south of Phase 1 and will cover the land west of 5th Street and south of Larimer Street extended. Phase 2 will include nine buildings ranging from 4 to 14 stories in height, and will be located on the west side of the new Auraria West Campus station and will feature a mix of student housing, office space, retail, public plazas, and possibly other uses. Image credits: Mithun, AR7 Architects, and Dennis Allain Architecture Design Illustration LLC.