Last April Ken posted about the new 16 Chestnut project proposed for the Denver Union Station neighborhood. Built by East West Partners, 16 Chestnut will anchor the fourth and final corner of the Millennium Bridge.
As a refresher, 16 Chestnut is a 320,000 square foot, 18-story office tower located on the rectangular parcel bounded by 16th Street/Millennium Bridge, Chestnut Place, and 17th Street. The site is surrounded by the new Mall Shuttle loop at the Union Station light rail station. Today, we have some new conceptual renderings for you, thanks to Chris Frampton of East West Partners. These are high-resolution renderings, so make sure you click to embiggen! You will see some notable differences from our last post on this project, where the renderings presented were basically just massing models.
16 Chestnut will have a two-story lobby along with some ground floor retail. One unique feature of 16 Chestnut is a pedestrian bridge that will extend from the Millennium Bridge over the mall shuttle loop and connect to the mezzanine level of 16 Chestnut’s lobby. Parking for the building will still be both underground and a few floors above ground.
East West Partners is actively marketing the building and hopes to break ground in the near future. Remember, these are conceptual designs and they may change before construction begins. Gensler is the project architect.
I think these renderings look great. It’s not at all what I pictured going in that spot, but I like how dramatically different it is than any of its surrounding buildings, despite being from the same developer. It pushes the architectural diversity in an area that could have easily tilted toward Tech-Center-boring.
My only (minor) concern is that the bridge going across to the building seems like it actually makes the pedestrian connection worse between Highland and the light rail / bus station down below on street level. That connection has always seemed a little tenuous to me, and this doesn’t seem like this bridge being overhead helps the situation. The second rendering shows this pretty well: a tremendous amount of daily commuters will be walking for a third of a block under a concrete bridge, with a big brick wall on their left and a big pole and solid wall on their right.
Even so, I think this problem could be improved with lighting / art / seating / landscaping or something to make that area not feel like an awkward dead space for so many commuters. As lower highlands densifies significantly, this pedestrian connection will get increasingly used, so it seems important to think about.
Have there been any more developments regarding the relocation of the commercial train tracks(I.e. coal) to the east?
Overall, huge improvement over the last design… It looks really strong.
On the other hand, I feel that the entire southern section of this design is an awkward and ineffective use of space. The constant shade, lack of sidewalk on the dev side of street and the ped connection bridge/ building towers above the corner there, coupled with the fact that its a blind corner, creates a really uncomfortable pedestrian space, in my opinion.
There is no doubt that Millenium Bridge is a landmark for the area and an important pedestrian feature connecting the two neighborhoods… but this use of space and architecture on that corner is overpowering the bridge and surrounding elements. It’s unfortunate that this side of the bridge isn’t being treated as well as the western side (shops, seating, water feature, etc)…
If it were up to me, I’d push the dev back, off of the corner 20 ft or so and send that southern wedge/glass wall up, on an angle to help create a more open and inviting terminus / transition to the bridge, down 16th st…
What these renderings reveal is the hard fact that different modes of transportation compete with each-other — despite the grand vision of Union Station as “multi-modal.” Long before the re-birth of Union Station’s design, to blend light rail/commuter/Amtrak trains with buses/shuttles/bikes/pedestrians, there was already the South Platte River, bracketed by I-25 and freight rail lines — both vital to the city. And the public-private costs of moving just the freight rail lines “out east” will be huge.
For many people who live outside the Downtown area, Union Station becomes a real, workable alternative to driving a car. For folks like Ken, who live in Highland — across the barrier of highway/river/tracks, there are frustrating bridges, lots of stairs to climb, elevators — all obstacles for pedestrians and bike riders. And those stairs, to a bridge at the end of 18th Street, over the commuter rail tracks to the train platforms, will discourage many, who want to walk to a train. For younger, vigorous people, these pedestrian barriers are no problem. For people with mobility problems, no way.
Simply put, Union Station is a tremendous leap forward for Denver, putting thousands on trains into the heart of the city. But for walkers and peddlers who live nearby, maybe a little easier, maybe harder. Planners are forced to deal with real trade-offs between competing modes of transportation, and the details of Union Station’s design show how travel for some gets better, and for others, worse.
Big picture, Denver Union Station is a huge success, integrating rail as a real alternative to the car. Compare Denver to Los Angeles — a vast freeway nightmare, a perpetual traffic jam with no train option for almost everyone — and Denver looks like a transportation planners’ success, LA a total failure. Union Station doesn’t fix everybody’s get-around problems, but it strengthens Denver’s over-all smart design of Downtown as the hub, the Crossroads of the entire region.
All of those bridges have elevators for people with mobility challenges.
Kevin, the elevators are the basic legal requirement for bridges connecting to Union Station. I’m surprised the Highland and other Platte Valley communities aren’t demanding better pedestrian access on bridges into the area. Why haven’t the neighborhood associations insisted on the Millenium Bridge being glassed over, as a weather shield? Sometimes those steps are covered with snow. Why shouldn’t hundreds, thousands of pedestrians have escalators on all of those bridges over the Valley Highway and the railroad tracks? How much easier would it be to bring home your groceries from the new King Soopers, on an escalator next to the stairs to the bridges?
The LoDo intersts should insist on the same bridge improvements for the 18th Street overpass to the platforms. Why can’t the city’s showcase transportation center have the same level of pedestrian ramping as DIA? Find a couple million in the future construction budget, it’s do-able. But the neighborhoods adjacent to DUS have to ASK for it.
Ken and Chris (East-West), I totally agree with Ryan, Rob, Nathanael and others, that this building’s placement creates a poorly-planned bottleneck for this so-called Multi-Modal Transportation Center. Because the developer obviously is using its air rights, right up to the 16th-Street lot line, the city’s street/sidewalk easement becomes a pinch point for long, turning shuttle buses. For pedestrians and bicyclists, it’s downright dangerous — an accident waiting to happen. If a bus breaks down, or crashes at that corner, where’s the room for emergency vehicles to get through? I wonder what Denver Fire and Police Departments think of this design?
The office tower SHOULD be moved back, to make adequate room for pedestrians using the Millenium Bridge, trying to cross the street, or get to the light rail station.
If East-West would be losing square-footage by moving the tower back, then maybe it should be allowed to build a few floors higher. The over-all massing wouldn’t be changed much, since the project will be surrounded by tall buildings on every side. And the extension of the bridge directly to the second floor of the office building looks like an unnecessary favor to this project, at the expense of pedestrians and vehicles on the street.
This entire corner of the DUS plan seems poorly-conceived. Maybe the Millenium Bridge needs to be rebuilt, oriented more to 17th Street, with glass ceilings for weather protection and escalators, as well as elevators. Extending this building out over the 16th/Chestnut corner is NOT smart multi-modal transportation planning, and it will be amazing to me if the Denver Planning Board approves this design, given the “vision” that’s been promoted for Denver Union Station.
I wonder what the 17th Street side of the building looks like. That side is arguably even more important. However, I like the design so far. They have obviously put a tremendous amount of thought into it.
Yet another important noteworthy vacant lot or parking lot slated to be developed into an impressive structure. From what I am reading, most of Chestnut Street is largely slated for development with perhaps only a few sites remaining between 15th and 20th Streets. I understand much the same is true for Wewatta St in the same area. The downtown grid from Broadway to the South Platte and from Speer to Park Av continues to show remarkable progress towards greater impressive development. However, some rather noticeable lots remain unchanged, either remaining vacant or underutilized, most often as hideous surface parking lots. At the top of my list is the one across from Coors Field between 20th St and 21st St on the east side of Blake St; and both sides of Market St between 18th St and 19th St. Many others are also evident, particularly along 15th St, 17th St, 18th St, among others. Hopefully the coming months will continue to bring news of new developments across downtown, and particularly on the sites I have mentioned, as well as sites seen daily and regularly by other readers of this blog, who long for development on those places which are little more than eyesores. Perhaps other readers can help assemble a Top Twenty List of Eyesore Lots in Downtown in the coming weeks.
The location of this building, combined with the way the Mall Shuttle works, is going to mean most of the workers in this building will be crossing the Shuttle roadway on a daily basis, either to get to the Shuttle or to the light rail or to the bus center.
Because it’s a one-way loop with wide-swinging left turns, the driver visibility problems will be more severe than on the 16th St. Mall. Particularly, people crossing the roadway between the arrival and departure points for the Shuttle will be very hard for the bus drivers to see. The Mall Shuttle terminus at the Broadway end doesn’t have offices in the middle!
The second floor connection to the Millenium Bridge may help, but the Millenium Bridge has its staircase and elevator on the wrong side of the block.
Perhaps pedestrians on the “shuttle arrival” / bus box side can be directed to the Chestnut Place crosswalk, which should have a signal and could have a suitable pedestrian phase.
The “shuttle departure” side is more problematic. Hopefully the building can be designed to avoid directing people across the blind spot of the bus loop.
I somehow feel as if the designers of the Shuttle loop didn’t really think of the effects of having a building in the middle of it.
Aha. Looking at the older link, the helical parking garage ramp is going into the “don’t cross” corner. That actually makes sense.
However, it strikes me that the building would benefit greatly from an “east side” elevator from the Millenium Bridge, as contrasted to the current “south side” one. The Millenium Bridge, for some reason, points away from the Light Rail station and away from the Shuttle Bus departure point
Yea, it looks like there is a little retail spot at the corner of 17th and Chestnut, and my guess is there might be an entrance to the building near there for direct access to the light rail and mall shuttle. Overall, I like it. Could use a few tweaks (i.e. wierd cornice overhang at 16th and Chestnut), but it’s very close.