Back in October, we celebrated the start of the 18th and Market Apartments as it will occupy one of the worst holes in Downtown Denver. Fast-forward a few weeks, and construction is underway with the parking lot fully eradicated.
Let’s start the update with a couple photos from a few stories up. This project will rise 11 stories and take the entire half block between 18th and 19th streets along Market Street. For a rendering refresher, check out our update here.
Wrapping up, below are two more photos from the ground level. With how much open land this project is taking, it will have a tremendously positive impact in this part of Lower Downtown.
So what’s next for this project? Excavation for the one and a half levels of underground parking is underway. We should hopefully see some vertical action by the spring.
Renderings look like a brick minecraft environment. Better than a stucco minecraft world i suppose?
This development should be a model for all other block-long developments: multiple, varying, vertically-oriented facades (providing a sense of multiple buildings), activated ground floor with corner retail/commercial spaces, and lots of brick. The city was built on brick. This one will transform this block. Let’s just hope something of similar quality gets built across the street.
Part of the reason why you like this is because LoDo has a required design review process complete with a design review board and design standards and guidelines above and beyond the city’s standard development review requirements that mandate some of the architectural features you described above. Why can’t we have this to some degree in all parts of Downtown, or even the entire city?
I agree. I think that all of downtown should undergo some sort of design review process and that development in the rest of the city should at least undergo a design advisory process; one that is tailored for specific neighborhoods.
Ken, that’s an interesting idea. You can count me among those who are disappointed with much of the architecture going up in this town. On the other hand, I worry that a downtown or city wide design review might add increased costs, lead time, and uncertainty to development, ultimately resulting in less construction and higher building costs. This doesn’t sound appealing in a city which is already experiencing a housing crisis. Do you think those concerns are unfounded? What about upfront design guidelines, like a manual, which would be remove the uncertainty and added time for approval elements?
There’s always a trade-off between what the added regulation would provide and the cost or impacts of that regulation. But if done correctly, good design standards and guidelines and a design review process wouldn’t have to automatically add that much more to the process. The existence of the LoDo design standards and guidelines/review process doesn’t appear to have decreased the demand for development in LoDo. Good design can help spur development to some degree–people want to invest where there’s an attractive built environment.
Thanks for your reply, Ken. I’m still skeptical that this might cause more harm than good. If housing costs weren’t so out of control in this region already, and there weren’t all sorts of other factors keeping the supply of housing artificially low, then I might have more of an appetite for this proposal. Especially for a city wide design review. Downtown only might be reasonable. I’m curious if there are any cities of Denver’s stature, or larger, with a city wide program like this.
That’s a good question about city-wide programs elsewhere. I’m not sure. I would advocate for us to expand design review first to the rest of downtown and then incrementally expand it to other areas of the city over time as needed or desired by the local neighborhood.
I believe Seattle does.
Do you have any inside info about the property across the street along Market? Hopefully it’s not Dikeou owned!