From all steel framing back in February, to significant progress on the exterior, Alexan Arapahoe Square is starting to take shape. Alexan Arapahoe Square neighbors another significantly-sized project, Radiant, and will add 353 units of apartment housing to Arapahoe Square. Between 21st Street and Park Avenue West along Welton Street, that’s an additional 682 units of housing in just three blocks.
Great progress is being made on the facade. The base will feature mostly blonde brick, accompanied by a dark red brick. The colors remain the same on the upper floors; however, the patterns switch with the red brick more prominent.
When looking back at the rendering, you can also see that the brick pattern will continue to the sides of the building.
Alexan Arapahoe Square is right around the corner in regards to completion with only six more months to go.
What a depressing project.
Yes, depressing, like it came from behind the iron curtain.
I don’t have a problem with it. Better than the Radiant project next door, that is for sure! Once this is surrounded by other tall buildings it will look just fine.
I do hope the new guidelines for Arapahoe Square produce better looking buildings in the future.
OMG I know I feel the same way. I wish it was still a weedy broken up parking lot.
At least a weedy lot has the potential for a beautiful building to rise in its place. This and the dog next door, however, we’re stuck with for a loooong time.
Yeah! The 500-plus people who will now have somewhere to live in central Denver are totally going to be pissed that their home isn’t more beautiful according the the arbitrary standards of an internet pundit!
Ryan — Are you arguing against architectural criticism in general? Or are you suggesting that the standards by which you assess a building are somehow NOT arbitrary?
If you’re annoyed by architectural criticism, there are plenty of websites you could visit that do not have anything to do with architecture. It’s should be acceptable (and encouraged!) for people to criticize buildings here. It’s a website about infill and urbanism. If you find someone’s opinion to be stupid, then figure out how to say so in a way that isn’t demeaning and insulting. Or better yet, ask them a few clarifying questions to help them better articulate their opinion. The community will be better and the conversations more interesting if you choose to do so.
I am glad it’s brick. Maybe there could have been more old tudor style to stimulate the pedestrian experience, but I’m glad it’s adding to the ‘street canyon effect’. Once upon a time Denver had more street canyons and a lot of old masonry but opportunists plowed those all away and now watching the whole downtown area for a number of decades I think downtown’s consistency to excel lays in the ability to intrigue the perspectives of more pedestrians and drivers. I remember watching the 1801 California tower, the Wells Fargo tower and Republic Plaza being built thinking they were merely stepping stones to something more romantic or architecturally stimulating, something a bit higher but more remarkable to look at from near and far. I think the more land that gets gobbled up downtown for apartments the less opportunity for style and romance is available. Not that I’m too concerned that what I say next is off topic or not but I don’t think I’ve ever, in what, 12 years of following this blog, read where conversations have bee about how downtown could improve it’s dominant vision form afar like the workers that gawk at it from the offices on Union Blvd in Lakewood or the drivers heading into town eastbound down 6th Avenue. Seems like this citiy’s first impression is the last thing on the mind of any downtown panel. In the end couldn’t Downtown Denver raise it’s perception of being the centerpiece of a region more than a downtown community. What we have the boxy skyline looks like an accidental arrangement by the selling landowner’s choice to sell. Maybe for that reason the city could buy some available land and deem it develop-able for a Parisian statue or an iconic supertall which either of those two things would transform a lot of energy for better investment in style.