The other major project reviewed by the Lower Downtown Design Review Board on Thursday was 1755 Blake Street. I discussed this project when it first came before the Board in June (check out my June 3 blog for more details). To summarize, the proposed project is a 5-story office building with ground-floor retail that would begin adjacent to the side wall of the historic building at 1725 Blake Street on Block 021 and span the rest of the block over to 18th Street. Standing in the way, however, is the small 1755 Blake building which would need to be demolished for the project to move forward as envisioned. In June, the developers, First Century Development, didn’t officially seek approval for demolition of 1755 Blake, but rather tested the waters with the Board to see how they might respond if First Century were to submit a request for demolition. At that time, the Board voted to oppose the demolition, and instructed the developers to seek ways of incorporating the existing building into the new project.

This month, however, things were different. During their first appearance before the Board, the developers advised that there is little historical or architectural documentation of the original 1755 Blake structure. Since June, the developers were able to discover more information about the changes that have occurred to the building since it was first constructed. They found that the building had undergone a major remodeling in the late 1930s that removed and rebuilt the entire front half of the structure. Further renovations in the 1950s and 1980s removed even more of the original building to the point where today there is not much remaining of 1755 Blake that is original, except for portions of the exterior walls in the rear of the building. The developers also reported that an engineering analysis determined that some of those original exterior walls were at risk of collapse if excavation for new construction was to occur right up against the building’s foundation.

These factors were enough to convince the Board that demolition of the building was appropriate and that the application for demolition met the criteria established by historic district regulations. The Board voted to approve the demolition of 1755 Blake, contingent upon approval of the replacement structure. So, assuming First Century Development produces a design for a new structure that gains the approval of the LDDRB, it looks like we will have another 24,000 square feet of ugly surface parking lot removed from our Downtown!

Highland Bridge Update: Friday and Saturday night saw the Highland Bridge make its debut across I-25. DenverInfill was there to capture the whole thing, which one of these days will find a home in the Special Features section. Look for a sampling of photos of the Highland Bridge construction in tomorrow’s blog. But for now, here’s a teaser:

2006-08-06_highland_bridge