An additional tower crane has recently been erected in Cherry Creek making the total tower crane count up to seven! Since we started reporting on Cherry Creek back in 2013, we have never seen this many tower cranes in this neighborhood, and there may be more as more projects kick off.
Here is a panorama showing the neighborhood, looking west. In this photo, there are six tower cranes in Cherry Creek with two additional cranes in the background; belonging to Country Club Towers and 1144 Fifteenth Street. The other cranes, from left to right, belong to Alexan Cherry Creek, The Laurel, the Rollnick Hotel, 210 Saint Paul, Civica Cherry Creek (yellow tower crane), and the Anna and John J Sie Foundation.
Here is another photo looking east, along with a straight on view down East 2nd Avenue, from the panorama. In the first photo, you can see the tower crane for Gables Cherry Creek II. The parking lot in the foreground is the site of 235 Fillmore, which is rumored to start soon.
I have high hopes for a record breaking tower crane census this summer. Have a great weekend, DenverInfill readers!
The rush by developers to exploit some of the worst zoning decisions made in the city’s history are very hard to cheer on here. I get the purpose of infill as a blog and mostly love it. But when it comes to development that isn’t truly Infill (rather raze and redevelop for higher density and higher profits), I wish there was some criticism to offer every once in a while. Or at least a little less unbridled enthusiasm.
Explain the worst zoning decisions.
In every market, a certain proportion of development is going to consist of razing low-density structures and replacing them with higher density structures, as opposed to pure infill that replaces a vacant lot or surface parking lot. It just so happens, in Denver, that proportion is very low. You can’t ask for much more than that. As long as we’re not losing structures of historical significance (and there have been only a few developments over the past decade that can even be questioned in that regard,) I don’t see what the problem is. And what’s wrong with higher density? As a neighborhood’s density increases over time, the neighborhood organically becomes more walkable and more transit oriented. That’s what we infill geeks are looking for.
In general, I believe that higher density in an urban neighborhood–whether through infill development or scrape off–is an improvement. As for Cherry Creek in particular, for years it’s been a hodgepodge of architectural styles, most of it uninteresting, and nearly all of it poorly executed. We’re getting some new and interesting visual stimulus with the buildings rising in this current boom.
We’re also witnessing the cycle inherent in all urban centers: Change. In this instance, most if not all of it will increase the chances of a higher population density for central Denver, an outcome that I believe is preferable to losing people (and a stagnant population flow, for many reasons, has the same affect as a declining population). A city has a better chance of maintaining or improving its fiscal and physical structures, and has a more stimulating social fabric, when it’s gaining people rather than losing people. And through all of it–for better or for worse–someone, somewhere, will make a profit.
I agree. And poor zoning decisions might include permitting up to eight story buildings without requiring parking accommodations in an already congested area.
Just a note to say that the “Triangle 22 on Elati” at 1323 Elati Street is missing from the DenverInfill Project Map.