While we are busy working on a Golden Triangle roundup, there is one project we will be visiting in detail before the roundup. The proposed project at West 11th Avenue and Cherokee Street aims to preserve one of the best brick retail buildings in the Golden Triangle while adding a significant amount of infill at this corner. After two rounds of design review, this project has its final review on February 13, with the recommendation to move forward. Furthermore, the first record of a building permit was filed with the city on January 24. Lastly, the site behind Cherokee Row, the single-story brick building along West 11th Avenue, has been leveled with construction fencing around the site. The existing single-story retail building will remain retail once the project is complete.
Rising 23 stories, 11th and Cherokee will add a significant amount of density and height to this area of the Golden Triangle. In this post, we will share many renderings, showing almost every angle of the project and how it integrates with Cherokee Row. Here are three renderings of the building from the design review package submitted to the city and the building permit.
The next set of renderings looks at the project from a higher perspective and all four corners of the building. While Cherokee Row isn’t very apparent in these renderings, you can see how the podium is configured and masked on the street-facing sides of the building.
For these final renderings, curiosities can be put to rest as the scrolling gallery below shows the ground-level details of the project and how it is configured on the street level and with Cherokee Row.
Demolition activities are complete behind Cherokee Row, with a construction fence around the leveled site. Below are a few pictures of what the site looks like today.
It is exciting to see this project go through its final design review round and move forward with the recent filing of a building permit. While this project isn’t guaranteed to break ground, we are fairly confident that the signs point to it starting soon. Alpine Investments, the project’s developer, states that completion for this project will be Q4 2025.
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Most Recent Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 Stories | 309 apt homes | 11,770 sf retail | 188 (v) 163 (b) parking | Alpine Investments | Davis Partnership |
Building Permit (2024-01-26) |
What an interesting approach to preservation. I’m excited to see it take shape.
This is exciting! I wonder if the plans for the preserved building units are for retail or residential.
The southern part of GT on Spear Blvd is more than a mile away as a bird flies from the convention center RTD station. With all these residential units coming online, I hope the demand for a train down Spear gets the voice it needs.
As a current resident of the Cherry Creek North area, I would be thrilled to see a train heading down Speer and continuing further into the Cherry Creek Valley. With the planned residential growth at Cherry Creek West (https://cherrycreekwest.com/), there will surely be a lot more demand for transit in that direction.
Unfortunately I don’t see how RTD could manage to cut through the Country Club area without a major uprising from residents. The best bet might be a tunnel under E 1st Ave, with a subway-style station at the mall. Only 100,000 Billion dollars to break ground! 😉
I ❤️ Facadism
That’s a lot of work to preserve some nondescript row houses. Are they still supposed to be residential properties following the construction? Feels like the space could be better utilized if you combined them into an ADA-compliant commercial space and built one unifying patio to face the street. Is preserving these units really what would be best for the neighborhood?
These are not row houses, this is a retail building that is being preserved.
I appreciate the intent here to honor/utilize the historic building, but it just looks like something stuck on the base of the new building. Kind of like an appendage.
Perhaps if they had carried upward the red brick on the new structure, or other design elements such as keeping more of the original buildings depth.
Mixed feelings about this.
Looks pretty ridiculous with that huge building on top of the one story building. The high rise should’ve been pushed further back so as to not overpower the historic building as much.
This is a great point. A “Bespoke Uptown” treatment may have been a bit more desirable:
https://denverinfill.com/2021/05/bespoke-uptown-final-update.html
I agree with Corey too. The “preserved” building looks more like a part of a movie backlot.
Pushing the tower back a bit would definitely be an approvement for the overall aesthetics of the building, but I do applaud the developer for keeping the historic building either way. The pedestrian experience of a 100+ building is superior to that of a new apartment building. You can’t replicate the character and patina of antique brick and the human scale of the historic building.
^ “improvement” and “100+ year old”. I really should proof read before sending.
“You can’t replicate the character and patina of antique brick and the human scale of the historic building.”
Maybe until the one perched on top becomes an antique.
A little more light and air to the historic buildings would have been nice, but I applaud the developers for even considering keeping the facade. An appreciation for the pedestrian experience is rarely included in many new denver projects. Great that Alpine wants to maintain the neighborhood character while providing much needed density.
And unfortunately, the Tavern Uptown building looks great inside and out, but has not been able to find a tenant.
Cool something just a tad higher then the current mesa affect with all the buildings in the Golden Triangle averaging 16, 17 floors, and I’m sorry to be a sourpuss about the, how would the industry speak call it but the nuance of every two floors looking like a double floor. Go ahead laugh at me for not being a developer or architect, but as an artist who would be more excited to walk around ornate eye candy of Budapest, I think I see way too much of this everywhere in Denver now and it’s going to go out like wood paneling.
Is there an update to whether the final review was approved or not? (I unfortunately live in the 6 story building 20 feet behind these plans for a 23 story tower so need to move if this goes forward)
The design review package was approved and looking at the site activity there is a pretty good chance this will move forward; however, it is not a guaranteed “go” until shovels are in the ground.
Man, the scale of this is what’s throwing me off. The original Cherokee Row entrances and facade are not giant, and this is a giant building; unfortunately something gets lost in the scale differences here. I do give them a point for not just bailing on the existing structure (a la Monfort) but it feels like the bulk of the new building doesn’t quite give the existing one the space, air, and respect it deserves.
This is pretty close but feels like it needs a little more time in the oven and agree with the takes from last month here.