DENVER | Main Development Thread #6

[Cirrus]

The parking lots between the Pepsi Center and Speer need to go ASAP. They're cutting off the Pepsi Center from really being part of downtown.

The rest of the valley, yeah I agree w/ bunt. Wait another decade or two.

[RyanD]

Well this one goes in the 'unexpected' books for Capitol hill. I like it a lot!

Capitol Hill: MOTO Apartments Final Update

[Stonemans_rowJ]

Originally Posted by Cirrus

The parking lots between the Pepsi Center and Speer need to go ASAP. They're cutting off the Pepsi Center from really being part of downtown.

The rest of the valley, yeah I agree w/ bunt. Wait another decade or two.

x3.

You could replace 3 or 4 lots easily with 1 parking structure, if you felt you needed to provide that much parking. Ideally everything fronting Speer.

Or you could just elimate them altogether. Between the Avs and Nuggets, how many games? Maybe like 80? During the week it is cheap monthly and daily parking and cannot possibly be all that profitable, so only 20% of the year are the lots actually making game day revenue.

Elitch's is fine in the short term because there is much much lower hanging fruit to pick in the next decade or two. However, I do not support the idea that it needs to stay because it is family friendly. How many downtowns have amusement parks besides Denver? The reality is that not many families live downtown for personal reasons, and the housing stock downtown is not very family friendly. There are actually cultural things here, sporting events, Union Station splash pad, Tattered Cover, etc. that are family destinations.

Elitch's IS a destination. Most people drive there, go to the park, and drive home. Thus, it really wouldn't matter much where it is located.

[CastleScott]

Big news!! Downtown Denver's going to get a gorgeous postmodern 86 story mixed-use tower with a pointy top that's gonna be a 1288 footer with the North American HQ of Siemens housed there...

Haha April Fools!!!!

Oh as for Elitches and Pepsi center, keep em there as they bring in families and $$$ into downtown (I agree with Navyweaxguy on this). Put parking in underground garages with some mixed-use space on top..

[navyweaxguy]

Originally Posted by Stonemans_rowJ

Elitch's is fine in the short term because there is much much lower hanging fruit to pick in the next decade or two. However, I do not support the idea that it needs to stay because it is family friendly. How many downtowns have amusement parks besides Denver? The reality is that not many families live downtown for personal reasons, and the housing stock downtown is not very family friendly. There are actually cultural things here, sporting events, Union Station splash pad, Tattered Cover, etc. that are family destinations.

Elitch's IS a destination. Most people drive there, go to the park, and drive home. Thus, it really wouldn't matter much where it is located.

See it being the only downtown that has one is exactly my point. It is a destinationn. No matter where they would move it to you can't get better access to public transit and 2 major interstates. It is the only thing in Downtown Denver that makes it unique. Otherwise Denver is just a plain Jane regular city. Besides, why would they spend a few hundred million to move it to a new location that will only be used 3 months out of the year? And have to add all the transit options.

i would rather it be closed completely than see it moved a second time.

[Urbannizer]

Alexan Arapahoe Square







Alexan 20th Street Station

[LAM]

Originally Posted by RyanD

Well this one goes in the 'unexpected' books for Capitol hill. I like it a lot!

Capitol Hill: MOTO Apartments Final Update

I agree 100%. This is one of the nicer buildings to go up in Denver lately. I do wonder what the daylight quality is like in the interior though.

[transistor]

Originally Posted by navyweaxguy

See it being the only downtown that has one is exactly my point. It is a destinationn. No matter where they would move it to you can't get better access to public transit and 2 major interstates. It is the only thing in Downtown Denver that makes it unique. Otherwise Denver is just a plain Jane regular city. Besides, why would they spend a few hundred million to move it to a new location that will only be used 3 months out of the year? And have to add all the transit options.

i would rather it be closed completely than see it moved a second time.

Nobody has ever taken "proximity to a theme park" into legitimate consideration when thinking of a city.

Leave the Pepsi center, move Elitches.

[mojiferous]

Originally Posted by Urbannizer

Alexan 20th Street Station

Had we discussed this before? I don't remember hearing anything about it, but according to this PDF (that came up when I googled for the project) its address is 20th and California... Which would probably be the empty half lot? Anyone?

Also, there are some other things in that doc I don't remember hearing anything about:
12 story condos at 155 Steele in CC
1800 21st st office
132 apartments at 6th & Inca
4-story, 11,300 SF office addition to the Sugar Building (could this be the weird little sliver building proposed when the Sugar Cube was built?)
333 W. Colfax (the old, ugly office building that has been under demo/construction for a few months) is becoming a Staybridge, getting the top popped "Convert Office to Hotel; 3-story addition"

[comoneymaker]

If Elitches didn't do the water park BS and would fill in some parking it might be something. But really there is not much of a diff from the first pic to now. The dirt is mostly parking and Union Station is filling in with low rises. Yay ?

On too a second topic. Denver Urban Review posted construction updates.

https://www.facebook.com/DenverUrbanReview/?fref=ts

I thought 1144 Fifteenth Street, was supposed to be steel frame? Or is the base parking garage just going to be concrete ? Same with the Wash Park twin towers. I was hoping to have several towers skyrocketing by the end of this summer but I guess we will just have a few only 10-20 floors off the ground instead ?

[RyanD]

Originally Posted by comoneymaker

I thought 1144 Fifteenth Street, was supposed to be steel frame? Or is the base parking garage just going to be concrete ? Same with the Wash Park twin towers. I was hoping to have several towers skyrocketing by the end of this summer but I guess we will just have a few only 10-20 floors off the ground instead ?

1144 has a 12-story parking podium, which will be concrete, and then it'll go steel from there. They're not doing precast so it's going to take some serious time to get to 12 but after that it'll shoot up. I would assume steel will start late summer?

Country Club towers, I guarantee, are going to be concrete the whole way up. Residential is usually never steel here. But, I'm sure once they start going, they'll be around a floor per week / a floor per 1.5 weeks. Should top out by years end.

[bunt_q]

Originally Posted by Urbannizer

[RyanD]

It really has a neat edge at the intersection though... Sooo...


https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/458311/news-worlds-largest-ocean-liner-sets-sail

[bunt_q]

Wow that looks strikingly similar to the art deco-retro magic of 2020 Lawrence.

I'd like to hear Trump's thoughts on whether torture of architects might work for us. I mean, the crap they're building is basically a form of terrorism on the people of Denver, right?

[LAM]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

Wow that looks strikingly similar to the art deco-retro magic of 2020 Lawrence.

I'd like to hear Trump's thoughts on whether torture of architects might work for us. I mean, the crap they're building is basically a form of terrorism on the people of Denver, right?

I think you (should) mean developers.

After all, architects, mostly do what they are paid to do. They don't really drive the bus on this issue as much as you like to think they do.

Developer asks for cheap building. Architect pushes back. Developer looks elsewhere for another architect. Architect gives in and designs cheap building. Builder cuts corners during construction without telling architect or owner and pockets the savings. Building looks like crap, and everyone is mad at the architect. Funny, it didn't look like that in the drawings!

[bunt_q]

Haha yes I know this. It's actually the planners I want to string up. They created the god awful zoning code that all but requires monolithic crap. Sure sure, we're working on fixing it. But if they were any good at their jobs, that's not the form we would've prescribed in the first place.

[LAM]

Yes, I agree that planners do dictate the form that buildings take. Historically, that might have created some creative solutions, but no more.

[DenverInfill]

Introducing... SugarSquare!

http://denverinfill.com/blog/2016/04/new-lower-downtown-project-sugarsquare.html

[LAM]

Originally Posted by bcp

and the sad part is...that's still not a cheap building to build. a much better and more tasteful design is possible for the same budget.

I guess it depends on what the owner likes vs. what you like.

[TheNightfly]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

Wow that looks strikingly similar to the art deco-retro magic of 2020 Lawrence.

I'd like to hear Trump's thoughts on whether torture of architects might work for us. I mean, the crap they're building is basically a form of terrorism on the people of Denver, right?

I love this idea. Put those architects in solitary confinement and make them look at consecutive slides of Trump buildings around the world synchronized with the Trumps voice repeating "Make America Great Again".

Love him or hate him, none of the buildings proposed in our town would pass Trump's board.