The proposed Market Station redevelopment of RTD’s former bus station moves forward, as Continuum Partners and their development team make progress on refining the Market Station design to meet the criteria outlined in the Lower Downtown Design Guidelines. The Continuum team recently presented their revised plans to the Lower Downtown Design Review Board on February 4. The following images are from the packet of materials submitted that day. As before, the designs presented in the images below are still subject to further modification and refinement and additional review by the city. The design team producing these images include architectural firms El Dorado and BOKA Powell, and Dig Studio for urban design and planning
Bird’s-eye view with 16th and Market in the center foreground:
16th and Market:
17th and Market:
17th and Blake:
16th and Blake:
We’ll keep you updates as Market Station moves through the approval process an on to construction.
I like it. An important project that will have a significant positive effect, with more residents and more retail.
I hope that they do refine the design. It looks like a big square with nothing really unique about it. The new building across the street from it isn’t any better either with the Panera in it. I will say the one I do like is the building with Chipotle and Noodles. That building has some character. It may be a big square, but a square with character. I’m sure they could design something more appealing for Denver.
Continuum Partners developed 16 Market Square (with Chipotle, Northern Trust, Noodles & Starbucks) I have full faith they will continue to shape the character of the neighborhood in a positive way: http://continuumpartners.com/project/16-market-square/
16 Market Square is one of my favorite newer buildings in Denver. The detailing and massing is great, the street level is very pedestrian-scaled and it’s a true mixed-use building with retail, offices and condos. I wish more buildings looked like this one.
One unique thing about this development that is difficult to visualize from the renderings is that some of the exterior walls will be textured bring as opposed to more typical smooth brick. The extent of the exterior that will be ‘textured’ is most evident in the 17th and Blake image where the more multicolored walls are textured. More information, including photos of real-life examples, is in the paperwork that was supplied to the Lower Downtown Design Review Board. Those documents are still up as of today and the textured brick is described as “3-Dimensional textured Brick Pattern.”
Totally agree, Chris. I wish new LoDo buildings were held to a higher standard…more 16 Market Square and less Sugercube. That building is so much more sophisticated end elegant. And something that will DEFINITELY stand the test of time.
I’m beyond excited about this one.
I think they have done an excellent job so far with the design. I love the several shades of gray that compliment the brick of the existing RTD buildings and the other Victorians along Market St., but doesn’t try to blend in with them. The gray also feels very urban and contemporary. It has a neo-Brutalist vibe that I love, but I can see how others might find it a little too stark. The massing and layout seems perfect.
Also, the terra cotta color of the entrances to the retail paseo is rather brilliant since it marks the entrances but also mirrors the brick of the surrounding buildings.
Overall I agree with you, and I like this project. A lot.
My only critique would be that lodo seems insistant upon sugar cube clones.
The masonry volumes with large openings and the massing setbacks are very similar to that of the sugar cube and 16M.
But again, overall a big thumbs up.
Sugar Cube Redux?
pretty much. LDDRB will insist on having one on every vacant block in LoDo…
This will have a tremendous impact on LoDo and I think the design will last the test of time. Now, if we could only get a comparable infill project to take up both sides of Market/18th – then we wouldn’t have anything to complain about for years to come! I actually believe with developments like this coming on board, the demand will only increase for the last remaining open parcels. Can you imagine the scarcity of entire blocks in cities like SF, Chicago, or NY..? They just don’t exist. Although we’ll never be in that league, we are getting closer.
Actually, those entire blocks do exist in those cities – they are generally just parks, which also add very much to the fabric of the city. I would kind of liked to have seen something different here, where the space could remain an open park up top, but a public market underground in the old bus space. Food trucks where the buses used to pick up with the center space set up for vendor stalls for food, crafts, etc. – sort of a year-round farmers market downtown. Having it underground with public open space above and keeping the glass atrium’s would provide a really unique space for the city. Of course, it would be even better if the surrounding lot’s were built to the corner (17th & Blake and 16th & Market). Still, glad to see it will be used for something.
That would have been great. The Triangle building removed a park. Not the best park in the world, but still green space among all the buildings. All of the plazas downtown are rock or concrete. This piece of 16th Street Mall could have been a great opportunity to make it a gathering place for people with more green space. Denver isn’t in the market for that right now though.
A park (green space) there would not have been great. That location is three blocks from Skyline Park and two blocks from Cherry Creek. For the record, the parcel that became the Triangle Building is less than two blocks to Cherry Creek and three blocks to Commons Park. An abundance of green space in close proximity to each other diminishes all and unnecessarily disrupts the urban experience in a downtown environment. Plus, this parcel is right on the 16th St Mall and leaving it as green space would dilute both. That’s not to say that downtown does not need more green space: it does. However, green space should be established where it is the most lacking, like in Ballpark or Arapahoe Square, and where it might also serve as a catalyst to encourage redevelopment in those areas that badly need it, like Arapahoe Square.