On my walk home from work today, I happened to have my camera with me, so I was able to snap a pic of what is always an exciting point in any tower’s construction: first glass.
In this case, it was for the DaVita headquarters project under construction next to Downtown Denver’s Millennium Bridge.
Ryan’s last update on this project wasn’t that long ago (August), but given the tower’s recent topping-off and now the beginning of glass installation, I figured I might as well offer an update. Here’s a shot of the whole building at its final height:
Another recent change has been the filling in of the DaVita building’s “missing corner” where the former light rail tracks blocked construction of the building’s corner closest to the bridge. With the opening of the new Union Station light rail station and the removal of the light rail tracks that once curved next to the Millennium Bridge, workers are now able to construct the delayed corner of the building. Here are two shots of the corner as it catches up to the rest of the building:
Finally, here’s another new improvement next to the DaVita site: the missing half of the 16th Street concrete roadbed has been installed. Once this opens, traffic and Mall Shuttle buses should flow a little more smoothly through the area than they do now. All of this is temporary, of course, due to the Wewatta detour. In 2013 when Wewatta Street is rebuilt and reopens to traffic, Chestnut and 16th will see less traffic.
This view also gives us a sense of the nice public plaza area that will be built in front of DaVita and at the base of the Millennium Bridge. Landscaped islands will surround the bridge’s cable anchors. I’m sure Rick will have more on these improvements in an upcoming Union Station update.
The plaza in front of DeVita will no doubt be nice. My only concern is that the width of 16th in that section is so big that it is going to be a physical and psychological barrier to the peds. I know at one point it looked like they were going to build a narrow, landscaped median, but the latest drawings I’ve seen don’t have this feature. Anybody know what the final design looks like?
are the ground floors of this building really going to be dominated by a parking garage? crazy that an office building adjacent to the largest transit center in the city can’t avoid such parking requirements.