Back in November, we announced a new 342-unit condo project proposed in the Union Station neighborhood. Recently, the project, named The Coloradan, showed up on the Denver Planning Board and is going to go under review with a staff recommendation of ‘Approval with Conditions’.
But, that’s not the only great news for this great project. We also have some new, super high resolution renderings thanks to Chris Frampton of East West Partners!
First, let’s start out with the street level. As a disclaimer, these renderings, especially at the street level, are not final. There will still be minor tweaks as the project goes through the review process.
Make sure you click to embiggen as each rendering is at a very high resolution.
Next up, the view from the Commuter Rail canopy. The Coloradan has a large setback which breaks up the mass, making it more friendly and visually appealing at the street level.
Here is the view from 18th and Wewatta Street. The transparent building in the foreground is the 13-story Pivot project.
And finally, the 19-story project rendered into a real life aerial photo.
The last rendering is very special to me because I flew the aerials for GBD Architects, the project’s architect, back in January. It’s really neat to see what came out of it. Here is the original photo, without The Coloradan, for reference.
Since this project is still under review, we don’t have a construction timeline just yet. However, we are going to have a neat post coming up in regards to The Coloradan on DenverUrbanism. Stay tuned!
Great coverage as always, Ryan. Thank you
Thanks Kristopher!! 🙂
This looks much improved.
I miss symmetry, even while realizing that a building this large would be overwhelming without breaking it up.
The building has not changed much since the last rendering, but I like this much more than the previous version.
A few thoughts:
— It’s too bad the Union Station stairway toward 18th Street is not more embraced by the building. I’m sure there are remarkable complexities since this building faces such prominent places on all sides, but I have to wonder if there was something that could have been done to better embrace that 18th Street passageway to Union Station.
— The big blank wall at street level facing 18th and Wewatta is a little bit rough, but I’m pleasantly surprised with what the building looks like from this angle. I imagined it would be much worse having seen the first rendering.
— I like how the second rendering says UNION STATIDN. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a typo in a rendering before! Seriously though, kudos to the architects and developer for offering several street level renderings. As far as I’m concerned, street level renderings are the only renderings that give an honest depiction of what the building might be like.
Although the building looks nice, I’m a little shocked that East West is allowed to get away with compromising pedestrian flow from the 18th street bridge by building a passageway through the building, as Ryan mentioned. It’s not that difficult.
Condo? Did you say CONDO?!?!! This can’t be right. We only build apartments in Denver!
This is very good news, because it signals that this developer, East-West Partners, is willing to build a condo project, even though the mostly-frivolous class-action lawsuits against nearly all condo builders will likely continue, until the state Construction Defects Law is modified.
The explanation for this rather gutsy step is that the very high prices of these prime-location condos will cover the heavy insurance costs for likely lawsuits, no matter how well-built the project. That’s because trial lawyers will keep on abusing the current defects law for their own profit. That’s despite the recent passage of Mayor Hancock’s city ordinance, which makes it reasonably harder to file a class action against a builder.
Because trial lawyers will likely challenge the city ordinance in state courts, keeping the whole issue in limbo, until the state law is finally brought back into balance.
In prime real estate locations, like Cherry Creek and Aspen, the very high prices of new housing will hopefully encourage some condo development, because the price will factor in the lawsuit risk.
Great. If you’re wealthy enough to afford it, you can soon once again buy a Downtown Denver condo in an awesome location. Unfortunately, so-called “affordable housing” will remain out of reach for most people who want to graduate from renting to owning.
Meanwhile, let’s hope the Coloradan gets built, and that condo buyers are so satisfied that they won’t be enticed into lawsuits that benefit no one but lawyers.
The tiny triangle size lot immediately northeast of this highrise remains undeveloped, one of the few remaining in the area from 15th to 20th, and from the tracks to the river. There appears to be a couple of obvious choices for this lot: a mini park or a coffee/tea kiosk with a few chairs for gathering and relaxing. Another possibility would be a location for public art.
Great article and coverage of Denver architecture. If you are interested in learning more about the building then you should definitely come check out the presentation at the planning board meeting on Wednesday, May 4th. The added concentration of terra cotta will add a crisp addition to the area. The design introduces a quasi-public passageway through the building off of the bridge that connects to Union Station. The rail side and 18th are tough edges at the lower level that the design is trying to resolve. The ground level as Chris suggest still needs some fine tuning. Hope some of you can attend the meeting with planning.
Where is the meeting held?
Agenda starts at 3pm.
Parr-Widener Community Room #389
1437 Bannock Street
The building is 3rd on the agenda.
Not a fan of the huge blank wall facing the 18th street end of the train platform and staircase
This is very exciting to get a for sale component and have Condos being built. Will they build the IHU or are the buying out to putting it in adjacent neighborhood? Given they only have 64 affordable units in all of Union Station and Commons I hope they include them in the project.
Keith,
The city stats that whenever a condo development exceeds 30 units that a percentage of them are affordable, so obviously there will be a somewhat decent number of affordable units. From what I’ve heard, I think the rest of them will be in the $600-$800 PSF range.
Wow! Even the top floors of the Spire only go for about $650 per sq. ft. That seems very expensive, indeed.
The windows look dangerous. A pet or a child could easily fall out through one of those as did happen to Eric Claptins child back in the 80’s, in New York.
I thought the plan in the Platt only had one more building with the height of the Glass house. Grandfathered in. There how seem to be 4 buildings the height of the Glass House. How is that happening.
Per the Commons PUD, the locations where buildings over 140′ feet are permitted include:
1. 18th & Chestnut (east corner) – Max 250′ (severely underutilized Alta City House site)
2. 18th & Chestnut (west corner) – Max 250′ (Shorenstein project under construction, 24-story tower)
3. The two blocks on either side of 18th & Bassett – Two buildings up to 250′ and two buildings up to 200′ (Glass House towers are the two at 250′ but the Manhattan site could have been two towers of 200′)
4. 16th & Chestnut (east corner) – Max 250′ (future 16 Chestnut site)
5. 16th west side between CML and Delgany – Two buildings up to 250′ (1900 16th Street and DaVita HQ)
Then under the Union Station TMU-30 zoning…
6. A-block next to Wewatta Pavilion – Max 220′
7. B-block next to Wewatta Pavilion – Max 200′
All together between the Union Station and Riverfront Park areas, the zoning allows a total of 11 buildings in excess of 140′.
Can we start a petition to tear down alta city house and replace it with something that fully utilizes that zoning?
God I hate that building. Every time I see it I get upset with the developers.
Does anyone have information on the affordable units that will eventually comprise a portion of this building? I know it’s still in planning stages and hasn’t even broken ground, but the more I can learn, the better prepared I can be.
Also, I agree about the bridge from 18th street. perhaps we’ll see an updated rendering that addresses this concern that so many have pointed out. i love the look of it, though.