A major Uptown project is close to breaking ground on Logan Street between Colfax and 16th Avenue. Crescent Communities, the same developer as Novel RiNo, is close to starting their new 10-story Uptown project, named Novel Uptown.
When visiting the project site this past weekend, Millender White, the project’s general contractor, was beginning to stage jersey barriers and parts of the construction fence. Before starting construction, a small two-story building was demolished to make way for this project. However, the majority of the site has sat as a surface parking lot for decades. Below are a few photos of the project.
Novel Uptown will rise ten stories, have a facade mostly comprised of brick, and features ground-floor retail. Here is a rendering of the project. The architect on record is Tryba Architects.
Construction for Novel Uptown is expected to start in the coming weeks. It’s exciting to see how much development is getting underway around Downtown Denver!
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Contractor |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 Stories | 261 apt homes | 226 (v) parking | Crescent Communities | Tryba Architects | Millender White |
Sad to see an old house go but I like the building and it will be a major improvement.
Does anyone have any history on the demolished house or that block? I’ve always been fascinated by some of these blocks where there is a lone house surrounded by parking. Why were those particular houses saved while the rest were razed? Was it just a hold out owner or was there something historically significant that we forgot about in the last 50 years?
Haha omg look at Madison up on the balcony with her sunglasses! She is fierce and ready for the club. 😉
(In the rendering, Ryan it’s okay if you don’t approve this comment it’s ridiculous I know)
The home that was demolished without any ceremony was the Estabrook-Nicholson House at 1559 Logan. It was a remnant of the past when the streets in this section of North Capitol Hill were populated by large homes and mansions. There are basically two intact homes left: the Fisher Mansion at 1600 Logan (which is owned by David Owen Tryba, the architect for Novel Uptown) and then the George Schleier Mansion at 1665 Grant. There is a remnant of the Fletcher Mansion left at the southwest corner of Grant and 16th as well. During the 1950s and 1960s, most of these homes were demolished as demand for parking lots became too intense. From a historical perspective, it’s a shame to have lost so many buildings whose cost and materials would make them too prohibitively expensive to recreate today in this area. The photographic history is what we have left and many of these mansions were truly magnificent. As to why the Estabrook-Nicholson House remained standing for so long, I cannot say. I do know that it was the home of one of Colorado’s US Senators in the 1920s–Sam Nicholson. He was a Leadville mining engineer and former mayor of Leadville. He died in office in 1923. The house’s construction dates to the 1890s and was built for the Joseph Estabrook family. The Estabrooks were a pioneer family closely entwined with the Kountz family–founders of the Colorado National Bank back in 1862. The enormous Kountz Mansion once stood on the NW corner of 16th and Grant. Charles Kountz married Joseph Estabrook’s sister. They all lived in the same neighborhood until 1903 when the Estabrook’s sold the house to the Nicholson’s. The house later served as office space and in 1962, when other nearby homes were being demolished, it became the headquarters for Hall and Hall Real Estate. The Hall family remained owners and caretakers of this structure but I can only guess they received an offer they could not refuse when they sold it for $7.3 million dollars this year to make way for Novel Uptown.
Oh, no! How will these ~300 residents go about their lives knowing they’ve helped demolish a *mansion*. The guilt will be just overwhelming. A person used to *live* there one time. How will the community ever recoup the value lost from this cherished parcel? It could have been the future home to another real estate company!
Chill out bro. No one here is saying this isn’t a better land use. There is nothing wrong with learning about the history of our city.
Very informative deep dive into the history of that corner of town, and very much appreciated, Shawn
hope it includes underground parking!
Bravo to Tryba for designing such a contextual building. It will pair nicely with the Tudor Revival building across 16th. Bravo too to Shawn for the deep history!
Excited for this, I love good mixed-used brick building and wish we had more of them!