Looking directly at the front of the project from 16th Street, you can see the nice seamless glass wall, matching its neighbor building as well as some other buildings in the area. On the other side, facing 16th Street directly, it looks like there will be a complete wall of glass as the facade. Neat!

On to the back side, you have a nice slanted rooftop and a great looking backdrop to the rail tracks. On the right, you can see how DaVita and its neighbor (1900 16th Street) have very similar facades. Having the two buildings so close together prevents any clash and is easy on the eyes. The slanted roof also gives Denver something it hasn’t seen much in the past.

It’s always nice seeing other construction projects around you when taking pictures. From the Millennium Bridge, you can see 2020 Lawrence beginning to poke out. That’s its red crane and a concrete pump. Soon you will be able to see this project from the bridge!

Taking a look from a higher vantage point, you can see most of the facade is complete and the columns on the court houses are not just raw concrete anymore. One noticeable difference is the new glass on the dome and all the scaffolding is removed. On the tower, it’s amazing what glass can do to the overall look of the building.

On the left, this is the project from the steps leading up to the Capitol. Notice how much of a presence this project on this corner and from the view of The Capitol. On the right is the entrance to the court houses with real granite columns with ‘Liberty and justice for all’ inscribed in gold at the top.

As stated before, these buildings have a great street presence. On Broadway (left) you can see both the office tower and the court houses creating a decent size street wall. On 13th Avenue, the office tower creates a canyon with 1290 Broadway right across the street.

Finally, one of my favorite aspects of this project. The 14th Street view-plane. This completes the wall at the end of 14th Street and resembles a much denser Civic Center skyline.

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.

In this case, it was for the DaVita headquarters project under construction next to Downtown Denver’s Millennium Bridge.

Ryan’s last update on this project wasn’t that long ago (August), but given the tower’s recent topping-off and now the beginning of glass installation, I figured I might as well offer an update. Here’s a shot of the whole building at its final height:

Another recent change has been the filling in of the DaVita building’s “missing corner” where the former light rail tracks blocked construction of the building’s corner closest to the bridge. With the opening of the new Union Station light rail station and the removal of the light rail tracks that once curved next to the Millennium Bridge, workers are now able to construct the delayed corner of the building. Here are two shots of the corner as it catches up to the rest of the building:

Finally, here’s another new improvement next to the DaVita site: the missing half of the 16th Street concrete roadbed has been installed. Once this opens, traffic and Mall Shuttle buses should flow a little more smoothly through the area than they do now. All of this is temporary, of course, due to the Wewatta detour. In 2013 when Wewatta Street is rebuilt and reopens to traffic, Chestnut and 16th will see less traffic.

This view also gives us a sense of the nice public plaza area that will be built in front of DaVita and at the base of the Millennium Bridge. Landscaped islands will surround the bridge’s cable anchors. I’m sure Rick will have more on these improvements in an upcoming Union Station update.

Left: View to the north at the upper end of Downtown. Right: View to the southeast at part of the Capitol Hill district.

Left: View to the northeast at part of the Uptown district. Right: View to the northeast at the State Capitol.

Left: A zoomed-in view to the northwest down the new 14th Street. Right: View to the northwest at the City & County Building, with the Colorado Convention Center, Pepsi Center, and Elitch Gardens beyond.

Left: View to the southwest at part of the library/art museum facilities and Golden Triangle district. Right: View to the south at the ING/Security Life Building across 13th Avenue.

Neat reflection in that last photo, eh?

We’re not quite done. The Ralph Carr isn’t the only new building with a nice view. Here’s a bonus photo of a view from the outdoor terrace at the new History Colorado Center:

Sweet!

The Ralph Carr Judicial Center is already making an impact on the Civic Center skyline, and I like it. The architecture is classic Neoclassical, with marble columns and all. The state courts wanted a building that communicated a stately, civic presence on par with (and visually oriented towards) the State Capitol, and they are getting it. But despite the Ralph Carr’s architectural gravitas, I find its contemporary touches and generous fenestration (for this style) welcome features that give the building an inspiring, approachable quality. And it’s not even finished yet. Kudos to Denver’s Fentress Architects for designing a building that is clearly worthy to take its place at Denver’s hallowed ground, Civic Center. Our thanks to Trammell Crow and Mortenson Construction for the tour.

I like the exterior materials too. A light gray granite wraps the 4-story courthouse wing as well as the lower levels of the 12-story office tower, and pre-cast panels complete the upper floors of the tower. They work well together to give the complex a unified visual appearance, while exposing pedestrians to the high-quality material like granite we expect in important government buildings. Here’s a view (an inner courtyard along Broadway) of the vertical transition from granite to pre-cast panels. The darker-gray window glazing complements both materials. This wasn’t intentional, but I now notice the nice reflection in the window of perhaps Denver’s best light gray granite-clad modern building, Republic Plaza:

The office tower incorporates into both its north and south facades the columnar form, with vertical glass “columns” in between adding a modern gesture.

Before we we went up to the project’s upper floors, we saw a quick preview of Mortenson’s digital planroom technology. More on that in a future post. Then we took a ride in the construction elevator “cage” that climbs up the outside of the building:

From the 12th floor, here’s a nice view of the two courthouse domes: the smaller one in the foreground will be centered above the Colorado Supreme Court courtroom, and the larger one will cover the grand atrium. On the right, a stack of windows are being lifted up by a crane while traffic below on Broadway goes about its business:

From the Supreme Court’s fourth-floor atrium entrance, here’s the symbolic view looking back at the statehouse. Once all the scaffolding and temporary window supports are removed, this will appear as one big window offering one fantastic view of our state’s beautiful gold-domed Capitol.

Finally, while we now have real-life views of this project to observe, I recently ran across some additional renderings of the project I hadn’t seen before. They can be viewed here.

PS. If you don’t know who Ralph Carr is and why he is worthy of having a justice center named after him, please go here.

Thank you once again to the folks at Trammell Crow Company for making this tour possible.

First up, the 12-story office tower. On the left, this is what you would see when going into the back entrance located at 13th Avenue and Broadway. To the right is what you would first walk in to. Yes, there will be a security check point but what is unique about this complex is that you will be inside when you are waiting to get screened separate from both the elements and the lobby.

Looking down the lobby area (left) you have the waiting area for security as well as elevator access just down the hall. Up and away we go to the top floor where they are starting to complete the columns of the office tower. There were spectacular views from the top which we will have a post dedicated to coming up soon.

There is a section of the building connecting the courts to the office tower. Here you will be greeted by a 4-story atrium with a glass roof and solid glass wall. In the picture on the right, the gaps you see in the floor will be for a staircase connecting the floors.

The supreme court is spectacular with a glass dome above where you would stand in front of the justices. You also get a great view of the office tower.

The lobby of the courts will be complete with real stone columns in the front and a two-story entrance with a giant court seal. The court side of the complex also comes complete with judges quarters.

Keep your eyes peeled for more shots of this great project as well as a special look at the never before seen views!

Thank you to Bill Mosher, Fred Schultz, and Tina Lashbrook of Trammell Crow Company as well as David Tryba of Tryba Architects and Rebecca Laurie of  History Colorado for taking us inside this great project.

The entrance to the Broadway side was nearly complete and a lot of landscaping was taking place. There are custom street lamps, lights to project on the building at night and a grand stair case to the entrance, which brings you in to an open lobby as you can see on the bottom right. From the lobby you can choose to go into the museum, the restaurant, or the gift shop.

Once you enter the museum you are brought into an immaculate atrium with a giant screen and what is soon to be a giant map of Colorado on the floor. A unique feature of the map is that one can carry around a ‘time machine’ that will tell you the history of certain regions in Colorado when you stand over them.

Here is just a glimpse of what the staircases in the museum will look like leading to the upper floors and exhibits. This was also a great and rare opportunity to see what an exhibit room looks like before anything is in it.

Also included in the building are offices, a library and plenty of storage.

On the top floor there are also two meeting rooms that you can reserve for your own function. The one on the bottom left, where you can see our tour group, comes complete with an outdoor space. The rooms also come complete with blackout blinds so you can make presentations.

The atrium was a very impressive aspect of the whole project and was very hard to capture in one picture. I’m pleased to share with you a short video that gives you a 360 degree look.

The History Colorado Center will be turned over within the next couple weeks to the state and then to the public Spring 2012.

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.