As great as it would be to have Kenect Denver under construction, the first update for this project is going to focus on its journey through the Arapahoe Square Design Review process. When we first reported on Kenect Denver, plans called for a 34-story building containing 441 apartment units with office space and ground-floor retail.
With the second round of design review coming up next week, the project has gone through an extensive change in design including a height reduction. The proposed project now calls for a 23-story building containing 434 units along with office and retail space. There is also now a setback in height towards 22nd Street because the building will reside in two separate zoning districts; D-AS-12+ and D-AS-20+.
The submittal documents contain a significant number of renderings, which are all designed by Shears Adkins Rockmore. When comparing to the original renderings of the 34-story tower, the 23-story design is much more refined, and slightly wider to accommodate for windows and balconies on the narrow edges of the building.
The project will feature two amenity decks, one on level four, and the other on the top floor.
The first five levels will contain a podium, commercial space and ground floor retail. The parking podium will be completely covered on the Lawrence side, as part of the new design guidelines. Below are four renderings of Kenect Denver from the ground level.
Let’s wrap up with a view of the alley side, and a straight on view from Lawrence Street.
There are a few elements that are up for design review for this rendition of Kenect Denver. These elements include detailing on the street level, ensuring that the space is broken down into more human scale elements, and some additional articulation on the facade facing the historic buildings. For the full report, you can access the document here. Overall, the new design is great and will positively impact this area of Arapahoe Square.
i really like this project, very nice aesthetic
Oh…wow. I not complain about people complaining about monolithic, out-of-scale architecture, blank walls, etc. at this particular development. Also, I think it is spelled “Connect.”
Regarding scale, the Arapahoe Square neighborhood plan envisions this as the scale for the neighborhood, so while it may be out of scale now, this is the desired new scale. Someone’s got to be first.
You should probably tell the developers of the Chicago and Nashville Kenect projects that they are spelling it wrong. The Chicago project will have to change their signage but I’m sure they will be grateful for the tip.
Much like my initial post, there needs to be more proofreading. Or I want to figure out who “Ken” is.
The project is actually spelled Kenect. There’s a link to the submittal documents in this post if you need to verify that.
I was wondering about this project. It appears a 2019 ground breaking still might happen. Bummer it is 10 stories shorter than the conceptual design but I really like it! Will be a nice addition to this side of downtown.
Any other 20+ story building updates being brought to our attention in the near future? I’m sure many followers (myself included) would love a “big project announcement/update” fix.
I agree it’s a shame they didn’t keep the initial height, but I do like the building. I’m also glad they keep the number of units (almost) the same. It’s exciting to see the downtown population of Denver grow. Especially when residents there are more likely to walk, bike and use public transit!
Thanks for the update Ryan!
This looks like a positive development for a part of town that needs a bit of help. Some of the existing projects, here, are pretty drab.
Ken
Why was the Confluence Tower allowed to be built.( 34 stories ) it looks out of place.
When Arapahoe Square has so much potential
for redevelopment taller residential towers,and office towers. A lot of surface parking area.
Keep up the great job Ken
James, you can read all about the history of the Confluence Tower here: https://denverinfill.com/2010/06/the-confluence-project-update.html
Basically, the gross building square footage you see today is the same as what would have been allowed under the previous zoning, just reshaped and pushed upwards into a point tower. The previous zoning would have required a 90-foot building to cover the entire site, property line to property line, as a massive box.
The Union Station/Lower Highlands side of town is a far more desirable part of town than A-Square. I don’t understand the ire for the Confluence Tower. We could use dozens more like it throughout the core.
I agree Rich. Every single one of those crappy 4-5 story, crappy apartments along the creek path and along Platte should be point towers like Confluence. It’s one of the best projects in Denver in the past decade.
This.
I LOVE that the new guidelines require a hidden parking podium. The street level is gonna be fantastic!!
I had no idea and this is a thrill to me, as I walk my commute downtown and shake my head at all of the visible parking structures.