A major renovation is planned for 930 15th Street, the 12-story office building at the corner of 15th and Curtis that has housed telecom offices since the 1960s. The site is outlined on the Google Earth aerial image below.
Built in the early 1960s as a five-story addition to the historic Telephone building next door, an additional seven floors were added in 1966 to reach the current 12 stories. CenturyLink recently moved their offices out of the building and sold the structure in January 2019 to Rialto Capital and SteelWave, the firms planning the renovation. Here are some recent photos of the building.
Generally we don’t track adaptive reuse or renovation projects on DenverInfill but every once in a while a prominent building is renovated to such a degree that it becomes like an entirely new building. This is one of those situations.
The existing building features a mostly opaque facade, not especially appealing to today’s office market. The proposed renovation will remove the existing facade from the entire building and reskin the structure with a new glass curtain wall. The interior will be fully remodeled with new building systems and technology, and new tenant amenities like a rooftop terrace, fitness center, and conference space will be added. A small number of vehicle parking stalls will be included on the ground floor near the alley that will utilize robotic lift parking infrastructure. The ground floor will also include an expanded lobby with a bar/lounge and café. The end result will be 223,000 square feet of space comparable to ground-up new construction.
Gensler, the architecture firm handling the redesign, has provided us with this newly updated rendering of what 930 15th Street will look like upon completion.
In addition to the positive visual impact this project will have on Downtown Denver’s rapidly improving 15th Street, the pedestrian experience along Curtis Street will also be significantly enhanced. The existing solid blank wall along Curtis Street will be replaced with a highly transparent ground-floor facade and a new secondary lobby entrance.
A Concept Plan for the project was submitted to the city last September. The project has advanced now to the Site Development Plan stage, which was filed with the city on January 29, 2019. The project is still under review and must receive additional approvals from the city before construction can begin. The developers hope to complete the project in 2020.
Superb! Although I don’t like to see mid-century buildings “updated” to this degree, the original building was poorly executed and the new reskin is fantastic. Well done!
Although the original building was never a favorite, the reskin does nothing for the two historic buildings on the block. I would have like to have seen a greater effort put in, in order to have theses elements addressed.
Such as…?
Couldn’t disagree more.
Part of what makes the urban fabric rich and interesting is the juxtaposition of different eras and styles.
A contextual response doesn’t need to mimic its neighbors in form, materiality, or detailing.
You’ll notice on the first image that the massing and scale of the first two floors relates very nicely to the adjacent building on 15th (SE, I guess).
These kind of subtle moves provide a contextual response without resorting to mimicry.
I think it was nicely done, and it’s a welcome upgrade.
For some reason, lately I’ve been falling in love with Denver’s towers built in the 60’s (which I used to hate). But this one is ugly as sin no matter how you look at it. This renovation should be a massive improvement. Can’t wait.
In this case I love the contrast of the updated glass curtain with the two buildings on either side. Well done Gensler.
Very happy to see this behemoth get a face lift. Is there any word RE: 1501 Tremont/the two parking lots directly across from this project (behind the Pavilions)?
Very good.
One (minor) bummer…at first I thought this was its even uglier twin across Champa from Spire. In my opinion, that building is in need of something like this.
That was what I thought and hoped for as well. Those windowless ATT buildings are in every city in American, more or less. I don’t see them converting any time soon!
ambitious
Great Improvement
Would like to see development on 15th and Champa, a 45 story office tower soon.
Also an office tower on 15th and Stout St
At the site of the parking garage.
Any news on Tabor Tower 2 is it still in the Denver Planning process.
The ability of the the two glass facades to reflect the skyline opposite them will be spectacular.
GREAT IMPROVEMENT
Let’s hope new development comes to 15th street.
Two new office towers 45 stories each
One on the corner of 15th and Stout st
Old parking garage and the other tower on the corner of 15th and Champa.
Would be AWESOME
As nice as it would be to have a couple of 45-story towers along fifteenth, it likely couldn’t happen on those lots you mentioned based on the fact that Denver’s zoning code restricts shadows cast on the 16th Street Mall. It would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get a tower of that height and proximity to the mall to comply.
I’ve been thinking the same thing. BUT if they were to build something 35-40 stories at the corner of 15th and Champa, the 12-story building just down Champa on the mall might prevent too much of a shadow from being cast. Heck, Block 162 might have a 38-story hotel right on the mall. So I think we can hope for something fairly tall along 15th. As long as it adds to an active environment along 15th, I’m happy!
I have to disagree with the feelings of most people about this building. I quite like it the way it is. I understand that windowed offices are an important selling feature, but the building in its present form is a handsome bit of the 1960’s and is different than anything else downtown.
Having windows in an office is an important living feature. It’s just not healthy to stick people in a windowless box.
Love this, I hope the at&t building on the other side is next. Do you think this will this hurt two tabors chances?
The 930 15th rendering looks just like the recently completed 16 Chestnut. Is it the same architect or a random copy? Let’s change the 930 15th façade, but with something else!
It is the same architect. Gensler.
Good Project
Any more news on Two Tabor Tower .
Last I heard it was in the Denver Planning Department for review back in March of 2018.
I hope it gets built.
There is just one rule in Denver real estate development, and that’s Two Tabor Never Gets Built—ever.
Ever.
Not the downsized version of Tabor Two anyway. Time to get beefy with height downtown. Denver needs some skyline changes more ambitious then the 1144 15th St. at only 42 floors. It’s a nice shaped building but could have been taller. Waiting around for all the right developers to build the perfect pyramid skyline and worrying about shadows is bit of obsessive.I hope to see some marvelous architecture that puts Denver’s longtime tallest boxes in their shadows before I die of old age. Denver has a lot more possibility than it’s planners give it. It’s as if the review boards plan for building heights making sure they’re not seen through the trees of the inner city neighborhoods.Maybe we resign to a city moto of Denver, Remaining Medium.Large Not Large.
Agreed! But not sure it’s the planners. Developers are much more afraid of taking a gamble and achieving satisfying height here in Denver than almost anywhere else. Can’t figure out why. But city planners/leaders do uphold ridiculous zoning rules to prevent *gasp* shadows. What you said in the last sentence perfectly sums it up. They want a diverse, healthy large city but try to plan for things that people in the suburbs want. If a person moves to/visits a large city, they aren’t going to be bothered by shadows along a pedestrian mall. Especially if that’s the price for getting to see some cool, futuristic towers that are the hallmark of almost any destination city.
They left Sam’s out of the concept drawing!? Until recently I lived at Spire and this building was a dead zone at street level. This is a great improvement.
Strongly agree with the idea that it is economics limiting height not city planners. The heights we are seeing are what developers and financiers are comfortable with in this real estate cycle.
Would have to disagree a little bit with the second statement – City zoning is very specific about ‘zones of influence’ along 16th street mall as well as FAR limits in the blocks just south of 16th street. 1144 is a prime example of being outside the sunlight preservation area described in the previous sentence, and as a result was able to build higher than 30-35 stories. On top of that, these sites need to comply with the Waldram diagram requirements laid out in the zoning which makes it very difficult to remain 15% open to the sky when entertaining the idea of building higher than 30-35 stories. Yes, the office floor plates could shrink in area which would grow the building vertically to achieve the max FAR, but the efficiency of the building would drop drastically impacting the ability to lease the space and remain competitive in the new class A office space being built in downtown. To your point though, developers will not spend the money to purchase transferable FAR from other parts of downtown to build higher COB’s, it just does not work with their pro forma.
In the era of Ma Bell, this building was the Denver Main Central Office (DNVRCOMA), a moniker that is a bit misleading. Its virtually windowless design is a product of the bulding’s function as a giant telephone circuit. I agree with other commenters that windowless offices are ill-conceived and unhealthy, but I believe this building was designed as function over form. As for the face lift, I tip my hat to the designers.
I Live in uptown and work in the CBD, and have for 10+ years, I travel several times a year to the great cities of the US and Europe, and I totally disagree that Denver “needs” tall(er) buildings more than sunlight.