A few months ago, we reported on a new infill project—1510 Market— coming to the corner of 15th and Market next to the historic Rocky Mountain Seed Company building. The project has been working its way through the design review process at the Lower Downtown Design Review Board and will be back for another review in July. The project has already received the LDDRB’s approval for mass, form, and context, and now the final approvals remaining have to do with details such as ground-floor railings.

This rendering, courtesy of Tryba Architects, is brand new and is what will be submitted to the LDDRB in July:

One interesting aspect of 1510 Market is that the building has virtually no brick as an exterior facade material. This reflects an enlightened interpretation of the design principles found within the LoDo district’s design standards and guidelines, which require traditional brick masonry for a new building’s street facade but does allow for the “constrained” use of other materials, such as steel and cast iron. In this case, 1510 Market’s facade will be primarily structural and ornamental steel, with brick used only on the small stairwell tower adjacent to the project’s historic neighbor on 15th Street. Yet, despite the lack of a masonry facade, the proposed building appears to fit nicely into its context and meets the other standards set forth in the LoDo design standards and guidelines: the building has a base, middle, and top, and the articulated patterns and rhythms of the facade are drawn upon and consistent with those of neighboring structures. In my opinion, this is a nice example of contemporary architecture existing harmoniously within a historic district.

1510 Market is technically an addition to the historic Seed Building at 1520 Market, and one of the Seed Building’s tenants, GoSpotCheck, will expand into and fill the entire addition, including the ground floor. Because it is common and often desirable for a restaurant to occupy the street level, the new structure has been designed to easily allow for that to occur in the future, with a grease trap and other restaurant infrastructure integrated into the ground-floor design. The patio along the Market Street sidewalk will be used by GoSpotCheck as an outdoor working and social space.

If all goes as planned, preliminary construction activities may be evident at the site in September.