Now, four years later, the economy is much improved and new projects are popping up everywhere in the Downtown area, so it should come as no surprise that Sage is again moving forward with developing their 16th & Market property, one of the best development sites in Downtown. This time, however, it’s not a hotel, but a combination office and apartment project. Since the site is located within the Lower Downtown Denver Historic District, the development’s design must receive approval from the Lower Downtown Design Review Board. The project is currently working its way through the design review process with the LDDRB and earlier this month, the LDDRB Board give the project conditional approval for mass, form and scale.

Here are some preliminary project facts: 1350 16th Street will be a ten-story building with 47 residential apartments (floors 7 through 10) sitting above approximately 115,000 square feet of office space (floors 2 through 6) and about 13,000 square feet of retail, along with lobbies and other functions on the ground floor. There will be two levels of underground parking. Part of the project includes a four-story section that stretches along Market Street over to the empty Rocky Mountain Seeds building near 15th Street.

Here is a rendering of the proposed development that was submitted earlier this month to the LDDRB. Of course, this is a preliminary design that will continue to evolve until all approvals have been secured. Nevertheless, this gives you some idea of the project’s conceptual design:

At the April LDDRB meeting where the project received approval for mass, form, and scale, the two conditions the Board added as part of that approval included 1.) a refinement to the alley side of the residential portion by adding additional setback, more facade articulation, or both, and 2.) a redesign of the facade of the top six floors that face 15th Street. According to the city, the project will likely be back before the LDDRB in June with the latest refinements to the design.

Let’s hope this project moves quickly through the city’s approval process and gets under construction later this year. 1350 16th Street will certainly be a fantastic improvement over the current building on site. When the project moves forward, Office Depot will move to another location in Downtown.

There’s just something about watching concrete get poured and leveled that I find quite appealing.

First, let’s start with the one that is a straight-forward street reconstruction project. 15th Street is being rebuilt in concrete between the bridge over the South Platte River and the intersection of 15th/29th/Boulder/Umatilla (one of those fun grid-colliding Downtown intersections). As a Lower Highland resident, I can vouch for the fact that 15th Street through there, particularly around the Platte Street intersection, has been a bumpy ride for years. The street reconstruction is about 50% complete, as you can see from these photos:

Next is Larimer Street between 15th and 17th. This project includes reconstructing the street in concrete (from the current asphalt) as well as removing one traffic lane and widening the sidewalk with the reclaimed space. The sidewalk expansion will occur on the Writer Square/Tabor Center side of the block. While the Larimer sides of those two mixed-use complexes are not all that interesting from a pedestrian perspective, they’re more interesting than the Larimer Place/Barclay condo towers on the other side of the street. Bulb-outs (or, if you prefer, bump-outs) will be installed at each intersection, shortening the crosswalk distance across Larimer even more. Currently, Larimer is four through lanes in this area, and at 15th, the left two lanes continue as through lanes into Larimer Square and the right two lanes are right-turn-only lanes onto 15th. After the reconstruction, there will be three through lanes, and at 15th Street the left lane will continue into Larimer Square, the right lane will be right-turn-only onto 15th, and the center lane will be a combo through/right-turn lane.

Finally, there’s the Colfax/13th/Tremont intersection. Chris blogged about this project a couple of months ago. That project is now under construction. Here’s a Google Earth aerial of the existing intersection (an automobile-oriented mess) and the diagram Chris provided of the reconfigured, more-pedestrian-friendly, new intersection:

Here’s a photo of the corner I took this morning:

There are more infrastructure improvements planned for the Downtown area coming up… topics for future blogs.

There’s so much here to talk about in this photo.

First, obviously, we have a great view of the Auraria neighborhood (originally the Town of Auraria before the consolidation of Denver City, Auraria, and Highland on April 3, 1860) before the Auraria Campus was created. The buildings that survived the demolition of the neighborhood to make way for the campus were the Tivoli Brewery, St. Elizabeth’s Church, St. Cajetan’s Church, Emmanuel Episcopal Chapel (Denver’s oldest surviving church, built in 1876, and now the Emmanuel Gallery), and the historic homes along Ninth Street Historic Park.

What’s also visible in the Auraria area is the old Larimer Street and Lawrence Street viaducts.  As in-bound and out-bound viaducts, they were one of the main ways to get between I-25 and Downtown Denver. They were replaced in the late 1980s by Auraria Parkway; the viaducts were removed and in their place today are mostly broad pedestrian walkways or narrow streets for local access and RTD busses. The street running in front of  the taller historic buildings where Kacey Fine Furniture, Brooklyn’s, and the Auraria Lofts are today—that was Wazee Street.  Behind those buildings, where the Pepsi Center is now located, were more rail yards. We also get a nice view from this angle of the 13th and 14th Street (Speer) viaducts that I mentioned in my Denver 1961 post. What was neat about those viaducts, as you can see in this photo, was that the out-bound 14th Street viaduct didn’t go elevated until about 14th and Wazee, and it ran along the Cherry Creek side of the Acme and Volker Loft buildings. But the in-bound 13th Street viaduct remained elevated until Larimer, and ran along the southwest side of the Acme and Volker buildings. The two streets then did a clumsy readjustment over Cherry Creek to eventually flow into the Speer Boulevard alignment we have today to the south.

Union Station is clearly visible in this photo, with the big boxy blond brick Postal Annex next door (replaced by the EPA Building and 1515 Wynkoop). What you see behind Union Station to the Platte River—yeah, that area has changed a bit, no?  We also see the old 15th Street viaduct (replaced in the 1980s by the current 15th Street which goes under the railroad tracks and features twin red pedestrian bridges), the old 16th Street viaduct (gone entirely), and, off in the distance, the 20th Street, 23rd Street/Park Avenue, and Broadway viaducts—all replaced in the 1990s/early 2000s.  The bright white grain elevator at 20th and Wazee—that’s where Coors Field is today.

Finally, there are a few remarkable changes in the Downtown area to note. Brooks Tower is there, but its companion building (formerly the Executive Tower Inn and now the Curtis Hotel) is not.  However, the black-glass modern Park Central complex on Block 075 is clearly under construction in this photo. Who would have ever guessed from their outward appearances that Park Central is older than the Curtis Hotel tower? In front of the Park Central site at 15th and Arapahoe is the side of the Central Bank building.

The two blocks of parking lots in the foreground of the Brooks Tower… that’s where the Denver Performing Arts Complex is.  The department store around the D&F tower has been torn down, but the Tabor Center is still a decade off in the future; although the Tabor Center’s other block between Lawrence and Larimer has not yet been razed. On the foreground side of 16th Street (pre-Mall, of course) you can see that the entire block where Writer Square is today has been leveled, as has the half-block to the left where The Larimer condo tower is today. Its neighbor, the blank-walled former-Dave Cook’s-now-Office-Depot building hasn’t been built yet. Also visible are the buildings that were there before Market Street Station was built.

The year 1973 was probably an exciting year in Denver. They were on the cusp of the city’s greatest building boom, probably not unlike how we all felt in 2005. In the next twelve years, from 1973 until the date of the next photo I’m going to feature (1985), over forty towers (yes, you read correctly, 40) were built in Downtown Denver. Now that was a building boom!

Work continues on the brick facade restoration, with only the 15th Street side remaining to be cleaned. Also of note has been the work on the windows. Many of the windows, particularly the large ones at street level, had been bricked in years ago. Now, the brick has been removed and, while the new windows are not yet in place, it is exciting to see the building’s steady transformation.

The completed project will include retail/restaurant space on the ground floor, office space on Floors 2 through 5, and the addition of two copper-clad residential penthouses at the top. The images below are courtesy of Studio K2 Architecture:

Here’s a perspective of the entire building as viewed from the roof of the Steelbridge Lofts across the intersection:

and the Wynkoop side from ground level:

and the project site plan:

You’ll notice in both images that a new wide sidewalk will be installed in front of the building along Wynkoop Street. Since the building’s construction in 1900, there’s never been a sidewalk along the Wynkoop side of the building given the loading dock’s location there. Speaking of the loading dock, the existing dock will be removed and a new, wider dock will be added that will not only allow for ADA access to the building, but will provide sufficient room for other uses, such as a restaurant patio. While the diagonal parking and narrow sidewalk located in front of the surface parking lot to the north along Wynkoop will continue to inhibit pedestrian movement, the new wide sidewalk in front of the Saddlery will be a huge improvement to the Lower Downtown streetscape.

The Saddlery Building project will be complete later this year.

I mentioned the Colorado Saddlery Building the other day. Not only is the building at 15th and Wynkoop getting a thorough exterior restoration, but the inside will be completely renovated and converted to offices with ground-floor retail and a new 3-unit residential penthouse up top. Also, the missing sidewalk and streetscape along Wynkoop will finally be installed! This is a project that was approved in 2006 but is now finally being executed. Excellent!

The picture on the left is the still-dirty 15th Street side, and on the right, the freshly-scrubbed Wynkoop side:

A few blocks away at 19th and Wazee, the Wazee Exchange building’s renovation is nearly complete. Along the Wazee side, paint has been removed from the building’s brick exterior to reveal a formerly hidden but dramatic historic commercial painted sign. On the left is the “before” and on the right is the “after”:

Along 19th Street, the historic storefronts have been restored, including the removal of the green metal panels to reveal the storefront’s beautiful cornice and modillions. Again, left is “before” and right is “after”:

It’s great to see that even in a down economy, investment in Downtown Denver continues.

Block 022, you may recall, was the site of the late-1990s “Stadium Walk” project proposed by Grand American and partner Arnold Schwarzenegger that was to include a Planet Hollywood, a multi-screen movie theatre, condos, restaurants, and a grocery store. Of course, that project never got off the ground, but now Grand American is pursuing the DaVita headquarters by proposing a mixed-use office development on their LoDo block. While the program and space needs for DaVita’s future headquarters building is still in flux, the company is apparently looking for approximately 150,000 square feet of office space. Grand American is proposing a 7-story office building of about that size at the corner of 19th and Wazee. This morning, that proposal was considered by the Lower Downtown Design Review Board.

The LoDo design guidelines set the maximum building height for most of the historic district, including Block 022, at 55 feet; however, a building can be approved up to 85 feet in height if it includes residential uses. Grand American is proposing to use the full 85 feet for the DaVita headquarters and to defer the required residential component to a future phase elsewhere on the block. Due to the weak housing market, a requirement to build residential at this time would make the project financially unfeasible. This phased concept was the focus of today’s LDDRB meeting, which the Board did approve, with conditions.

Grand American owns the entire block. Most of the Wazee side is surface parking, along with two buildings that are non-contributing structures to the historic district that could be razed. On the Blake Street side, the two one-story buildings in the center of the block (directly above the words “Blake St.” on the aerial photo) are also non-contributing structures to the historic district. Consequently, Grand American’s proposed project in its entirety is the “T-shaped” site formed by the whole Wazee side of the block and the center one-quarter of the Blake Street side.

Phase 1 of Grand American’s plan would include constructing an underground parking garage along the entire length of the Wazee side of the block and the 7-story office building at the 19th Street and Wazee corner. Subsequent phases to the project would include a building at the 18th Street and Wazee corner—either all office, all residential, or a mix of both—as well as a residential building on the Blake Street parcel that would necessitate, at that time, the demolition of the existing non-contributing buildings and the construction of more underground parking that would connect beneath the alley with the underground parking on the Wazee side. All three buildings would have ground-floor commercial uses. There’s even the possibility that DaVita’s space needs may require construction of office buildings on both halves of the Wazee side of the block in Phase 1, leaving only the Blake Street residential building as a future phase. It’s too early to say at this point what the entire project’s final program will be, but the Board’s approval today of the phased residential deferral concept allows Grand American and their design partner, Shears-Adkins Architects, to continue in their pursuit of landing the DaVita headquarters.

I mentioned the Board gave its approval, with conditions. Several of those conditions were technical in nature which I won’t get into, but one that I will mention involved the question of what to do with the 18th and Wazee corner after the underground parking goes in but before a building is constructed on top of it as part of a future phase, which could be years away. The developer proposed putting in a surface parking lot, edged along 18th and Wazee by some type of artistic/interactive urban design element that would serve as an attractive screen to the parking lot. The Board nixed the parking lot idea (except for one row of parking directly off the alley) and required the developer to identify, instead, something else—a park, plaza, garden, pavilion, whatever—that would serve as an engaging, if temporary, use for the site until it is covered with a future structure.

The next step requires Great American/Shears-Adkins to come back with more detailed plans showing the proposed mass, scale, form and program for all three buildings. This project is still very early in the design and approval process and, of course, if DaVita chooses to go to a competing location, all bets are off. But for now at least, this project moves forward.

I’m thrilled that DaVita appears to be focusing on Downtown Denver for its new corporate headquarters, and equally thrilled that an ugly, parking-lot-infested stretch of Wazee may be developed in the near future.

I’ll try to post a photo later today or tomorrow.

Anyway, here are a few photos (courtesy of Austin) of the views from the top-floor terrace:

Southeast down 15th. Nice view of the Four Seasons and Spire:

Northwest down 15th Street toward Lower Highland:

Southwest down Wynkoop. Interesting shot of three historic water tanks:

It sure is nice seeing 1515 Wynkoop complete, and a nice wide sidewalk between 15th and 16th along Wynkoop!

Now, the rest is up to Mr. Geller and his development team to move this project from concept to reality.