First a couple pictures of the new, much more modern facade.

There is quite the difference between the East elevation (left) and the North elevation (right). The new modern look makes this building stand out.

I leave you with this bonus shot. They were working on the solar panel structure on the roof of the parking garage. Another excellent addition to this project.

Hopefully if the weather holds this weekend we will be looking at a few more projects that haven’t had an update for a while.

I want to thank David Tryba and Mark Sheldon of Tryba Architects for taking DenverInfill on a tour of their project and providing some great information about it.

First we are going to take a look at the exterior. As far as peeling the old skin off, the north side is completely removed. Then the order will be the west, south, and finally the east side.

Here we will be looking at two elements. On the left is a mock up of what is going to be the new facade on the building. The beams you see going across the windows are not just part of the design but are actually shaped in a way to reflect the sun away from windows.  On the right you see what is soon to be the lobby, which is getting extended to the edge of the building.

There are also going to be some changes on Fox Street as well. From Speer Boulevard, it will no longer be a slight right to get on to Fox Street. There will be an actual 90 degree turn where you would have to slow down to make the turn. They are also going to narrow the street and extend the park out, taking up part of Fox Street. A bonus to the park is there will also be sculptures facing Speer Boulevard.

Here is what we have all been waiting to see; the new facade. The day we took the tour was the first day they were installing these panels on the west side.

On the other side of the street they are also constructing a new parking garage for the building. The rear is going to be left blank with no screen or facade while the south side (facing the building) and the west side will have a screen.

As soon as the north side of the building has its new facade there will be a unique shot of the old facade, on the east side, and the new (which there will be a special update for). Coming up next on our construction tour will be a very exclusive inside look at the new History Colorado Center!

In addition to the replacement of the 10-story office tower’s exterior with a new energy-efficient glass facade, the project also includes a major expansion and reconfiguration of the building’s lobby and day care center, mechanical and fire suppression systems, a new parking garage, and an expanded park/plaza along Speer Boulevard.

The original parking garage, located to the north across W. 13th Avenue from the office tower, had structural deficiencies, so a new parking structure is being built in its place. The new garage has about the same scale and capacity as the original, but includes improved vehicle circulation, safety, lighting, pedestrian access, and… a solar sculpture on the roof that will generate 5% of the site’s energy consumption. Here’s a rendering of the project, with the office building on the right and the new parking garage on the left:

Here’s a diagram showing more detail about the parking garage’s solar sculpture, which includes a 115,000 kW photo-voltaic system:

The office building’s lobby will be expanded to the west to enclose the building’s original outdoor arcade space, substantially improving the lobby’s spaciousness, circulation and aesthetics:

The building’s original front courtyard, along with the short stretch of Fox Street and the small triangle park owned by the city at the corner of Speer & 13th, will be reconfigured into a new integrated street/park/plaza that will feature a more pedestrian-friendly and realigned Fox Street, landscaping, public art, and a hardscaped plaza.

Since my last update on the museums, the Clyfford Still has been making quick progress and the outer walls are almost complete.

As you can see in this next photo, the colors and texture of the Clyfford Still somewhat blend with the Denver Art Museum. There isn’t much contrast between the two.

A couple blocks up over at the History Colorado Center, the exterior is starting to look complete. It looks like all the glass has been put in and all there is left on the exterior is the roof.

The parking structure is almost complete behind the museum as you can see on the far right of this picture.

There are a lot of projects going on in and around Downtown Denver. Don’t forget to stop by and even take a walking tour of the largest project going on right now, Denver Union Station! Next up, we will be taking a look at 1099 Osage and see how far it has been coming along.

The ceremony on December 14 involved not so much the breaking of ground, but more the breaking of old walls. Located on the museum site were a couple of small buildings that were ceremoniously wrecked while fireworks went off to launch the museum’s construction phase. I was unable to attend the event, but I finally had a chance to swing by the site the other day. The old buildings are totally gone and the site awaits excavation.

The buildings that were demolished are the ones closest to the corner of 13th and Bannock in the bird’s eye photo (left) of the site from Bing maps. On the right is a picture of the site I took a few days ago:

For a short video clip of the ceremony, check out this website.

The new 30,000 square foot building will be complete in 2011. Renderings of the new museum structure are available here.  Finally, here’s an informative press release from the museum that discusses the building’s exterior and interior design. Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture is the designer.

Having another new museum in the Civic Center/Golden Triangle area is absolutely exciting. But our museum-packed cultural district is still surrounded by ugly surface parking lots that have defied development for several decades, despite their artsy neighbors. As I’ve explained before in a previous post, part of the problem with the ubiquitous parking lots around there is that most of the lots are actually comprised of numerous small parcels owned by different property owners, which makes land assemblage in the area virtually impossible. I’ve heard reports that there is a mid-rise apartment project being planned for around 12th and Cherokee, which is good news, but really… when are we going to do something to break the parking lot log-jam in the Golden Triangle? Something to think about while we celebrate the start of construction for yet another new museum in Downtown Denver.

Here’s the new Colorado History Museum, now under construction at 12th and Broadway. Images courtesy of Tryba Architects and the Colorado Historical Society. As always, click on the image to view in full resolution:

For a description of the new Colorado History Center’s building program and other details, I’ll refer you to the excellent article on this topic by Westword‘s Michael Paglia. He covered all the bases nicely.

As I’ve said many times before, think about the cities that people choose to travel to solely for the urban experience (museums, shopping, culture, history, architecture, etc.): New York, San Francisco, Paris, London, etc.—no surface parking lots! There seems to be a direct correlation between the appeal of a place as an urban destination and the lack of surface parking lots at that place. As a tourist destination, Downtown Denver is doing pretty well considering the number of surface lots we still have. Over the past twenty years, as surface lots have been replaced by shops, hotels, offices, and condos, we’ve seen Downtown Denver’s appeal as a destination in its own right improve commensurately. To reach true urban excellence, we must eliminate all surface parking lots in Downtown Denver.

Unlike some of the other items on the Top 10 list, the city alone cannot accomplish this goal of surface parking lot eradication. Demand for the uses that would occupy new buildings built in place of surface lots must first exist, and the private sector must then respond to that demand by implementing the appropriate supply of vertical development. Consequently, since we’re at the mercy of the free market, it’s going to take a while—many decades—before we get rid of all of our surface lots in Downtown. But one thing that the city can do that it currently isn’t, is proactively readying parking lot sites for eventual development through land assemblage. One of the biggest barriers we have in Downtown to replacing parking lots with new buildings is the fractured ownership of so many parking lot sites. The problem is particularly prevalent in the Arapahoe Square and Civic Center districts. Take, for example, Blocks 045-E and 046-E in Civic Center:

On Block 046-E, the only building on the block that’s new is the 1200 Delaware townhome project, visible in the aerial under construction at the corner of 12th and Delaware. Everything else on the block could be scraped. So, excluding 1200 Delaware, on the west half of the block, there are 10 parcels owned by 8 different owners. On the east half of the block, there are 8 parcels owned by 4 different owners, with only one owner common to both halves. That means that to assemble all of Block 046-E except for the 1200 Delaware project, one would have to negotiate the purchase of land from 11 different owners.

On Block 045-E, the only building on the block that’s not expendable is the relatively new Balustrade Condos at the corner of 12th and Cherokee. Everything else on the block could go. Excluding the Balustrade then, on the west half of the block, there are 7 parcels owned by 6 different owners, and on the east half of the block, there are 8 parcels owned by 5 different owners; once again, only one of those owners common to both halves. For this block, you’d have to negotiate with 10 different owners.

So, here we have two blocks in a prime location, just steps from the Art Museum and the Civic Center’s other cultural amenities, that should be developed into a nice mix of mid-rise housing projects featuring ground-floor retail and restaurant spaces. But what developer in his or her right mind would want to tackle assembling even a portion of these blocks? Several of the parcels are owned by “family trusts” or by families known for their recalcitrance, and once the word got out that developers were trying to assemble the block, everyone would double or triple their asking price, rendering the effort unfeasible. It’s unlikely we’ll see anything of appropriate density built on either of these blocks any time soon unless the city gets serious about land assemblages in the Downtown area.

Anyway, most new Downtown projects typically include structured or underground parking for themselves, and perhaps some parking for the general public. Public parking garages can pick up some of the slack, with transit hopefully serving as the main means of moving people in and out of Downtown. But as surface parking lots are removed, parking your car Downtown will become more difficult–and that’s just fine with me. Time for a few quotes:

Anyplace worth its salt has a “parking problem.” -James Castle, public policy consultant

The car is not the enemy, nor is the elimination of cars the solution. It is our societal bias toward cars that must be questioned. – Anne Vernez Moudon, University of Washington professor of urban design

Anything you do to make a city more friendly to cars makes it less friendly to people. – Enrique Penalosa, New York University urban scholar

And finally, this from Dan Malouff, the mastermind behind BeyondDC and a friend and urban planner who I respect:

Downtowns will never be able to out-suburb the suburbs. It will never be able to play the suburban game of drive-up-and-park better than actual suburbs. Since downtown will never be able to make parking as easy as the suburbs, “easy parking” will never be the reason people choose to go downtown. Instead, people will choose to go downtown based on something downtown has that the suburbs don’t. The one thing downtown has that the suburbs don’t is quality urbanism (i.e. “walkability”). Walkability, therefore, is downtown’s primary competitive advantage over the suburbs. Since walkability suffers when land is used for parking, it stands to reason that more parking would HARM downtown Denver, because more parking would dilute downtown’s walkability, and walkability is the only reason to go downtown instead of to the suburbs. Put simply, easier downtown parking would make downtown more like the suburbs, which would be counterproductive because the reason people go downtown in the first place is because it ISN’T like the suburbs.

Nobody likes to walk next to a surface parking lot. They’re ugly and boring and they diminish the pedestrian experience. Eliminating surface parking lots gives us two bangs for our buck: we remove something that is a deterrent to walkability, and we add something that (hopefully) makes the pedestrian experience engaging and memorable.

Anyway, that’s it, folks! I hope you enjoyed the Top 10 countdown, and thanks for all the great comments—keep them coming. Here’s to a better Downtown Denver!

Piranesi is now complete:

So is 1200 Delaware:

and 1200 Elati:

816 Acoma is nearing completion:

]]> http://denverinfill.com/blog/2008/07/golden-triangle-update.html/feed 15 http://denverinfill.com/blog/2008/07/new-golden-triangle-project-golden-row.html http://denverinfill.com/blog/2008/07/new-golden-triangle-project-golden-row.html#comments Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:21:00 +0000 Ken Schroeppel http://denverinfill.com/wordpress/2008/07/new-golden-triangle-project-golden-row-v2.html The second phase of the Golden Row project, once planned to be a copy of the first phase, is going vertical instead. Now, 16 condominium units are proposed for the small lot next to the project’s first phase on the 1100 block of Cherokee in Downtown Denver’s Golden Triangle District.

Here’s a rendering of the project, with credit to ArchitectureDenver:

The project should be complete Summer 2009.

]]> http://denverinfill.com/blog/2008/07/new-golden-triangle-project-golden-row.html/feed 12 http://denverinfill.com/blog/2007/01/golden-triangles-12th-elati-project.html http://denverinfill.com/blog/2007/01/golden-triangles-12th-elati-project.html#comments Sat, 20 Jan 2007 16:48:00 +0000 Ken Schroeppel http://denverinfill.com/wordpress/2007/01/golden-triangles-12th-elati-project-update.html A few days ago I posted that the “12th & Elati” infill project in Downtown Denver’s Golden Triangle had broken ground. Since then, not only have I snapped a photo of the construction site but, thanks to someone who is associated with the project, I now have a sketch of the 10-story building’s front elevation to show you. A color perspective rendering may be available in the future, but this will do for now.