DENVER | Main Development Thread #6

[denconyny]

Originally Posted by J21bird

Late this afternoon Hines, the developer of 1144 Fifteenth Street has given Denver Urban Review the green light to share the updated renderings of this skyscraper. All Images are courtesy Hines. Site prep work is already underway at the site as construction will begin in earnest in the coming days. I have posted 5 images to DUR, all of which are courtesy Hines.

http://denverurbanreview.com/

Is this an outdoor space? if so, I really, REALLY like it... about the 39th floor or so? One has to wonder how many people could fit there for a party? And how does one get an invitation to get up there?

[CherryCreek]

Originally Posted by denconyny

Is this an outdoor space? if so, I really, REALLY like it... about the 39th floor or so? One has to wonder how many people could fit there for a party? And how does one get an invitation to get up there?

I looks like its North facing instead of South, city facing. Too bad. Would have best mountain view in town.

[denconyny]

Originally Posted by CherryCreek

I looks like its North facing instead of South, city facing. Too bad. Would have best mountain view in town.

Actually, after reading the DenverInfill post on this

http://denverinfill.com/blog/2015/06/central-downtown-1144-fifteenth-update-2.html

Floor 40 and building crown: The top office level, Floor 40, will include two small terraces, one facing the city, the other facing the mountains.

So it appears that there will be one terrace facing the mountain and one terrace facing the city, and both on the 40th floor........

That 40th floor is gonna be some nice space, eh?

[lumos]

Saw this in ArchDaily

http://www.archdaily.com/637885/mga-proposes-world-s-tallest-wood-building-in-paris/

Additionally the architects SOM (not the ones building Baobab in Paris) believe that they can build a 42 story wooden structure. Ryan will be pleased to notice that the Baobab project is not just clad in wood, the actual structure is made from cross laminated wood. The architect is Michael Green and if you are a at all interested he gave a great TED talk on wooden buildings a couple of years ago so this link will take you there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi_PD5aZT7Q

The US Dept of Agriculture also launched their $1m prized competition a year ago to promote wood buildings but also high rise.

http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentid=2014/03/0041.xml&contentidonly=true

[Denver]

Originally Posted by corey

That's cool they are converting that building at Colfax and Tremont into a hotel. I hope they leave the nice 1950's yellow exterior panels and I would rather they didn't add storeys to it. I like the Le Corbusier-like rounded yellow thing on top, which I assume hides mechanical stuff. After the seriously shitty job with the addition to the historic bank on 17th Street to convert it into a hotel I have no faith they will top this building with anything decent.

The yellow is already gone. The building has been gutted to its concrete shell. I fear it will be a stucco exterior for this one....

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by DenvertoLA

I don't buy it for one second. Two residential and commercial investors don't just 'happen' to buy prime land in the city. They may claim they bought it because they 'love' the park but that doesn't make economic sense.

What Mayor Hancock should do is develop some of that land by DIA for a world class roller coaster park, Elitch's has no room for any of those.

Originally Posted by CherryCreek

I agree. The "investment" in $2.5 million "slide zilla" means nothing. Elitches is gone from its present location in five years.

So you're saying my compelling arguments weren't so compelling?

If so, regardless of their timing it will be interesting to see what they do with Elitches. Do they just sell of the name and equipment? Who would buy it? In all likelihood we'll have a new Mayor before that is figured out. In any case I'm not sure the city would be interested in doing any more than helping with some infrastructure and maybe a tax abatement. While I'm sure there's a market for a nicer, bigger amusement park I'm not sure how strong that market is. Bunt's point likely has some merit.

[blm3034L!fe]

With all these decent sized towers starting to break ground. Keeping track of it all is becoming a little challenging.

Does anyone have a rundown or anything? Updated status of these towers?

# of floors.
Height.
Est completion date.

# of Towers in Proposed Status.
# of towers Breaking Ground.
# of towers Under Construction.


Someone would be a lot cooler if they were capable of such an update!

[TakeFive]

Originally Posted by Stonemans_rowJ

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/26871/its-about-to-get-easier-to-build-mid-rises-in-dc/

This is a good Washington DC blog, and I found this post interesting with regard to the on-going "stick-built" debate in Denver.

There's usually good stuff in the comments too.

I also like the BeyondDC blog

Thanks for the heads up. That was quite interesting.

[denconyny]

Originally Posted by blm3034L!fe

With all these decent sized towers starting to break ground. Keeping track of it all is becoming a little challenging.

Does anyone have a rundown or anything? Updated status of these towers?

# of floors.
Height.
Est completion date.

# of Towers in Proposed Status.
# of towers Breaking Ground.
# of towers Under Construction.


Someone would be a lot cooler if they were capable of such an update!

Here....

Proposed

http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?cityID=129&statusID=3

in that list....

1144 15th Street is all prepared and will officially break ground on this Tuesday, June 9th,

http://denverinfill.com/blog/2015/06/central-downtown-1144-fifteenth-update-2.html

the twin-towered Country Club Towers West Tower and Country Club Towers East Tower has had tons of infrastructure for it already done

http://www.1101ebayaud.com/

and postponed an official groundbreaking on May 29th, due to weather, and now will be on June 22nd.....

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/r...er-story-broes-controversialcountry.html

others on the proposed list, and also on the City and County of Denver Buildings Department pages that are going through various stages of the planning process and getting permits include: Bell Tower (recently re-added), 999 17th Street, Colorado Center III, The Coloradan, Denver Hilton Inn DUS, and Colorado Center Residential Tower. The remaining on this proposed list are sometimes there, sometimes not on the Denver Buildings Department list.... whether it be to design, or financing, or ??? as to why these are taking so long to get started.

Under Construction

http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?cityID=129&statusID=2

and all of the rest of the info is there.

There are a handful of other projects proposed either announced in local media or by the developers.... but they may be a ways off for right now.

Maybe this all help?

[Brainpathology]

Originally Posted by DenvertoLA

. They may claim they bought it because they 'love' the park but that doesn't make economic sense.

Of course they love the park, it will be easy to demolish, no one will miss it because, frankly, it's horrible, and it will let them bank more land for their future plans. They love the park the same exact way the Monforts loved Dan O'Doud, from the point of view that he threaded the needle of insulting fans with the product and simultaneously giving them enough hope to still literally throw their money away on the team game after game, he WAS the best general manager in baseball while he was here. So yeah I don't doubt for a minute that they "love" the park.

And apparently no one here has any memory to speak of because I find it horrifying that anyone named or associated with Kronke has control of a land bank that big in downtown. Get an entire field of Kronke architecture down there and we will all be begging to put a horrible amusement park back in its place.

[Stonemans_rowJ]

Originally Posted by Brainpathology

Of course they love the park, it will be easy to demolish, no one will miss it because, frankly, it's horrible, and it will let them bank more land for their future plans. They love the park the same exact way the Monforts loved Dan O'Doud, from the point of view that he threaded the needle of insulting fans with the product and simultaneously giving them enough hope to still literally throw their money away on the team game after game, he WAS the best general manager in baseball while he was here. So yeah I don't doubt for a minute that they "love" the park.

And apparently no one here has any memory to speak of because I find it horrifying that anyone named or associated with Kronke has control of a land bank that big in downtown. Get an entire field of Kronke architecture down there and we will all be begging to put a horrible amusement park back in its place.

I could see this land being redeveloped but I don't think its well located as Riverfront Park. IT's a little more disconnected, sort of like Prospect Park. Now the parking lots in front of Pepsi and that front Speer: those are gold.

[Brainpathology]

Originally Posted by Stonemans_rowJ

I could see this land being redeveloped but I don't think its well located as Riverfront Park. IT's a little more disconnected, sort of like Prospect Park. Now the parking lots in front of Pepsi and that front Speer: those are gold.

That's not what I'm worried about, I'm worried about the same person developing all of it. However big Kronke and partners' land is = the amount of copy and paste from the worst suburban office park/apt "mixed use" waste of space you can think of gets moved onto the land.

Does anyone have his threatened development from a few years back? Imagine those as the first tumor cells down there and think of what the final cancer would look like.

edit.. here it is over at DenverInfill...

http://denverinfill.com/blog/2007/03/new-office-project-proposed-near-pepsi.html

[Brainpathology]

Also 1144 Groundbreaking = my birthday. Best present since the Avalanche won their second cup on June 9th 2001.

[COtoOC]

Originally Posted by Brainpathology

Of course they love the park, it will be easy to demolish, no one will miss it because, frankly, it's horrible, and it will let them bank more land for their future plans. They love the park the same exact way the Monforts loved Dan O'Doud, from the point of view that he threaded the needle of insulting fans with the product and simultaneously giving them enough hope to still literally throw their money away on the team game after game, he WAS the best general manager in baseball while he was here. So yeah I don't doubt for a minute that they "love" the park.

And apparently no one here has any memory to speak of because I find it horrifying that anyone named or associated with Kronke has control of a land bank that big in downtown. Get an entire field of Kronke architecture down there and we will all be begging to put a horrible amusement park back in its place.

Horrible?? It could stand to be bigger, but we get season's tickets and I have fun with my kids every time we go. And the nice thing about it being a smaller park is that it's not terribly expensive.

[Brainpathology]

Originally Posted by COtoOC

Horrible?? It could stand to be bigger, but we get season's tickets and I have fun with my kids every time we go. And the nice thing about it being a smaller park is that it's not terribly expensive.

Exaggeration maybe.. but as has been said before there isn't anything compelling to favor it over Lakeside.. and compared to the original, horrible isn't an exaggeration.

Having something fun for children downtown would actually be a great argument for keeping it there though. If families listed nothing for their kids to do as a reason they won't live downtown more; and I have no idea if that even registers. The main reason I ever hear for not living downtown is the schools suck (whether they do or not again I don't know) followed by the generic "My kids need a yard to play in" or something similar. And there are plenty of traditional parks downtown that would probably mitigate the loss of a subpar amusement park anyway.

Compared to what I've seen KSE propose for the land he already has though, I'd chain myself to the mind eraser to preserve the park.

[comoneymaker]

COtoOC season passes are pretty similar from Elitches to a actual big park like 6 flags.

[COtoOC]

Originally Posted by Brainpathology

Exaggeration maybe.. but as has been said before there isn't anything compelling to favor it over Lakeside.. and compared to the original, horrible isn't an exaggeration.

Having something fun for children downtown would actually be a great argument for keeping it there though. If families listed nothing for their kids to do as a reason they won't live downtown more; and I have no idea if that even registers. The main reason I ever hear for not living downtown is the schools suck (whether they do or not again I don't know) followed by the generic "My kids need a yard to play in" or something similar. And there are plenty of traditional parks downtown that would probably mitigate the loss of a subpar amusement park anyway.

Compared to what I've seen KSE propose for the land he already has, though I'd chain myself to the mind eraser to preserve the park.

IDK. We have fun at Elitch's and they have a decent mix of kiddie/bigger kid/adult rides. If someone wanted to build something bigger, like a World's of Fun/Six Flags type park, that would be great. The current location is great for us and cool to have it downtown.

I've never been to Lakeside. I was under the impression that it's just one wooden roller coaster and then more carnival type rides, not nearly as big as Elitch's.

[corey]

I've never been to Lakeside. I was under the impression that it's just one wooden roller coaster and then more carnival type rides, not nearly as big as Elitch's.[/QUOTE]

I like Elitches just fine for what it is. It is cool to see the skyline and river from the top of the rides and the observatory tower. That does make it unique. If they build something bigger and better on more land somewhere that would be an okay trade off. I do worry about downtown Denver having nothing for kids to do. I think the programming at Skyline Park is a good start and the Downtown Denver Partnership deserves kudos. I think they should build an awesome playground on the north end of Skyline Park or in Civic Center Park, like the one Denver Parks tried to build in City Park, but the neighborhood grinches killed. However, I will chain myself to the Cyclone if they ever try to tear down Lakeside. Sure it could use some love, but for the atmosphere and vintage rides it is a treasure.

[corey]

BTW. The dual brand Hyatt on 14th St. looks better than I expected.

[PLANSIT]

Originally Posted by blm3034L!fe

With all these decent sized towers starting to break ground. Keeping track of it all is becoming a little challenging.

Does anyone have a rundown or anything? Updated status of these towers?

# of floors.
Height.
Est completion date.

# of Towers in Proposed Status.
# of towers Breaking Ground.
# of towers Under Construction.


Someone would be a lot cooler if they were capable of such an update!

Collected from various internet sources: