Look, sometimes kooky things pop up in permits and the public needs to see them as soon as possible. An observation tower just off the 16th Street Mall that’s almost as tall as Denver’s tallest skyscraper? That’s newsworthy!
We know so little at this time. When I last visited this surface parking lot in Downtown Denver, there was a speed climbing competition underway. My ambitions for the future of this vacant lot were low. The landowner is linked to the former Bank of Denver which is now part of MidWestOne Bank. Who’s the architect? (Please, please get in contact with us!) What’s that orb on top of the tower? Where exactly can you observe from? There’s basically only 3 images in any of the concept filings, and they’re measured more prominently in meters than feet… European tower? Eye of Sauron?
The barest hints emerge in the site plan, submitted alongside the elevations for this project. It looks like a public plaza would surround the base of the tower, with a tourist-trap gift shop and associated infrastructure for staffing the new attraction.
This project seems as far fetched as they get, but we love the ambition. Downtown could use a new attraction. Keep your eye on DenverInfill for future updates to this project!
| Project Description | Developer | Architect | Most Recent Activity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 673-foot Tower with Observation Deck | Public Plaza and Associated Entrance | 0 (v) parking | Ephraim LLC | ? | Concept Plan (2025-6-24) |
100% agree Denver needs something like this. If I had to guess those circles on the sides would be an enclosed passenger pods. The guests would spiral up the exterior of the tower, kind of like a vertical observation wheel. There would not be an observation deck. This would be a 673′ ride, probably taking between 30 to 60 minutes to ride up and down.
Having an attraction that is more of a ride, but is not a giant Ferris wheel like many cities already have, is really cool.
Yes, please let’s NOT get a Ferris wheel! I recently learned of a Russian city named Cheboksary, and when I looked it up, sure enough, it has a Ferris wheel along the Volga river. I wonder how many times the Denver visitors’ bureau gets the question, “Where is your Ferris wheel?”
Oh its about time that Denver gets an observation tower, this would do wonders for the city. I can just imagine the view of the mountains on a clear sunny day. It would definitely be a major landmark and I’m certain that it would be a success and popular among locals as well.
I’ve been thinking an observation tower downtown would be a fantastic new attraction. I imagined it being built on the huge parking lot on Court Place between 14th and15th. I never thought about this lot, which I thought was supposed to be developed as a hotel. But I like how this lot is right off 16th Street. The tower absolutely has to be tall enough to have a great 360 degree view and make a nice impact on the skyline.
Very bizarre, Denver needs a observation deck with full mountain views and all of 16th street. Want to see more renderings very interesting projects.
We need this so bad. Calgary has a tower and it brings in so much tourism to the downtown core. I was shocked how many people were lined up waiting to get into the tower in Calgary on a random weekday when I went. This was the only reason I was even interested in visiting Calgary for a day instead of going straight to banff. We need reasons to attract people downtown instead of them heading right to the mountains which is the destination for most tourists
The only reason I stopped to see Calgary on my way to banff was to go up the Calgary tower. I was shocked how many people were lined up to get into on a random weekday at 10am. Denver needs a reason for tourists to come downtown instead of bypassing it and going straight to the mountains. A tower would be a huge economic boom to downtown Denver and the owner would make a ton of money. All of the observation towers I’ve gone up in have always been packed with lines out the door.
Is it April 1st?
I know this won’t happen, but I always thought it would be smart to preserve the Elitches observation tower when the River Mile gets going.
This won’t happen.
Andy, do you know what happened to the Block 162 phase 2 plan with the hotel incorporating the interior of the McClintock building?
Why would it be only 673′ tall? They should go ahead and go for 1000′!
Appears to be related to this https://www.magnicity.com/project/spiral-tower/
The site is odd. So it’s like traveling salespeople taking their tower city to city. Do they also sell musical instruments or monorails?
I believe this is in a historic district. How will this pass muster there?
I think the district is a patchwork of existing buildings but doesn’t encompass the entire area. This parking lot is not part of the district.
Similar to the mid 90s shopping center or the 2019 office building tower that are both adjacent, probably fine. And then maybe in 50 years it would be considered historic itself.
This is not a historic district, though there might be issues with the the sunshine requirements for 16th Street (aka the 16th Street Mall)
In 2013 the conceptual design for Block 162 was proposed to have a 798ft observation tower when the project still included the hotel portion. It immediately got VE’d out unfortunately
They could build 2 or 3 of these, scattered throughout the downtown, by constructing them on the side of existing buildings.
The top floor observation deck and termination point could a restaurant or aerial venue and would not impact the existing skyline.
Building the elevators on the outside of the structure limits the impact to existing uses and improves street level visibility for promotion.
I love this! We need an observation deck/tower in this city! The mountain views will be incredible. How can we support this?
The “spiral tower” is bold, unusual, and early-stage. It will either need to attract serious support, accommodate preservation concerns, or quietly fade into the concept bin. I wonder what the Denver real estate investors are thinking about this project?
Did Denver Infill just get spammed by a a bunch of the developer’s/architect’s lackeys? Who are all the people that think this is a great idea that is going to attract attention downtown. I visit cities like Berlin and Seattle where observation towers were built in the 70s or 80s and I wonder who’s still visiting these things. Even worse, this one is really unsightly.
Let’s keep working on making our city attractive and livable on ground level instead of investing in single flash-in-the-pan attractions like this.
Instead of an iconic signature high rise–condo/hotel/office–we get a gimmicky eye sore that looks like a cross between a pimp stick and Merlin’s wand. Poor Mayor Pena, Denver stopped imagining itself as a great city a long time ago.