A very exciting new development is coming to Denver’s Uptown district that will not only eradicate an ugly surface parking lot, but will also restore two historic buildings!
Proposed by New York City-based GFI Development Company, the 19th and Grant Hotel project will restore and reuse both the historic Cathedral High School building at 1840 Grant and the Oscar Malo Memorial Hall building at 1835 Logan, while constructing a new 11-story tower at the corner of 19th Avenue and Logan Street. The new tower and the historic school on Grant will accommodate the hotel rooms and supporting uses while the historic Malo Hall on Logan (built as a gymnasium) will feature a unique amenity space. The number of hotel rooms has not been announced.
The Google Earth aerial photo below shows the location of the two historic buildings and the vacant lot.
For an additional look at the site, here are six Google Street View images. The first set of three images covers the Grant Street half of the site, which includes the Spanish Renaissance Revival architecture of the historic Cathedral High School. The second set of images shows the Logan Street half of the site, which features the surface parking lot and the late Renaissance Revival architecture of the historic Oscar Malo Memorial Hall building.
For more on these historic properties, their history and architecture, and the previous attempts at their possible redevelopment, please read this excellent article by Historic Denver, which worked hard a few years ago to ensure these properties would be preserved as part of any redevelopment project.
Thanks to Rebecca Stone and her team at OZ Architecture, the lead architect on the hotel project, we have the following renderings to share with you. The first image is a bird’s-eye view looking looking southeast with the 19th and Grant corner at bottom center. The second image gives us another bird’s-eye view—this time looking northwest at the Logan Street side with the restored Malo Hall and the new tower. The final image is a street-view looking southwest at the corner of 19th and Logan. Thank you OZ!
A site development plan review application has been filed with the City planning office for 1840 Grant with a project name of “Ace Hotel.” Several of the hotels developed by GFI Development are Ace Hotels. Therefore, it would appear that the 19th and Grant Hotel may become an Ace Hotel, but we have not received any official confirmation of that at this point.
Whatever the final name of the hotel may be, this project will significantly improve the quality of the urban environment in Uptown and restore two beautiful historic buildings in the process.
Oh man, I hope this is built – those existing buildings definitely could use a little love, and the overall design of the new building is objectively awesome (and looks like it will incorporate high quality materials based on these renderings). I will say though, if built this will make the Alexan Uptown project look even cheaper and less appealing by sheer comparison.
Wish we would add a few mega-skyscrapers on some of these downtown parcels instead of a ton of 10-14 story buildings.
Sadly in this area it is mostly the product of low zoning to protect the view plane from City Park.
Phallic megaskycrapers in Uptown? No thanks. This development is in better scale to the neighborhood and can actually be accessed by the public. Look around at this patchwork neighborhood…I’d rather have new space distributed to fill up the lots without choking out the sky. With all of the land available, there is no reason to build megaskyscrapers except for vanity and exclusivity (a la 650 17th).
Funny, I’m more inclined to find your argument for aesthetics over efficiency and functionality “vain and exclusive.” Obstructing a view of downtown is just about the worst anti-density justification there is.
Skyscrapers work downtown, but agreed I prefer not to see “mega skyscrapers” in this neighborhood or similar neighborhoods. That would make it feel less “neighborhood-ish”.
While I disagree with you assessment of 650 17th in general, I would never be able to advocate one of those anywhere east of the Wells Fargo building.
I’m with Matthew. Skyscrapers make little sense at this point, with so much open land there to develop. Really glad they’re not taking down the Spanish mission and it’s gonna get some TLC. Really needed.
This is an amazing project. Historic preservation AND removal of a surface parking lot. Really great to see!
It’s nice that the old mission will be preserved and brought back to life. I have always loved walking past that building. The new building is not too big for what the area is becoming. A lot of things are out of control of the architects. Things like zoning, density & height. It’s the architects job to humanize what does get built given the limitations. Architecturally, I think this building does a decent job of blending the old and new. The one thing that bugs me is the cornice details on both the low and high portions look unfinished and cheap. Especially at the top of the tower. It looks like a steel beam awaiting for the final install of what should be a more traditional and elaborate cornice.
As a Cathedral High School graduate of the Class of 1961, I can say this is a dream come true for our class. We hoped and dreamed for this outcome for the former convent and classroom complex. Including Oscar Malo Hall is just “frosting on the cake”.
There is something about the old convent building that is mysterious and comforting. I hope that this project can pick up on that sensibility for the restoration and for the new.
The school, the convent, the old locker room in the basement on the east/alley side. I graduated 1959. My law office is a few blocks away at 16th and Washington and I have participated in development of the whole neighborhood for more than 40 years; massive change, and improvement. It is a wonderful neighborhood, with Cathedral as its core.