The W Hotel & Residences project slated for the Office Depot location at the corner of 16th and Market on Downtown Denver’s Block 046 is working its way throught the design review process with the Lower Downtown Design Review Board.
Back in November 2007, the project received approval from the LDDRB for building mass, form, and height. At that time, the developer, Sage Hospitality, also announced that they had reduced the number of residential condominiums from approximately 60 to 14 and increased the number of hotel rooms from 180 to approximately 235. The number of underground parking levels was also reduced from three to one.
As currently approved, the building will be 12-stories (130 feet) in height along the 16th Street Mall, from the alley to the corner, and for approximately half the distance along the Market Street side, where the building will then step down to 5 stories (55 feet) in height the rest of the way along Market until it meets the side of the historic Rocky Mountain Seeds building. The entire 5-story section, as well the first 8 stories (85 feet) of the 12-story section, will feature a mostly masonry façade. Above 85 feet, the remaining four floors will be set back 15 feet and will feature a glass façade. A signature design element of the project will be a 4-story “glass box” with randomly tilted vertical metal bars (subtly suggesting a bunch of “W”s) that will be located right at the 16th and Market corner above the ground floor. A similar (but smaller) design element will be featured farther down on the Market Street side.
The ground floor and 2nd floor will contain the lobby, meeting rooms, and other hotel amenities and functions, with hotel rooms located on floors 3 through 5. The 6th floor will hold a spa and restaurant and, on the rooftop of the 5-story section, a pool and pavilion. More hotel rooms will be located on floors 7 and 8, with the condos occupying floors 9 through 12. The building will also feature a green roof.
At the February 7, 2008 LDDRB meeting, the project was approved for fenestration (design and arrangement of windows and doors), but a request by the developer for a minor change in the already-approved building mass and form was denied. The project will likely return to the LDDRB in March or April for approval of exterior materials and façade detailing, as well as perhaps another attempt at the minor change in the building’s mass and form. Hopefully, by late spring, the W Hotel project will have all of its approvals from the LDDRB, and later this summer, the Office Depot relocated to a new downtown location. Ideally, that would be followed by building demolition in the fall and perhaps the start of construction by the end of the year.
I'm in Dallas this weekend and saw their new W (new since I've been here last). The thing looks great! I hope they do just as well in Denver, no doubt. Though Ken, you're timeline seems a bit on the hopeful side… I'd think they don't start construction until next summer, especially if they use Alpine Demo. Phew, those guys are still out there for the Motor Hotel site!
yes, I'm being optimistic!
who's the architect?
Now if we could only do something about fenestrating (is that a word?) Larimer Place.
Great news on the W. The former Dave Cook "building" is just a blot on the streetscape.
I hope Office Depot doesn't go too far, though. It's nice having it close to Lodo.
sounds very interesting….except for "restaurant on floor 6"….these functions really need to be on the first floor of a building for street-life reasons. it's the W…they are KNOWN for great bars on the first floor and top floor typically.
Too bad the hotel doesn't extend farther along Market, demolish the Rocky Mountain Seeds building (I know it's historic – but have you seen it!), and include the parking lot across from PF Changs. Now that would be a hotel!
Architect is JG Johnson Architects.
I believe there's is a ground-floor restaurant/bar too.
The Rocky Mountain Seed building will be fully renovated by a different developer.
Didn't they acquire the parking lot across 16th street as well? Any idea of what might happen there?
Any word on where office depot might go? Maybe that new glass structure on 17th? Or do we already know what will be in there…
I saw an office depot is opening in the Golden Triangle. Is that the relocation?
way off of the subject of this building, but why did denver create the dtc, with all of the parking lots dt. why are these buildings that actually look nice not dt?
resent example (remax headquarters?)
^^^property is much cheaper out there… I'm thinking that's the main reason.
Legend (and I am not making this up) has it that the DTC happened because its original developer, a cigar-smoking old man named George Wallace (for whom a park is named, just off DTC Blvd and Union Ave) bought a brand-new Cadillac in about 1960 or so. He parked it in a lot in downtown Denver, and when he came back to it later, someone had door-dinged it. He got so mad at "downtown" for causing this great harm that he decided that he'd destroy downtown by creating an alternative (again, I am not making this up, although I am editorializing a bit).
So Wallace bought a lot of land, just off the brand-new Valley Highway (I-25), and started a "new downtown" with ample parking (and wide parking spaces, suitable for those old tail-fin Caddies), green space, and no place to go for lunch unless you got into a car and drove there. And Denver honored this tragic blunder of city planning by naming a park for him.
Not that we want to waste too many electrons on DTC, but a short retrospective of DTC's development can be found here:
http://www.denvergov.org/WallacePark/tabid/
394465/Default.aspx
I suffered eight years working at the DTC (commuting from Northwest Denver). Yes, some of the buildings are attractive. But it's a soul-less place, linked only by the drone of traffic on I-25. And I always have to wonder about people who criticize downtown Denver because they believe it's too crowded and the traffic is too heavy. Trust me. There is nothing worse than Arapahoe Road. Unless you want to talk about Belleview. Or Orchard. Or Quebec. Or most of DTC. OK. Rant over….
Some say the DTC was born out of racism. That George Wallace wasnt angry that his car was dinged but that he was angry about the proliferation of racial diversity downtown. So create a new business park that was only linked by highway and not by bus or rail…so the rif-raf couldnt get there.
historymystery-
Interesting story. It seems like a reasonable explanation for how the tech center got its hoggish parking ratios and dismal daily life.
Unfortunately, I suffer this dismal suburban office park lifestyle on a daily basis, as I currently work in DTC.
It seems like the entire CBD & LoDo could fit in 1/10 of the land area consumed by the tech center. Density and land use patterns in DTC are absolutely abhorrent.
Ok, here goes my DTC rant:
You can't get anywhere in here without a car, if you wanted to take light rail to and from work, you would still need a car, because 70% of the office space in DTC is over a mile from the nearest stop! Everyone drives a chevy Tahoe or an H3 Hummer and hardly anyone recycles!! Traffic is miserable, people are rude, and the street layout is confusing and complicated.
Small plus side- lots of greenery, tree-lined streets and far fewer bums than downtown.
-end rant
Come on guys. Give it a break. DTC isn't downtown. That's a no brainer. It is improving. Their will be a new comedy club and restaurants and shops at the Landmark development. Yes it is a sprawled area of office space and such but not unique to any large american city. In fact go to Houston,Dallas or Phoenix and you get to see 4 or 5 DTCs. I believe our DTC will "infill" more over time and increase it's own density.
Back on topic…
Are there any renderings available for W yet? I couldn't find any online.
Thanks
^ None that have been released to the public that I'm aware of. I've viewed all the renderings of the W at the LDDRB meeting, which was how I was able to describe the building's design in the blog, but they likely will not release the renderings until the design has been approved.
This is a Denargo question. I've had the "opportunity" to pass by that location on serveral occasions lately and notice a green fence around it. I don't remember this from the past. Is this fence a recent development and / or the harbinger of imminent development?
The fence was installed about 3 weeks ago. I believe it is a harbinger of imminent development.
"The fence was installed about 3 weeks ago. I believe it is a harbinger of imminent development."
This would be correct.
Is the W Hotel project still in the works? Wouldn't surprise me if it was canceled due to the present economy, but I haven't heard anything one way or the other.
I live and work in the area, and it would be great to see a nice hotel replace the Office Depot and vacant building that are presently at the location.
There is a rendering at http://www.jgjohnson.com/JGJA-Flash.html and click on the W Hotel and residences project at the top