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Originally Posted by lumos
Ryan,
Excellently captured photographically. I agree this has turned out really well. Walking around the building you get a sense of the architect's hand all over it. Surprise design elements that only appear from a particular angle, interesting alignments. Designed like they give a damn.
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Union Tower West – from Dusty Lot to Stunning Gem
Featured in the December 2016 issue of Building Dialogue by Kevin Criss via
Colorado Real Estate Journal
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Gordon Beckman, acclaimed design director for John Portman & Associates, sits in Union Station pondering the firm’s first project in Denver, LoDo’s Union Tower West.
“I judge a project on three scales,” says Beckman. “How does it work in the urban scale, how does it work in the building scale and how does it work in the detail scale. And this stacks up very, very well.”
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A lengthy piece that is a good read: a bit of hype but very interesting for the most part. A sample:
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1801 Wewatta Street was a dusty lot with the weird shape that languished on the wrong side of the tracks from Union Station. It was also one of the last parcels in a white-hot neighborhood where anything of substance could be developed.
Hensel Phelps secured the site along with Atlanta-based developer Portman Holdings. They partnered to bring in John Portman & Associates, who in turn tapped Beckman as the architect to make something spectacular out of the ragged parcel.
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With respect to their sizable holdings around the globe, Beckman says:
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“To me, this is not a little project, this is a big project with a big urban impact, with a big architectural impact, and it deserves all or more of the attention of any large projects,” says Beckman. “We have a very difficult site, with unusual geometry. It’s triangular on one side, it’s got a curve on one side and it’s got two flat edges. It’s a very difficult site but a site that prompted creativity.”
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Plenty more to read if one is inclined.
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