The project has reached its full height and the facade is starting to show. On the left you can see a little bit of the complete facade. But, most of the building is still wrapped in scaffolding.

The little rotunda on the top is showing which definitely gives this project more character. On the right, looking down the alley, you can see more of the almost-complete exterior. The brick makes it stand out a little more given what’s around it. (Glass House and The Manhattan)

Speaking of The Manhattan, in the shot on the left, you can see it as a nice backdrop to the second phase. When I was walking down the alley to get to the other side I ran into this mock up which gives you a rough idea of what each unit is going to look like on the outside. Neat!

Today, I give you two bonus pictures. On the left is the site where the new AMLI Residential project is going to go. That will add a lot to this area and is a very exciting sign for this area. On the right, you have a nice canyon that was created because of this project. It’s always nice to see these areas turn dense and look very urban.

This area is going to explode with infill this year and it is a great step in the right direction. I recommend you read the 2011 Retrospective if you haven’t yet and see what’s going on in this next year. I have made a nice long list of sites I’m going to have to keep up with for DenverInfill and it is very exciting.

First off, we will be looking at the front from Osage Street. This building has great street presence and is the tallest in the surrounding area. Given the master plan of the project, more buildings of this scale will add a great urban density feel to the area. The facade also catches the eye as each floor doesn’t line up with the other. It adds a neat effect when looking at it.

Looking closer at the building itself, you have a great glass wall at the entrance and some very colorful, ‘urban’ art that crawls up the entire length of the building. This is something I didn’t expect when I went to take pictures. It really makes this building stand out even more, in a positive way.

Now to the back of the building. On the left, you’ll see that the artwork continues. This was taken as far back as possible; from the 10th and Osage lightrail station. Nevertheless, I found a way to get to the back so we can take a better look. On the right you see the building in the background of the train tracks. This is clearly dominating the area even being only 8-stories.

The back looks a lot like the front. I was able to get a closeup of the art on the back which, in contrast, is very different from the front. As it still catches the eye, it is a lot harder to see because of the tracks behind the building and the limited accessibility to get behind the building.

As the South Lincoln Redevelopment continues, I share with you this last picture which I took to show you the density of the area around 1099 Osage. For now it is only one 8-story building but there will be much more going in around it which is very exciting for this downtown neighborhood. On a side note, those slanted rectangles on the top are solar panels which is a huge win for any new development.

AMLI Residential, a national apartment developer headquartered in Chicago with a local office in Greenwood Village, is planning a 5-story apartment project for the corner of 19th and Little Raven next to the Railyard Dogs dog park, with construction likely to begin in 2012. Here’s a GoogleEarth view of the area, with the site outlined in yellow. Across 19th Street is where the Manhattan Phase 2 project is under construction.

The development will include 242 rental apartment units and 344 parking spaces. A leasing office and fitness center will anchor the corner at 19th and Little Raven. The residents’ lobby entrance is located mid-block along Little Raven, and the parking garage entry is on 19th Street near the corner of the dog park.

AMLI Riverfront was approved by the Denver Planning Board in October, contingent upon some minor revisions to the building elevations facing the dog park and the railroad tracks. The following images were obtained from the project’s submittal package to the city. First, the site plan:

The project architect is Paul T. Bergner Architects. Here’s a rendering of the project looking at the 19th and Little Raven corner (please note that these renderings do not necessarily represent the final design):

And here’s one looking at 20th and Little Raven:

AMLI Riverfront is another significant step forward for completing the Riverfront Park master plan. It also means more people on Downtown Denver’s streets and in Downtown’s parks and plazas. More people in Downtown also improves the basis for more and better retail. And, given the project’s proximity to Union Station, it also means more people riding transit. Yay!

Looks like most of the wood framing work is done. It creates a nice street wall and is a great infill project for the area.

Here is a shot on the other side of the project which appears to be a courtyard.

Next project is Prospect on Central. The facade is nearly complete and as well contributes to a great street wall that faces Interstate 25.

It also looks like the project at 1560 Boulder Street has started to get underway. Ken did a post on this in October with the details.

I was recently up in the Hyatt Regency and have some bonus shots of a couple projects: one of 1099 Osage and the other of the new Auraria hotel. It’s great to see new development wherever you are in the city!

Covering most of the block bounded by Chestnut Place, 20th Street, Wewatta Street, and 19th Street in the redevelopment area west of Union Station, the project will feature 55,000 square feet of retail (most of which will be a full-service national-chain grocer) and 312 rental apartments. Our last profile on the project was in April 2011, and since then the project has received its approvals from the city and is preparing for the start of construction.

Courtesy of the Nichols Partnership and the Mulhern Group, here are the latest and final renderings for the project. First, an axonometric view looking south at the corner of 20th and Chestnut:

Here’s a closer view of the same corner at 20th & Chestnut, with 20th Street on the left and Chestnut on the right:

Next, a perspective looking east at the corner of 19th & Chestnut, with Chestnut on the left and 19th Street on the right:

Finally, here’s a view looking north from near 19th and Wewatta, with 19th Street on the left. The grassy area on the right is the remaining portion of the block along Wewatta that will be developed in the future as a mid-rise tower:

Of course, the presence of the grocery store component of the project is big news for Downtown, but this development is also important for the way that it will begin to close in the gap between Riverfront Park and LoDo, as well as help connect the Prospect district with the Union Station area. It will be the first project to get underway in the area immediately west of Union Station and north of 16th Street, but it certainly won’t be the last. We’re on the cusp of a once-in-a-lifetime building boom around Union Station.

The Nichols Partnership’s 20th & Chestnut project will open in December, 2013.

The Residences at 19th & Logan is a market-rate rental apartment project that will occupy the entire block bounded by E. 19th Avenue on the north, Pennsylvania Street on the east, E. 18th Avenue on the south, and Logan Street on the west. Currently a surface parking lot, the site was the home of the Machebeuf High School gymnasium when that institution was located in Uptown. In 2005, RedPeak purchased the property and began making plans to develop the site into a mixed-use retail and apartment project, but the financial crash hit before the project could get underway. Now, with the improving economy and the hot rental market in Denver, RedPeak is ready to develop the property. You can see the full-block parking lot site here on the Uptown page aerial photo at the original DenverInfill website.

The project will include approximately 300 apartment units in four buildings, named after four of Denver’s urban parks (Washington, Benedict, Congress, and Commons). The buildings will range from four to five stories in height and sit above two levels of underground parking containing approximately 400 parking spaces. About 9,000 square feet of ground-floor retail will face 19th Avenue. Landscaped plazas and common areas will fill the gaps between the buildings.

Here’s a rendering, courtesy of Davis Partnership Architects, of the center of the 19th Avenue side with The Congress (left) and The Benedict (right) and the plaza entrance in between (click and expand to embiggen):

This is a view of The Congress at the project’s northeast corner, with Pennsylvania Street on the left and 19th Avenue on the right:

Finally, here’s a view of the southeast corner showing The Commons, with 18th Avenue on the left and Pennsylvania Street on the right:

The good folks at RedPeak and Davis Partnership tell me they are finalizing the project’s site plan and building designs, so I’ll probably have some additional project images and details to share with you in another month or two. Construction will begin Spring 2012. The two buildings along 19th Avenue (Benedict and Congress) will be completed first, opening Summer/Fall 2013, followed by The Commons and The Washington a few months later. The project team is aiming for LEED-Silver certification.

This project is fantastic news for Downtown Denver. East 19th Avenue will become an even more viable local retail street and a full city block of ugly surface parking goes away. In fact, given this project’s proximity to Uptown Square, Park Avenue Lofts, Tower on the Park, and the many other recent infill projects nearby, it wouldn’t surprise me if this RedPeak development pushes Uptown past the tipping point, causing a rush to develop the nearby vacant parcels and elevating Uptown into one of Denver’s most desirable, walkable, and livable urban districts.

Can you imagine a parking-lot-free Uptown? I can, and this project is getting us there.

For those of you that haven’t had the opportunity to drive through Governors’ Park lately, you may not have noticed that a new apartment project is underway. Within the past few months, Forum Real Estate Group has moved ahead with preparations for development on a vacant site at 6th Avenue and Logan Street. After fencing was raised around the site and signage was placed to market the new venture, the first signs of progress are visible. They appear to be preparing the grounds to begin construction of The Logan, a five-story boutique apartment building.

As Rory Seeber pointed out in a story covering the development in Life on Capitol Hill, the $9.9 million development will include 57 units and will include an underground parking structure to accommodate 51 parking spaces. Especially exciting about this project is not only that it will infill a vacant lot, but it is also one of the first developments the neighborhood has seen in two decades.

(Rendering source: www.forumre.com)

According to the marketing website for The Logan, completion is expected by Summer 2012. For more information regarding leasing or additional information, check out www.thelogandenver.com.

For further details, see the following links:

http://www.lifeoncaphill.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2518&Itemid=6

http://www.forumre.com/properties/under-development/the-logan.html

~~~

Derek Berardi is a resident in Downtown Denver. He graduated in 2009 from the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor’s Degree in Urban Planning/Design. Derek has worked with Calthorpe Associates in Berkeley, CA, Perkins Eastman in New York City, and has worked for several government municipalities. At DenverInfill, Derek’s writing will cover the topics of infill and adaptive reuse.

This is looking at the project down Lawrence Street where the sidewalk will be.

Looking at this project from the corner of 21st Street you can truly see how much of the block this takes up.

And finally a couple of shots from the back of the project. (Hopefully one day the other half of the lot will be taken up along with the lot I was standing in to take this picture)

There are still eight floors to go on 2020 Lawrence. This is going to be great infill and it already is changing Lawrence Street between 20th and 21st Street.

As part of the small section of the Downtown street grid that’s located west of the South Platte River, the block’s history goes back to the city’s founding when General Larimer staked out a new town called Highland in December 1858, a few days after the founding of the towns of Denver City and Auraria, east of the river. The Town of Highland extended from the mighty Platte west to Zuni Street, the area today known as Lower Highland. In 1860, the three towns consolidated into a single municipality named Denver. Fifteen years later, in 1875, the Town of Highlands (with an “s”) was incorporated, covering the area west of Zuni Street over to Sheridan Boulevard. The Town of Highlands lasted until 1895, when it was annexed by Denver. But I digress… back to 16th & Boulder.

Given its historic roots, the site wasn’t always vacant, of course. Buildings once occupied the site in question. After searching the extensive online historic photos archive at the Denver Public Library, I found an image that gives us a good glimpse of the buildings once found along this side of the block. First, the entire photo is shown below (credit: Colorado Historical Society). The building on the right is the original Olinger Mortuary building, now home to Lola and Scarlet Salon. This photo is from the 1940s.

After a bit of zooming and cropping in Photoshop, here’s a close-up of the site. Click to embiggen:

As to when these buildings were demolished? May have been the ’70s, ’80s, or ’90s… I’m not sure. If anyone has info on this, please let me know.

Here are two views of the site today, with the one photo showing the stairs and retaining walls from the old homes still in place:

In the mid-1990s, the block (excluding the historic building at 15th & Boulder) was rezoned as a PUD (Planned Unit Development) that called for a total of six new buildings: two along 15th, one mid-block facing Central, and three along 16th Street. The first three of these buildings (two along 15th and one facing Central) were built in the late 1990s as the Overlook. In 2008, the fourth building was completed—the Highland Bridge Lofts—at the corner of 16th and Central, which features the ground-floor businesses of Living the Sweet Life and Masterpiece Delicatessen. 1560 Boulder will complete the plan for the block.

Now on to the new project…

1560 Boulder is being developed by Holland Partners Group of Vancouver, Washington, with Denver’s Sprocket as the architect. The project will consolidate the two remaining buildings in the block’s PUD into a single five-story, U-shaped building, with the open end of the “U” facing the interior of the block, as seen in this site diagram submitted to the city as part of the project’s development application:

Due to the site’s significant slope, two levels of structured parking will be mostly underground…tucked into the hillside. Ground-floor retail (with outdoor patio space) will anchor the project at the corner of 16th & Boulder. Four levels of residential apartments, a total of 130 units, will top the ground-floor uses, with a swimming pool, clubhouse, fitness center, and rooftop deck as project amenities.

The exterior design is still being refined, but here’s a preliminary rendering of the project, courtesy of Erik at Holland Partners and Matt at Sprocket Design. The building facade will be constructed of masonry, metal, and stucco:

Holland Partners is planning to break ground on the project this fall, with completion scheduled for 2013.

This exciting project completes the development of a prominent block on the edge of Downtown Denver, and will further enhance the vitality of one of Denver’s most vibrant districts.

The demolition of what was on the block is complete and ground work has started on the project.

A tower crane has been put up as well and can be seen all over the area.

The next two photos were taken off of South University Boulevard to give you an idea of the size of the project as well as how big of an impact it is going to have at this particular intersection.

This project is going to be an 11-story apartment building with 213 rental units. It also comes with 25,000 square feet of retail. A nice selling point of this project is its close proximity to the University of Denver light-rail station, four blocks to be exact. It is expected to finish the first half of 2013.