A new 12-story apartment building is planned for the corner of 19th Avenue and Grant Street in Denver’s Uptown district.
The project, known as SOVA, is being developed by McWhinney, the Colorado-based firm currently under construction with the Dairy Block in Lower Downtown and a partner in the renovation/reuse of the historic Denver Union Station.
SOVA will replace an ugly surface parking lot (yay!) and complete the west side of Grant between 19th and 20th, sharing the block face with the Grant Park project that was completed in May, 2007. Here’s a Google Earth image with the site outlined:
SOVA will include 211 units, six of which are ground-floor townhomes facing Grant Street with patios and planters along the sidewalk that add interest to the pedestrian environment. Also on Grant, close to the corner with 19th, is the main building entry leading to a light-filled lobby space. The two renderings below are courtesy of Craine Architecture, the project architect. First, the view of the building’s southeast corner, with Grant Street on the right and 19th Avenue on the left:
Close-up view of the ground-floor townhome units along Grant Street, looking southwest:
SOVA will include 211 automobile parking spaces for an exact 1:1 parking space/unit ratio. A small amount of parking will be located on the ground floor with the balance located on one underground level and two above-grade levels. Vehicle access will be provided through an entry on 19th Avenue and a second entry on the alley. Also included will be space for over 100 bicycles plus a bike and ski repair room, and a spa for residents.
The project is currently under review with the city, so the renderings above should be considered subject to further revision, and the building’s program may be tweaked in the future.
SOVA will fill a sizable gap in Uptown’s urban fabric and significantly improve the pedestrian experience in the area!
It doesn’t get more boring looking than that. No articulation, detail, small materials pallet, etc., etc. Kinda disappointing after they did a good job on the Dairy Block.
Actually, it doesn’t get more boring than this blog circa 2008. Looking back at how slow infill has come to Denver at times in the past, even having an ugly project of the week makes me feel spoiled!
Different architect than Dairy Block…
It’s not a multi-colored mish-mash of boxes, are you sure these are the correct pictures? Hooray for brick and a non-garish color scheme! (no, seriously.)
I agree about the multi-colored boxes (i.e. Via on Lincoln). This is just on the other end of the spectrum of lazy design.
Where’s the architectural life behind this building? No balconies? It looks so bland. What a travesty for the downtown Denver neighborhood. Might as well call it a prison.
No balconies? There are some balconies. And some units that open to the street. Take your pick.
While I prefer architecture along the lines of One City Block, this is pretty sharp for a modern design. It’s nice to see these giant holes in urban fabric finally plugged. Anyone looking at the Google Earth historical imagery knows that it’s been a long time coming.
I really like the look of this building. It’s classy and understated (and it’s not trying too hard).
The townhouse are a really nice touch along Grant St. It will be a pleasant building to walk by.
I too like the looks of this building. Clean and unpretentious but not cheap looking either. I great fill-in background building!
It looks more like a nice office building, which is interesting. I too like the scale of the building and clean lines. I think it’ll prove to be a nice addition, especially holding up the corner of 19th and Grant.
It does look a bit office-y, but that actually weirdly fits this part of Uptown pretty well, which actually has a lot of modernist office buildings that look like this…certainly the building across Grant does. I think the gradient is kind of cool and overall am pretty okay with this.
When did they tear down the building that use to be on that parcel?
It must have been a while back as I used to work at the 1900 Grant building across the street (this would’ve been about 8 years ago) and it was a parking lot then.
It was a single story building (possibly even 2 adjacent buildings) which was taken down around 2002. As I vaguely recall, the structure had no architectural merit, but as it’s removal created a new parking lot desert, I missed it. I don’t mind the architecture of the planned building – as another poster stated – at least it’s not another multi-colored monstrosity.
This can’t be true. I lived at Grant Park (same half black as this project) from 2007-2009, and there was a building at the corner of 19th and Grant the whole time. Grant Park’s developer used it as offices while Grant Park was being build.
Google Earth’s Timeline historical imagery feature gives us the answer. There’s a building there in the 06/2010 image but it’s gone in the 05/2011 image.
I completely forgot there was a building there back in the day. Here’s a street-view view of it:
Whoops! Sure enough, the one story building I was recalling was located on the northwest corner of the intersection of 19th & Logan where the Alexan is currently going up.
Where has the Art or Artist in architecture gone?
Architecture doesn’t want to speak to the spirit anymore, but this does get a thumbs up for not scrambling the colored boxes pastiche.