A major Downtown infill project fronting the 16th Street Mall, the new SugarCube Building, took an important step forward Wednesday with its formal groundbreaking ceremony. The event featured brief remarks from Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Urban Villages LLC principals Grant McCargo and Will Fleissig, and Bruce Kuwabara from Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects (KPMB). Also in attendance was a very sharp-looking model of the SugarCube Building (see photos below), in addition to several other representatives from the project team and many prominent members of the Downtown Denver development community.
This project is significant not only for its design and for its filling a major gap in the Downtown landscape, but also for the speed with which it moved from public announcement to groundbreaking. This project made its first appearance before the LoDo design review committee about this same time last year, and now they’re ready to begin construction. Much of the credit for this project’s successful journey from concept to construction goes to Jason Newcomer, Project Executive with Urban Villages.
Here are a few photos from last night. From left to right:
1. Mayor Hickenlooper; 2. Bruce Kuwabara; 3. 16th & Wazee Perspective; 4. 16th & Blake Perspective
