One Lincoln Park, the 32-story condominium high-rise under construction on Block 177 in Downtown Denver has recently topped off! The curved roofline is now taking shape. Here are a few photos showing OLP’s new presence on the Denver skyline:
One Lincoln Park Construction Update
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This building is fantastic! I love the slight curve on the south side. Love everything about it! This is the kind of architecture that will define a city. Now imagine the same architects designing a new tallest for Denver, wouldn't that make a difference!
That crane is SO tall! I can't wait to see some other tall buildings go up…
So what is the current population of downtown with all these projects being done? What will it be? Will these projects have a noticeable impact on the downtown life?
This building is an unfortunate example of transitory superficiality. While some things were done well on this project (the plan and dealing with a complex site), there are so many things done wrong that it ends up a negative addition to the skyline.
The tower is an unfortunate pastiche of architectural expressions from the last two decades. While it could have been a simply-detailed and refined tower (vis-a-vis Meier's Perry street buildings, NYC), the architect decided to add needless form and complexity to the building. Instead of elevating our downtown with a calm modern structure this building adds more convolution, extending the 1980s design type and again relegating Denver to the 'unsophisticated' category of great American cities.
The very worst part of the entire structure is also the most visible: the terrible curved roof. The fad from our recent adolescence in the 1990s has reared its head again (hopefully for the last time). This suburban design element (uninspiringly seen first around 15 years ago) is tired and begs to be replaced with something more expressive of an urban place.
Better luck next time Denver. You are a young city and have yet to learn the importance of refinement and simplicity.
Every new development downtown enhances the downtown experience. OLP is definately a great addition to Denver's growing skyline.
Hmmm….I didn't realize Paul Goldberger was a contributor to DenverInfill. I have to respectfully disagree with the anonymous architectural critic from 1:07 pm. While this person correctly points out that the architects have done a good job on the plan and in dealing with the complexity of the site (no back side to this building–it has to work on all sides), the critic is wrong to think that a Richard Meier-style building would serve the developer's and the city's best interests. There's nothing wrong with simplicity, but at this site, hard up against the severe striped facade of 1999 Broadway, the architect has put together a complex design that enlivens this otherwise dreary section of downtown. Yes, the curves may have been used before, but used in the way that the architect did, I don't think they're cliches. And this is Denver–it's easier to sell something like this than it is a more purist, International Style composition. I just hope this developer can eventually complete his vision of several similar highrises filling the adjacent surface lots.
I agree with anon 1:07, this is a messy, cluttered design that will look dated as soon as it opens.
I'm not as critical to the architectual aspects of this tower. Indeed, it is busy in the sense that it doesn't fit perfectly with the right angles that are afforded with a standard street grid. This tower conforms to its location though. yes, it is different from the rest of the buildings downtown, which seperates it from the other buildings. It looks great where it is.
I think it looks quite nice. Its certainly not perfect, but I wasn't expecting the Chrysler building. If there's anything I find aesthetically displeasing, it would be anon 1:07's comment, which sounds like it was written by a seventh grader learning to use a thesaurus.
"Better luck next time Denver. You are a young city and have yet to learn the importance of refinement and simplicity." Please teach us, O wise, anonymous one. We are plagued with transitory superficiality. Every day, driving into Denver on I-25, I shake my fists at God and scream, "why have you cursed us with an unfortunate pastiche of architectural expressions from the last two decades!!! WHY!!" Then, after pulling the car over and weeping for about 15 minutes, I resolve to move back to one of the 'sophisticated' cities I had the privilege to live in (NYC, Boston, SF, Sydney) before I was exiled to the provinces.
Then I think about things like weather, job growth, cost of living, personal safety, and I reconsider. I'll just have to tough it out here on the high plains…
Oh well anon 1:07, you just can't please everyone. It's such a shame that every time you pass this building (That's if you actually live in Denver), you will be so overcome by digust that you will need to pull over your shiny Lexus (or some other foreign car, because I'm sure someone of your caliber wouldn't dare drive American), grasp your cravat in absolute horror and disgust because the "pastiche" of various architectural styles are so out of character and so cliche that it makes your tender stomach churn with horrible indigestion. While others in Denver, will look at this building for all that it will do for this part of town and what it has done to fill a gap in our skyline looking from the north.
And Anon 8:48, let's just say it looks dated now instead of when it opens. Does it really matter when it opens to appear dated? It's just dated…so say what you mean. 😉 Y'all sure put a good ole toothless smile on my ruddy face!
To "anonymous 12:16 am" and "anonymous 6:19 am": You made my morning. I had to put my hand over my mouth and bend down behind my desk so my co-workers wouldn't think I was crazy to be laughing so hard by myself so early in the work day! Thank you for stating your responses to previous messages so well.
The building is gorgeous, stop hating. Anon 1:07 it is not hard to figure out that you are not from Denver, just stop hating.
Ahem. Not to change the subject too dramatically, but for the first time in weeks, saw some workers and some equipment at 1800 Larimer site. Perhaps some progress on that front. (I wonder what our architectural critic would have to say about 1800 Larimer????)
I think someone got a dictionary for x-mas lol
I don't know where anon 1:07 is from but not one of our suburban sky scrapers in the dtc. Or anywhere else in the metro area have a curved roof or our dt. sorry anon 1:07 "better luck next time".
The giant cash register has a curved rooftop. But then, the rest of the building is very simplistic, so that's probably not too bad according to Anon 1:07.
I find it funny that simplistic now equals refined. It wasn't that long ago when "simplistic" was a term reserved for the unsophisticated. As for me, I don't think any building can get more unsophisticated than a tall, straight lined, rectangular box. As great as many buildings in New York are (I love the Chrysler building), much of the city looks like it was populated with refrigerator boxes.
Come to think of it, I find any city without mountains as "simplistic," but that is just my own, humble opinion.
Letting your bitterness at your own careers dismal failure taint every single word of your architectural criticism is simplistic.
Hey anon 6:19 this is anon 8:48 again. OK,it looks dated now,even without the skin on the building.
I think a couple of you work for BYG. I also think you need to go to skyscraperpage.com and see what is happening in other cities around the world. Some of us just hope for better in Denver. We have a lot of dull and ugly towers. 30 or 40 story buildings are very visable and need to look great.
I don't know if there's any justifiable reason to absolutely love or absolutely hate this building. It's not particularly daring or dramatic, nor is it particularly refined or elegant.
In conjunction with Denver's other buildings, however, it does do a fair bit of work:
1. It fills in the skyline a bit.
2. It adds architectural diversity to the skyline – no other building of its height in Denver looks anything like this.
3. It provides a decent pedestrian experience at street level on all sides. Not great, but decent.
4. It begins to connect parts of Uptown with more parts of Downtown, helping parts of the city together which are becoming less and less divided by parking lots. This improves the walkability of Denver.
5. It helps fill in the space around what was otherwise a fairly dead light rail station.
So is it a spectacular building? Maybe not. But I wouldn't mind more buildings like this in Denver instead of parking lots.
I agree with Ryan Nee at 7:00 PM; this building isn't great, but it's contemporary. Even the most trendy buildings will eventually look dated; the time scale we are working on here stretches for decades or possibly centuries as far as the lifespan of big buildings goes. Wait until we have 5 or 6 more of them to judge the whole bunch.
Denver isn't the greatest or best looking city in the United States, perhaps, but that's partially because it lacks something they all have: water. It's not a coincidence that every other big city in the country (outside Arizona and Texas) has its downtown directly on the edge of an ocean, big river, or lake. Lately, people are even more drawn to beaches and that's where the most ambitious new architecture is going. Denver doesn't have that advantage, so give it some more time to fill itself in.
right, denver residents are just getting hip to the downtown lifestyle but when we bite down, we bite hard baby!
I like Matt's comment. I guess they're getting used to global warming by moving to hotter climes. That would explain Phoenix's growth, at least…