People have been asking me about what’s going on at the Chavez federal building at 13th/Fox/Speer in Downtown Denver’s Civic Center district. Over the past few weeks the parking garage has been getting demo’ed, and rumors had it that the office building would be receiving a major makeover.
Today I’m happy to report the factual details, thanks to the folks at Tryba Architects, GE Johnson Construction, and their client, the General Services Administration, which owns the building and manages it for a variety of federal government tenants.
First, to make sure you know which building I’m talking about, here’s a bird’s eye view looking east down W. 13th Avenue at Speer and Fox (courtesy of Bing Maps). The recently razed parking garage is to the left across W. 13th Avenue from the office building:
The 10-story, 180,000 square foot Cesar E. Chavez Memorial Building was constructed in 1984. Almost 30 years later, the structure’s glass and aluminum curtain-wall skin has deteriorated to the point of needing replacement, as has much of the building’s mechanical, fire safety, utility, and other systems. Meanwhile, the parking garage across the street had major structural issues that needed to be addressed. To bring the property into the 21st Century and position it for another generation of federal service, a $33 million reconstruction/renovation is underway, paid for in part by 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.
The reskinning of the office building and other upgrades will improve the building’s energy efficiency by 30%, with the entire project aiming for LEED Silver certification. The parking garage will be replaced with a new garage at the same location, which will include photo-voltaic cells on the roof that will generate 5% of the property’s energy needs. Other modernization and green-building improvements include energy efficient mechanical and lighting controls, elevator upgrades, lobby expansion and renovation, replacement of ceilings, emergency generator replacement, a new recycling center, upgrading interior and exterior finishes, blast mitigation upgrade to the curtain wall, and a new fire alarm system.
Here are some “before and after” images, courtesy of the project design team:
View from the corner of Speer and Fox looking north:
View from the corner of W. 13th Avenue and Elati looking west:
The design of the parking garage is ongoing, so no renderings of it are available yet.
The reskinning of the building will take place while employees are still working in the building. The contractor will install temporary partitions a few feet in from the exterior walls on each floor along one of the building’s elevations. The old curtain wall will be removed and the new facade installed, while office workers inside remain protected from the elements. Once that side is finished, the process will be repeated on the next building elevation. Also, sections of each floor will be closed down at some point to allow for the renovation of interior elements. The entire project is scheduled to be completed by December 2012.
It’s nice to see more investment taking place in our Downtown area, and the revitalization of the Chavez Building will certainly spruce up that part of Civic Center and complement the new Denver Justice Center located a block to the north. Nice project!
(I’ll be posting some parking garage demo photos here soon.)
Thanks for that explanation of the demolition.
There’s also another demolition taking place right now. It’s at West Colfax and Lipan, right across the street from the Auraria Campus.
I’m not sure, but I think the building being razed there is a former DHA property.
Do you know what they are going to do with that lot?
No, haven’t heard anything official, but word on the street is that it’s going to be a parking lot.
I saw that when I was in town this weekend and wondered the same thing. Looks like it could be another refurb job for student housing, perhaps. I’m unsure.
looks good, are they going too close that street in front of the bulding- in the photo it makes look like there a park or somthing.
Good question. That short stretch of Fox between Speer and 13th doesn’t provide much use for general traffic circulation. There’d still have to be room for fire truck access, but perhaps some modified street/plaza would work. I’ll let you know if I find out more on that.
james, i am working on this project and to answer your question, yes there will be. there will be some modifications to the original park and some additional streetscape. if you have any further questions i would be happy to let you know
thanks for the info- this going too be a nice project
Christopher,
Can you elaborate on the park/promenade depicted in the rendering, as well as the parking garage ground floor as mentioned by others?
That stub of Fox would be ideal to close since it’s only serving turns from NW bound Speer. Is the city going to close that public space to all but emergency vehicles? How about programming (food trucks, vendors)?
Big picture, Speer ought to be a better pedestrian boulevard into and out of downtown, it has some iconic structures and bridges along its course, but all the driveways and curb cuts interfere with being able to walk comfortably. Adding bulb outs to crossings at streets like Fox (or closing them entirely) would really make the street shine.
Ken, do you know if the new parking garage will include any street level retail/office space or will it continue to be used 100% for parking?
Dirt, I don’t know, but maybe Christopher could answer that question.
Please oh please please please let there be ground floor retail.
No wonder the Federal Government runs trillion dollar plus deficits. What a complete waste of money. You mean to tell me a 25 year old building is that bad?
Who the hell designed and built it to begin with? They should be ashamed. I can’t believe the parking garage was in that poor of condition? I mean, you park cars there, right? And to reskinning the building, come on!
I think this is just an excuse to spend tens of millions of dollars to add a small amount of efficiency to a building. The payback must be like 100 years or something.
Total waste of taxpayer money, but what else is new?
“Who the hell designed and built it to begin with?”
Probably some low bid contractor.
according to GSA:
Designed by the architectural firm of Murata Outland Associates, Inc., it was constructed in 1984.
Was this rant really needed? There are plenty of other sites to share political views…let’s keep this about buildings.