Today we have a big update on another big project in the Union Station district: The Grand. Haven’t heard of it? That’s the new name for what’s been known until recently as 1709 Chestnut. There are banners on the fences surrounding the site promoting the new name, and they have a website now too.
By any name, the development is a substantial one, consisting of two towers—one 12 stories and the other 24 stories—providing a total of 508 new homes for people seeking to live a transit-oriented lifestyle, given the project’s location adjacent to the Union Station transit hub. About 8,000 square feet of ground-floor retail, 446 automobile parking spaces, 100 bike parking stalls, several indoor and outdoor resident gathering spaces, a pool, fitness studio, dog run, and a community kitchen round out the amenities. This is our tenth update on The Grand; you can check out all of our other posts here.
Architecturally, the towers strike a contrast, with the 12-story South Tower sporting a brick facade while the 24-story North Tower is mostly glass. Together, they make quite a visual impact. The project was designed by Shears Adkins Rockmore, with Shorenstein as the developer and Saunders as the builder.
Let’s take a look, starting with the South Tower, and views from along Chestnut at 17th:
Here we see the gap between the South and North towers where access for motor vehicles and pedestrians lead to internal parking ramps and outdoor courtyards.
From near 18th and Chestnut looking back toward 16th Street, we are rewarded with an amazing view of the street wall along Chestnut Place. Just think, everything you see in this photo is new in the past five years.
At 18th and Chestnut we get a good view of the North Tower’s northeast and southeast sides. A retail space will anchor the ground floor at this corner too. Both towers’ lobbies will face Chestnut.
And speaking of street walls, here’s one looking up 18th Street toward LoDo and the Central Business District. Two blocks away, The Coloradan is about half way up to its ultimate 19-floor height.
From the 18th Street Pedestrian Bridge we get a great view of the northwest side of both towers that face the light rail platforms and the ramp to the Union Station Bus Concourse. On this side, the South Tower’s facade changes to a mix of glass and brick.
From the light rail platforms and the Millennium Bridge, we can see that the North Tower is L-shaped and features a whole lot of glass. With the last of the three photos below, we are back to 17th Street and the brick facade of the South Tower.
Let’s wrap this post up with a sweet view of The Grand from Commons Park.
The South Tower still has three more floors to go before topping off. The Grand will open in 2018.
This is awesome! Can’t wait to see the street wall along Chestnut when construction on all the projects here has wrapped up.
That is my favorite shot of the post!
So sorry there are fewer parking spaces than apartments. Finding a space on the street is insane. The city of Denver needs to require more off-street parking from developers.
Providing more parking only encourages more people to drive. Why do we want to do that when we’ve invested billions of dollars in transit to give people an alternative to driving? As a growing city, we simply cannot accommodate everyone if they drive everywhere in their own cars. It’s a spatial problem. There simply isn’t enough room on the streets and the end result would be continuous gridlock. The only solution is to make it more difficult to drive alone in your own vehicle and to make it easier to get around by other means. Besides, with autonomous cars going mainstream within the next 5-10 years, the experts estimate that the demand for parking will go down by as much as 80%. Why build buildings with levels of space dedicated to storing automobiles when the need to store automobiles is going away? That doesn’t make business sense.
what do us out of towners do when we want to visit? Or have a need to come to Denver, or is Denver now only for the trust fund hipsters residents?
Avoid parking altogether, John. Buy an RTD pass.
So what do people like us on the Western Slope do if we want to visit or have a need to come to Denver. As a former Denver resident I am dismayed at what Denver is becoming, an over priced city trying too hard to be San Fran or Seattle instead of it’s history as an independent city with it’s own character. Sadly Denver is becoming an arrogant trust fund hipster progressive city that thinks it’s shit don’t stink. So I assume those of us in other parts of the state or neighboring states who have a need to visit are pretty well “fuck off” by Denver with no place to park
There are plenty of places to park. Literally, tens of thousands of general public parking spaces in Downtown Denver. A space may not be directly in front of or inside of or next to your destination, but probably not more than a couple of blocks away, and the free mall shuttle can help with that. Or you could drive to a park & ride and take transit in from there, eliminating the need to find parking downtown in the first place. Or you could drive to the outer edges of downtown where curbside parking is free and take Uber or Lyft into downtown. I can think of lots of options.
All so interesting how the information about the solution to single occupancy vehicle travel gets corralled by the planning/ building code department. And what’s more interesting is how a certain special consensus is derived. Was there a citywide vote? Or is there some loophole where the planning department is concerned that a full public opinion of input isn’t necessary. I also wonder how not just selective polls but voters would react to certain charters like the ‘view plane’ or ‘height limits.’ I entertain the thought that not a full consensus of the population of Denver really have the time to give their input and that’s my opinion. With a mere ‘Denver downsize’ perspective with our traffic engineers, I’m pretty sure Denver is already headed into a gridlock situation regardless of all the easement of public transportation and to include bike lanes and this and that. Denver needs a lot more faster public transit to really engage it’s population. But yes forcing people into public transit isn’t all that romantic as say San Francisco’s public transit is when Denver is nearing the same population. I’m wondering if engineers and planners aren’t taking an ambitious look at the boondoggled privatized U.S. 36 spent all that money on what amounts to bus plus pay-for lexus lanes. They could do the same on downtown streets that might certainly force more bodies into public transit. Just a few more scanners placed around and some striping and signage. Wahlah, let’s get’r done. It’s also my opinion that there are more people that are disgruntled about the hate for cars than the self interest people who want to downsize that kind of mobility, they’re just use to not having a voice and end up stuffing their frustration. See I don’t believe that bridling people’s ease of access is really all that cool especially when we haven’t touched the tip of the iceberg with electric vehicle mobility and no I don’t think that automation is all that imagination and perception has entrusted it to be. Who’s carrying the public’s insurance? Technology is only going to move as fast as the insurance industrial complex and the oil industrial complex will allow. That’s a huge piece of Wall Street.
That was a lot of rambling that made no sense what so ever. Maybe you should try to avoid posting in public forums so you don’t continue to embarrass yourself.
Love that view down Chestnut. Any news on the final plat in DUS at 19th & Chestnut? That will complete the street wall.
I think this is one of my favorite residential developments in the Union Station area. The glass on the 24-story tower is really beginning to shine, and will compliment glass house so well.
This one is turning out nice. It’s clean and easy to read. No arbitrary geometry tacked on. A simple pallet of colors and materials. It expresses it’s urban setting and fits in. You can argue over height, parking, retail etc. but those things are often pre-determined by factors outside of design. Good design will take those pre-determining factors and do something with it.