Last week, the Le Meridien / AC Hotel officially topped out at 20-stories. Along with topping out, the facade is quickly going up, which we will be focusing on in this update.
Let’s start out with the 15th and California side of the tower, which is the only perspective shown in the original rendering. The glass and brick facade is making steady progress and should be topped off in the next couple of weeks.
Just like the Hyatt House / Hyatt Place project, blank walls face the neighboring surface parking lots. We can hope that these lots will be developed soon.
Here is one final perspective taken by 1144 Fifteenth Street. The Le Meridien / AC Hotel nicely contributes to the booming street wall along 15th Street.
This project still has a while to go with an expected completion of August 2017.
Wow, it looks great. And it’s such a relief that it’s not too tall. All those monolithic towers over 30 floors are so imposing on the ‘pedestrian experience.’ Hopefully some day they can remove them for something more eco-contemporary. Hey a new buzzword! And that’s something that could start in Denver not Portland.
I’m not sure how towers above 30-stories would be imposing at the street level. Anything above say 10-stories, is going to be just as imposing as a 30-story tower. In a downtown area, you want to maximize density and there are plenty of 30+ -story towers that are great at the pedestrian level.
I can guarantee that we will not be removing any of the taller towers anytime soon. A lot of the older skyscrapers have even been upgraded to meet LEED-Silver/Gold/Platinum certification.
I honestly can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not.
Are you suggesting that we need density and that this project could have been another 10-20 stories taller? If so, I agree. Or are you actually suggesting that density is a problem? If the latter, you’ll have a hard time getting anyone on this site to agree with you.
Um…lol?
Since you mentioned the blank walls awaiting a neighboring project, I’m curious about the buba gump building. Does it have historical status, or will it be town down when something gets built on the SE of this block? Thanks.
I agree with James. Portland, which most would agree has a more attractive downtown, has very few buildings over 30 stories. I’ll take two 20 story buildings over one 40 story building any day. It would mean one less parking lot.
Surely you like this gem: https://vimeo.com/176200937
On the (ongoing) subject of height in this city, I like the idea of variety… I prefer not to see an entire city of strictly monolithic towers, then again I prefer not to see an entire city of 10-story shoeboxes. I think the important thing about height in Denver is 1) our pre-defined CBD isn’t terribly large on the map, so if we’re going to keep growing our office and residential space will need to grow upwards to try to alleviate increased sprawl, and 2) while this may be subjective, how boring and one-dimensional will our skyline/city be if every building is the same height?
European cities are typically dominated by five story buildings are far more vibrant than downtown Denver. I like skyscrapers as much as anybody but given the quantity of empty surface parking lots in downtown I would rather have many shorter buildings than one tall one.
I’m all for balance. We need some 5-story buildings, 10’s, 20’s, 30’s. Obviously a city is not all about its skyline but varying heights keeps it interesting! Union Station is a great example of what good urban form is, with varying heights.
Uhh, you overlooked 60/80/100 story buildings. I like stepped twins so one 80-story and one 100-story suits me.
When I visit the Union Station neighborhood I always feel like I’m in a big city. When I’m in the CBD in Denver I don’t feel that. I feel like the street level is more vibrant around Union Station that a large city should have. The buildings vary in height and are different designs. CBD seems to be big squares with no life. I work in Republic Plaza and wish every day that this building had a better street level design and that the whole building looked differently.
Agreed – it’d be nice if the CBD didn’t shut down after 6pm every day. And to Ryan’s point, I certainly envy the vibrancy of European cities (and even some historical American cities with lower heights but density and vitality which much of Denver doesn’t have… yet)
“…it’d be nice if the CBD didn’t shut down after 6pm every day.”
Did you live here in the 1980s? Or the 1990s for that matter? You could shoot a barrel of oil down 17th Street after 6pm and not hit anyone. Compared to then (and even compared to a lot of middle-America cities now) Denver’s CBD is ALIVE! And that includes areas beyond Union Station or Lodo. I can understand the desire to see even more street-level activity, but we really are in an enviable position. Downtown Denver is a basic, working component in the regional economy–backed by literally billions of dollars in public and private investment–and it shows throughout the CBD. I agree, some areas of downtown aren’t as active as others. But think about it: given what we’ve already got–and what other cities merely dream of–that’s a pretty enviable complaint.
True… I’ll admit I was comparing the “downtown/CBD” to other more active (but also more populous) cities I’ve been to. That said I do enjoy Denver for what it currently is and I’m largely optimistic for its future and growth on top of the awesome stuff we already have. Didn’t mean for my original comment to come off as a serious complaint 🙂
I am really looking forward to “Denver’s highest open-air rooftop bar on the 20th floor.” I am sure the views will be fantastic.