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Denver Union Station Update #114

Posted by  on April 27, 2013

Many of you have been down at Denver Union Station for the opening of the W-Line and probably noticed construction keeps on rolling. This is a very exciting time in this whole redevelopment because we are starting to see everything come together.

A month ago, both wing buildings were barely out of the ground. Now, the south wing building has one floor until it tops out while the north wing building has two floors to go.

 

Wynkoop Plaza is also coming along nicely. If you remember Ken’s last Union Station update, these are going to be very impressive fountains which extend the entire length of the south wing of the historic station.

 

On the north side of the canopy structure, the pedestrian bridge has started to take shape. This is the bridge that will be connected to the north wing building giving you access to the commuter rail platforms and the underground bus facility from Wynkoop Street.

 

There are three rail platforms that stop short of the canopy. Construction for these platforms has also started.

 

Between the redevelopment of Denver Union Station and all of the private sector development going on, this is quite the site to see! Head down there to check it out and ride the W-Line if you haven’t yet! Also, make sure to keep checking DenverUrbanism for the next few days for some W-Line greatness!

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Filed under FasTracks, Infill, Office, Public Spaces, Transit, Transit-Oriented, Union Station.
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Spring 2013: Downtown Denver Tower Crane Census

Posted by  on March 31, 2013

Today we are bringing back the tower crane census here on DenverInfill. As Ken mentioned in his previous post, there are a lot of projects under construction around Downtown Denver right now and a good handful of those projects wield a tower crane or two. It is always exciting (and a little geeky) seeing tower cranes scattered throughout the city which also represents a great sign of development to both the trained and untrained eyes. Let’s begin!

1, 2, 3, 4 -Exempla Saint Joseph Heritage Project

 

5 – Renaissance Stout Street Lofts, 6- 2300 Walnut (now known as ‘The Douglas’)

 

7 – North Wing Building, 8 – South Wing Building

 

9 – Cadence, 10 – The Delgany Apartments

 

I also have a little bonus photo for you! When I was out shooting, I was trying out my new wide-angle lens which is why some pictures seem a little distorted and stretched. Well, here’s a great wide-angle perspective of everything that is complete and under-construction in the Union Station field thus far. You can see the new light-rail station/plaza, Chestnut Pavilion, Wewatta Pavilion, the DaVita Headquarters building, Cadence, both Wing Buildings and the awesome train canopy. Absolutely amazing progress with much more to come! (click to view high-resolution):

We have a total of 10 tower cranes in Downtown Denver as of today. With new projects underway, I’m sure we will see that number climb this year. We will revisit this in a few months to see what has changed!

EXTRA BONUS PHOTO: Hi everyone. Ken here. I’m hijacking Ryan’s post to include a photo of my own of yet another nice shot of some of Downtown Denver’s tower cranes. Here’s the view on this beautiful sunny spring Mile High afternoon of four tower cranes from my Lower Highlands vantage point. From left to right: North Wing Building, Cadence, South Wing Building, Delgany Apartments (click/zoom to view at extra-huge resolution for your viewing pleasure):

It was nice of the operators to position the cranes for the weekend to be perfectly aligned for this photo!

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Filed under Skyline.
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Denver Union Station Update #113

Posted by  on March 17, 2013

Beyond the obvious importance to the region’s transportation future, one of the other benefits of the Denver Union Station project is the addition of several new public spaces to Downtown Denver. In particular, Wynkoop Plaza will be not only the largest of Union Station’s new public spaces, but potentially the best public plaza in all of Downtown.

The southern part of Wynkoop Plaza will feature a signature fountain: the pop-up water-jet type that allows kids (and adults and dogs) to play in the water on a warm day. People love interacting with water, and people love watching people interacting with water. Therefore, the fountain at Wynkoop Plaza is likely to be a hit with visitors and locals alike.

In case you haven’t seen some of the concept renderings of the Wynkoop Plaza fountain, here are a few (courtesy of SOM/Hargreaves Associates, the project’s design consultants). First, the larger context: the Downtown side of the DUS project and the south part of Wynkoop Plaza.

 

Ground-level concept views:

 

How is construction of Wynkoop Plaza and its signature fountain coming along? Here’s a shot I took this weekend:

Lots of serious fountain infrastructure there. That’s going to be one impressive fountain!

By the way, because I know some of you are going to bring this issue up, I’ll address it now. Denver doesn’t have a very good track record when it comes to keeping fountains in good working order on a long-term basis. Our typical fountain experience in Denver is like this: 1.) New public fountain gets built. 2.) Fountain works great for a few years. 3.) Fountain stops working. 4.) Fountain sits unused and in disrepair for a long time. 5.) Concerned citizens eventually say “What a shame. We should get this fountain going again!” 6.) Fountain repair fundraising and/or Denver bond issue ensues. 7.) Fountain gets fixed and works great for a few years. 8.) Rinse and repeat.

So what will be different this time? Well, that issue has been a primary focus of Union Station Advocates, an organization that I’ve been involved with for many years. We want to make sure that not only the fountain, but all of Denver Union Station’s public spaces are well maintained over the long term. Currently, RTD, the Denver Union Station Project Authority, and other stakeholders like Union Station Advocates and the Downtown Denver Partnership are working together to craft a funding and management plan for Wynkoop Plaza that will ensure that years from now, kids (and adults and dogs) will still be splashing around in the fountain at Wynkoop Plaza. Stay tuned…

Meanwhile, thank you to the 31 people who attended our walking tour of the Denver Union Station project yesterday! That was a great way to start of our 2013 tours of this exciting project. Our next tour is scheduled for Saturday, March 30, at 10:00 AM. More info on that as the date approaches.

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Filed under Infrastructure, Public Spaces, Union Station.
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Denver Union Station Update #110

Posted by  on January 26, 2013

It’s been a little while since we’ve touched base on the Denver Union Station redevelopment so today let’s take a look around and see what’s happening around here!

Let’s start out with one of the most exciting elements of the entire project: the train shed canopy. The south end of the canopy is beginning to go vertical (which will mimic the north side) and you can see rail platforms beginning to be built as well! If you look carefully in the middle picture, fences have been put up for the 1650 Wewatta tower and a construction trailer is now on site. Awesome!

  

Heading to the front of the station, construction is in full swing for both of the wing buildings. The north wing building has broken street level and we should see this rise quickly. It seemed like a long process to get to this point but that’s because there are underground parking structures to be built.

 

When heading down Chestnut, 17th and 18th Street provide great views of the train canopy as well as the historic station. There will be a pedestrian bridge connecting 18th Street from the Union Station Neighborhood to Lower Downtown over the commuter rail tracks; one of many connections to get to either side. Also, Cadence is making quite the street presence down 17th Street!

 

Speaking of bridges, we have two great bridges connecting Central Platte Valley to the Union Station Neighborhood (which also provide great views of the development). Here are the views from both the Millennium Bridge as well as the 18th Street Pedestrian Bridge. Look at all those tower cranes!

 

This redevelopment is always quite a sight to see and with two more infill projects starting, it’s starting to become a thrilling reality from what once was a distant vision.

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Filed under Streets, Transit, Transit-Oriented, Union Station.
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Denver Union Station Update #109

Posted by  on December 2, 2012

Today, for my 100th post on DenverInfill, I am going to update you on Denver’s most extraordinary project: Denver Union Station. As you know, the historic station is now closed and will be renovated over the next two years. But that’s not all the exciting news! Both wing buildings are under construction as well as the enormous, beautiful commuter rail canopy. Let’s take a look!

These two pictures give you an idea of how large this canopy is going to be. It’s only about 25% complete and will span all the way across the historic station.

The North (red crane) and South (yellow crane) wing buildings are fully under construction. As a refresher, these are 5-story buildings not to exceed the cornice line of the historic station.

When traveling north on Wynkoop Street, you can see both tower cranes up for the new wing buildings. It’s quite a sight seeing so much construction going on around Union Station.

Going down the 16th Street Mall towards the Millennium Bridge, both lanes are now open for the mall shuttles.

Over on Wewatta Street, you can see two things: Wewatta Street itself is nearing completion and the structure for the Wewatta Pavilion is in place. Cadence is also beginning to rise above the street as well!

Finally, some additional views of the entire redevelopment. Here you can see the sheer size of the commuter rail canopy. Cadence is also beginning to make a small presence. You can no longer see the north side of Union Station from Millennium Bridge!

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all the private-sector development planned for this neighborhood. With the station also closed for renovation and construction of the hotel, I am very excited to see what everything will look like in 2014 when the project is scheduled for completion.

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Filed under Hospitality, Infill, Office, Residential, Revitalization, Streets, Transit, Transit-Oriented, Union Station.
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Denver Union Station Update #105

Posted by  on August 18, 2012

On Wednesday I had the wonderful opportunity to get an insider’s look at the Denver Union Station project. There will be two parts to this tour; the surface and the underground bus terminal. Today we will be focusing on what’s happening on the surface. I would like to thank Hunter Sydnor of Kiewit for the wonderful tour and the vast amount of information about this development.

One of the very exciting elements of this entire development is the commuter rail canopy. Now that the structure for the bus terminal is nearing completion, as far as the surface is concerned, work on the canopy can begin. What we’re looking at in the photos below are the foundations for the trusses and where the canopy is going to be anchored. The trusses for the canopy are being shipped here and then painted in Denver.

 

Below you will see another set of foundations being set for the trusses of the canopy. Needless to say, this thing is going to be massive. It stretches all the way down to the very north tip of the historic building and almost an entire city block west. I also took a picture of how large the anchors are going to be for these trusses. Impressive!

 

In this picture you can see the bus box is starting to be sealed in. In the next update, we will cover more of the structural elements. Even though this is the second phase of the bus terminal to be built, it is different than the first phase closer to the light rail station due to the future commuter rail tracks above it.

Next up, we have the 17th Street Gardens and pedestrian spaces. 17th Street has been paved up to Wewatta Street and stop lights are beginning to be installed in preparation of Wewatta Street being paved through. Work has also begun on the 17th Street Gardens plaza, one of the premier public spaces in the whole redevelopment. As you can see, pavers are beginning to make their way up towards the station along with the tress and lighting elements. For some great information and basic framework on the 17th Street Gardens head over to Ken’s post here.

 

As a little bonus, I was able to get real close to the Cadence site. I asked if it was easy to get along with the private sector developments since there is a lot of different construction projects around this field. The answer was yes. One of the conditions of having so much going on is the site for Cadence is very crowded. There’s not a lot of room around these parcels because of the Union Station Redevelopment.

On the next post, we will be going underground and looking at how much is coming along in bus box! It seems like every week there’s something new and exciting happening here!

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Filed under Pedestrians, Public Spaces, Streets, Transit, Transit-Oriented, Union Station.
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