The finishing touches are being made over at The Lydian. This is a significant project in the Five Points neighborhood, along the Welton Corridor, as it adds 130 apartment homes, 15,300 square feet of office space, and 9,200 square feet of retail. To top it all off, it also replaced a surface parking lot that has been an unnecessary gap in this part of the neighborhood for years.
DenverInfill visited this project a few times during its construction. Make sure to check out our post history:
The Lydian is situated along the L-Line light rail corridor with the 25th and Welton stop right outside its front door. With parking access along 26th Street, and a great open ground floor along Welton Street, this project enhances the experience of both transit users and pedestrians.
This project features three different facades, each corresponding to a setback in the building. The base, up to floor three, is a mix of dark and red brick with a glass wall at the entrance. The second setback features gray brick, with a similar toned stucco on the inside. The final setback, on floors seven and eight, continue with the gray stucco from the interior. This creates a very clean look without any mismatched or random patterns.
Leasing for the apartments starts in a couple weeks and we should hopefully see a couple tenants move in to the ground floor retail spaces soon. Welcome to Downtown Denver, The Lydian!
It’s perfect! Wow really puts to shame most of the new construction. How do we encourage more buildings like this?
Nice infill. The structure shouldn’t overpower the neighborhood with too much height, and I’m sure retailers like the idea of being ten steps away from the lightrail station. Hopefully rents are reasonable.
wish these were condos!!
BY FAR the best new development in Five points.
Nice form, great scale, great building materials, retail, office, residential, excellent pedestrian experience…
Just wow. Love it.
More projects like this please. This fits in beautifully in so many ways. No complaints here!
Why change the style and materials halfway up? Just keep the red brick motif. Let the setbacks do their job.
Where are the trees? if Denver is serious about livability, climate change and green spaces then every development needs to contribute to a ‘land bank’ equivalent to 10% of its land area, so that park spaces can be purchased. Small strips of plants are good for pet relief and not much else. What good is increasing urban density when there are no spaces to recreate and refresh the soul? Denver needs a serious-sized park in RINO!
There are four parks within three blocks of this project. There are no trees fronting the project because of the light rail lines’ overhead wires and restricted sidewalk space.
Not sure why you’re talking about RiNo when this project is clearly in Five Points.
A serious sized park in RINO will not happen…ever…simply no land available and if it was pieced together the cost would be astronomical. The reason there is no park in RINO today is because it was an industrial zoned area for the majority of its existence. If you want to live near a large park in a big city you should probably live in one of the “Park” neighborhoods…ie. Wash Park, City Park, Congress Park, Cap Hill.
RINO is working on improving their serios-sized park, which has been there (along the RI) for a while…
Not really arguing your point about the need for more trees in general Luke, but this is a tough place for that as the light rail runs along the front of this entire building which definitely cuts down on the opportunity for a bunch of trees street side.
Regarding a serious park- Curtis-Mestizo is maybe seven blocks away, Sonny Lawson is two blocks away.
If you mean RINO proper (if there is such a thing, I’ll stick to calling this development in Five Points), I definitely agree, though I suppose it could be argued the Platte river is a park.
I’m generally in agreement with this sentiment, but I think we should make an exception for those powered overhead lines that keep the trains moving, don’t ya think?
i think this is a really nice development from an aesthetic perspective. the brickwork at the bottom looks great but the colors clash a bit on the top, particularly on the very top floor
. nice to see the ground floor office and retail space
How many other seven story red brick buildings are there in Five Points? Changing the facade both color and style-wise mimics the appearance of a historical building that was remodeled and expanded and maintains the context of the Welton Street corridor. While this project is being celebrated, if it was an actual historic renovation the Denver Fugly crowd would probably be up in arms about ruining a building.
Who is the Denver Fugly crowd? If you mean people who love the texture and scale of our older and dissappearing city, count me in. If you mean people who love and appreciate well thought out modern buildings, count me in. If you mean people who can articulate their aesthetic sensibilities, count me in. If you mean people that are fed up with all the crap that’s being built in our city, count me in.
I see that crowd as the people who complain non-stop about new infill because current infill trends don’t match what they’re used to. Cities change and when you think something is ugly, many others find it interesting and charming. The “Denver Fugly crowd” resists change at every turn and then references “aesthetic sensibilities” that aren’t universal, telling us our city is going to ruin when today is the best Denver has looked since the parking lot craze of the 70s/80s. Recent adaptive reuse projects have been tasteful and common and the “old” Denver is being preserved and honored in many ways. Not across the board, but not enough to warrant all the drama either. Really cheap buildings will have a shorter lifespan and can get replaced with time.
I guess I have never come across anybody that would qualify as a ‘Denver Fugly’ as you describe. I do take seriously the true legitimate gripes of people and think it’s dismissive to peg them as part of a crowd just because I might disagree with them. I read every post and on this site and it seems to me that there is a nearly universal aesthetic sensibility amongst it’s followers. It is not a stylistic sensibility but is rather an execution sensibility. Most of the protest are against the inarticulate confused designs AND the shoddy construction, which in the end does amount to an aesthetic. I think we agree there are some great projects in Denver, and there are some not so great. However, even a cheap building will last a lifetime and in that lifetime the people of the city have to live with it and its hazards. How much of that huge toxic landfill along Pena Blvd. is made up of yesterday’s cheap buildings! Maybe we should put up a sign along Pena Blvd. that says “Welcome to Denver, Better then a Parking Lot”. We need to commend those that achieve a higher standard and call out those who don’t.
I totally agree that it’s important to discuss and allow developers and architects to learn about the tastes of locals from this comment section. People can say our city is filling with crap and they can discuss why they think that all they want. But I wouldn’t say those tastes are nearly universal. A glance at the comment section of any post will show that there are a variety of opinions on every project. Many commenters arrogantly imply that their opinions on Denver’s “ugly” and “shoddy” architecture and execution should be accepted as fact when in reality, it’s all opinion. One person may complain about a white column looking out of place, or color schemes looking cheap while others don’t notice it at all and see a building that provides housing and amenities to a city that desperately needs those things. Constructive feedback helps to refine designs in the future. BUT (as many have pointed out in the comments) some are guilty of “I-know-more-than-you” griping about small details that not everyone thinks are blaringly hideous and that detracts from the point of reading this blog for many of us which is to celebrate much needed infill. I don’t mean to police the comments, I just believe current Denver architecture is a lot more thoughtful and interesting than some are saying it is.
Yes, excellent development.
This should be a benchmark for new developments. Its very pleasant looking and will likely have great visual appeal for many many years. Setbacks, scale, building materials/choices, retail, transit, residential….etc Awesome Job
I agree that the Lydian is a beautifully designed/constructed project and should set the standards (along with One City Block) for project of this scale. I am hoping that the 1800 Market project gets built as it was designed so then that project (11 stories) can be held up as a standard for projects of that scale. However, what I find interesting and a bit ironic, is people praising this project’s scale (8 stories) as being appropriate. Not that long ago, there was pushback on the first design (scale) of what would become the Wheatley building one block southwest. The original proposal—8 stories, mixed use, w/ some affordable housing—was scaled down to 5 stories, mixed use, some for-sale townhouse. My, how times change.
What makes a city beautiful besides it’s geography and it’s people? It’s streets, it’s buildings, it’s monuments and it’s parks. Clearly this building is not a monument and I commend it for not attempting such a pretense. It works with the street by creating a rhythm of heights, material, details and activity along the street. As a building, it’s nice that the larger, set back portion is expressed differently in material and aesthetics. It creates a contrast to the street face, which is the part you want to remember. The taller part is attractive but recessive and remains unremarkable in your memory. I think this approach is gentler on the senses as not every part of a building needs to scream at you. No, I do not work for the architects. I just think they did a very good job.
Sorry if this has already well known but have any businesses leased the available retail space yet?
The brick part is nice but I don’t get the almost brutalist gray mausoleum that sits on top. Can buildings be bi-polar?