Cesar Chavez Building Modernization Update #2

Archive of posts filed under the Office category.

Cesar Chavez Building Modernization Update #2

Posted by Ken Schroeppel on September 19, 2011

The Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Building at 13th and Speer in Downtown Denver’s Golden Triangle district, owned by the GSA and home to several federal agencies, is undergoing a much-needed rehabilitation. DenverInfill recently had the chance to explore the construction site, thanks to David Tryba, Mark Sheldon, and Amy Fisk of Tryba Architects. Ryan will be posting construction photos of the project in a separate post, while here I’ll be sharing a few additional renderings and facts about the project.

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.

Filed under Golden Triangle, Office, Revitalization.

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DaVita Update #3

Posted by Ryan Dravitz on August 11, 2011

Today we are going to take a look at the site that is just outside the very busy Union Station development, the DaVita headquarters.

Looking at the project from a slightly different angle (Speer and Zuni), you can see the steel structure is going up and the crane has been jumped.

This project is almost filling in a gap in the view from Riverfront Park creating a nice wall of buildings.

Looking at the rear side of the building, the facade is starting to go up.

In respects to height, I took this to compare what the current height of DaVita is to its very close neighbor 1900 16th Street.

When I was taking pictures of DaVita from Speer and Zuni Street, I looked just to the right and noticed a view plane of cranes and wanted to share it with you. Even in the slow development times there is a lot of development going on and it is very exciting for our wonderful city.

Now that the tracks are removed from 16th Street, they will be able to start the missing portion of the building. So far not much has been done but come the time for another update, we will be taking a look at that.

Filed under Infill, Office, Union Station.

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Cesar Chavez Moderization Update

Posted by Ryan Dravitz on June 29, 2011

Back in November Ken posted renderings and information about the modernization of the Cesar Chavez Federal building. The old parking garage has since been demolished and work on the building has begun.

On this project there are two cranes being used as you can see in this picture. The crawler crane (right) is being used for the parking garage construction and the tower crane (left) is being used for the building.

The new parking garage is now 2-stories up. It will be a total of 7-stories.

The North side of the building’s curtain wall has started to be taken down. As you can see, temporary partitions are being installed since the building is open during the reconstruction.

For construction schedules, news and much more on this project, give their website a visit. This project not only will make this building better for the environment but will also compliment some of the new projects in the Civic Center area as far as visuals are concerned.

Filed under Civic Center, Office, Revitalization.

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DaVita Update #2

Posted by Ryan Dravitz on May 24, 2011

Thanks to our fellow contributor Rick, I have some great photos of DaVita’s progress to share with you.

The elevator core is beginning to rise above everything else in the area. This was taken from the Central Platte Valley side of the Millennium Bridge.

Taken from the Millennium Bridge, you can see the parking structure is beginning to take shape, and the siding is very similar to its neighbor’s, 1900 16th Street.

This photo shows how precise you have to be when building a project in close quarters. On the left you have the 17-story 1900 16th St and just feet to the right you have light rail tracks with DaVita in the middle.

From the ground DaVita is making good progress and the structure is beginning to rise around the core.

Hopefully with some good weather in store for later this week, we will see what progress has been made with the projects going on at Auraria.

Filed under Infill, Office, Union Station.

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DaVita Update

Posted by Ryan Dravitz on March 29, 2011

Since DaVita World Headquarters’ groundbreaking earlier in the year, this project has been making significant progress.

The building already has a significant presence looking off the Millennium Bridge.

The elevator core is at 7 stories and will reach a total of 15 stories.

DaVita is also beginning to make a presence in the Central Platte Valley neighborhood.

As mentioned here, DaVita’s ground floor will include a lobby and meeting functions. On top of that, five levels of parking followed by eight levels of office and training space. It will be topped off by a penthouse level which will include an employee lounge and rooftop terrace.

Filed under Infill, Office, Union Station.

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Chavez Building Modernization

Posted by Ken Schroeppel on November 29, 2010

People have been asking me about what’s going on at the Chavez federal building at 13th/Fox/Speer in Downtown Denver’s Civic Center district. Over the past few weeks the parking garage has been getting demo’ed, and rumors had it that the office building would be receiving a major makeover.

Today I’m happy to report the factual details, thanks to the folks at Tryba Architects, GE Johnson Construction, and their client, the General Services Administration, which owns the building and manages it for a variety of federal government tenants.

First, to make sure you know which building I’m talking about, here’s a bird’s eye view looking east down W. 13th Avenue at Speer and Fox (courtesy of Bing Maps). The recently razed parking garage is to the left across W. 13th Avenue from the office building:

The 10-story, 180,000 square foot Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Building was constructed in 1984. Almost 30 years later, the structure’s glass and aluminum curtain-wall skin has deteriorated to the point of needing replacement, as has much of the building’s mechanical, fire safety, utility, and other systems. Meanwhile, the parking garage across the street had major structural issues that needed to be addressed. To bring the property into the 21st Century and position it for another generation of federal service, a $33 million reconstruction/renovation is underway, paid for in part by 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.

The reskinning of the office building and other upgrades will improve the building’s energy efficiency by 30%, with the entire project aiming for LEED Silver certification. The parking garage will be replaced with a new garage at the same location, which will include photo-voltaic cells on the roof that will generate 5% of the property’s energy needs. Other modernization and green-building improvements include energy efficient mechanical and lighting controls, elevator upgrades, lobby expansion and renovation, replacement of ceilings, emergency generator replacement, a new recycling center, upgrading interior and exterior finishes, blast mitigation upgrade to the curtain wall, and a new fire alarm system.

Here are some “before and after” images, courtesy of the project design team:

View from the corner of Speer and Fox looking north:

View from the corner of W. 13th Avenue and Elati looking west:

The design of the parking garage is ongoing, so no renderings of it are available yet.

The reskinning of the building will take place while employees are still working in the building. The contractor will install temporary partitions a few feet in from the exterior walls on each floor along one of the building’s elevations. The old curtain wall will be removed and the new facade installed, while office workers inside remain protected from the elements. Once that side is finished, the process will be repeated on the next building elevation. Also, sections of each floor will be closed down at some point to allow for the renovation of interior elements. The entire project is scheduled to be completed by December 2012.

It’s nice to see more investment taking place in our Downtown area, and the revitalization of the Chavez Building will certainly spruce up that part of Civic Center and complement the new Denver Justice Center located a block to the north. Nice project!

(I’ll be posting some parking garage demo photos here soon.)

Filed under Civic Center, Office, Revitalization.

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