It’s official! The project at 17th and Chestnut Street is underway. Right on the edge of the Union Station light-rail station, a 12 and 24-story tower will start rising over the next year or so. As a refresher, here are some preliminary renderings from our announcement post. This development will feature approximately 500 apartment units.
Edit 04/04/16 – 1:20PM – Here are some slightly refined renderings of 1709 Chestnut thanks to our friends at Shears Adkins Rockmore.
Here is what the site looks like as of this weekend. Excavation and drilling is now underway, with heavy construction equipment starting to move onto the site.
To show how large of a site this is, and how much impact this building is going to have on the neighborhood, here is a very high resolution aerial I took back in February. Make sure you click to embiggen!
The empty parcels in the Union Station neighborhood are filling up fast!
With the tens of thousands of people getting off and I’m the trains, I’m surprised how basic three first floors look from the backside of this development. Yes, while the 24 and 12 story towers look stunning, it’s the pedestrian experience from eye level that will have people wondering if money ran out. Hopefully some updated renderings show more detail for this area.
Every building has a backside. Better it’s the side facing the tracks than the one facing the street. (I also assume that is the parking access.)
Very excited to see this one starting construction. The density is perfect. I really wish the entire neighborhood had been built to maximum density/scale, but that ship has sadly, already sailed. The architecture is very high-end compared to what we’ve been seeing recently. The massing is broken up very elegantly with the appearance of three separate buildings. On top of that, it appears the materials are going to be of very high quality. I’m seeng glass and brick without the cheap beige crap that Denver developers love to use. Really nice to see that!!
I am a bit surprised by the way the side fronting the light rail plaza was conceived. Seems as though it is a neglected aspect of this project. I was envisioning a restaurant or two with outdoor dining here. But aside from that, this is going to be an amazing addition to the neighborhood!
Kudos to Shorenstein for bringing something of quality to Denver.
Actually, if you look at the website of the architect (Shears, Adkins+Rockmore) they have renderings (perhaps more up to date) that show that there is some kind of patio with seating that directly faces the light rail plaza. In addition, those renderings show some differences from the one in this post which enhance the appearance of three separate buildings with further differentiation. http://sararch.com/projects/in-progress/1709-chestnut-the-commons/
Thanks for pointing out the new renderings. I updated this post with the new ones! 🙂
I would agree. Even with the new renderings it seems to have a neglect to the part facing the light rail area. They could utilize that are if they wanted too. It’s a shame that it isn’t getting the attention it should have.
A building of this quality and density just makes Alta City house even more of an P.O.S. by juxtoposition.
The developers of that project should be ashamed of themselves. They did Denver a major disservice with that project.
Denver’s planning commission did a disservice to the city.
This is going to be the 2nd tallest building in the CPV. OMG call the height restriction police we won’t be able to see the Olinger sign from the Capital! jk
And wait…not to be negative just exploring degrees of contemplative strain, what about the folks that live in the Glass House? Won’t they object to such a structure blocking ‘their’ view plane of the skyline? I imagine there’s going to be some fussing. This is where I think it could be code, a common agreement that if denizens are to choose downtown that they do so to expect they will eventually look in any direction and see another building.
That’s one of the reasons you see a fair number of glasshouse condos going up for sale right now. Goodbye views.