DENVER | Downtown high-rise boom

[rds70]

Nothing has been posted here for a while, so...

A downtown view on a cold October 11th:

[pablosan]

Great photo rds.

[BrandonJXN]

I know nothing about Denver but I know this much: If ever there was a city that needed a 1,000 + foot tall building, it's Denver.

[Crush_Buds]

Indeed

[QuarterMileSidewalk]

^How 'bout a 1500-footer, guys?

I actually did a simple preliminary design for a roughly 1500-foot skyscraper in downtown Denver, a couple of weeks ago.

Here you go:
Overhead view:


View to the North:


View to the West:


View to the East:

(via Google SketchUp and Google Earth)

Simple, no details at all, but what do you think?

[SnyderBock]

It looks nice... I would give the roof a slightly greater slant (incline). I woudl suggest about 5-floors worth of incline to it's pinnacle. Denver has too many flat roofs already, so for a new tallest to have a flat roof (or in this case, an almost flat roof), makes it look bad. Adding a little more slant to that roof will make it look great! I love how it's a nice tall, slender building. I also love how it's not square, but has angled cuts which are crystal-like. Study a nice big quartz crystal, a roof like the tip of a quartz crystal would set that building off!

[SnyderBock]

Your preliminary design is actually growing on me (as is). Also, the location seems to be excellent for this building.

[Crush_Buds]

Way too tall in my opinion. Cool design though. Maybe a good 400-500 feet shorter. We badly crave a supertall, but a gradual step to fit in the skyline and not overbear the city. It would be awesome if you whipped up a smaller version of the same idea.

Edit: By the way, it's about time to get the Four Seasons into Google Earth....

[WT Smiths]

Wow finally! I've always wondered what a supertall other than Trango would look like as part of the Denver skyline. I love it! Thanks QuarterMileSidewalk.

I admit 1500' is massive and it would look totally out of place but it just means a 1000' would need to be built somewhere else along with it to help ease it in. Yes I would like it all. (Just a slight side effect of visiting the Dubai/China threads).

Not really sure what block this is, but IMO I think I would actually like this built on that huge surface lot just south of One Lincoln Park. Something like this could really get a nice cluster of highrise office/residential buildings going on all those surface lots in that area.

Of course I could only see this becoming even close to a reality if some major corporations started moving their HQs downtown. It would take some big ones and some from out of the state/country. Perhaps the end result could be something like this?

[dktshb]

Nice sketch but a little too tall IMO. Maybe about 750 to 1000 feet wouldn't make it stick up quite so much. Anyway, I would rather Denver keep filling in than go really high, which they seem to be doing a good job with at the moment filling in all those parking lots.

[glowrock]

I agree, dktshb... Make that tower about 1000' or so, and we'd be good. At the same time, I also agree that filling in the skyline is far more important at this point than adding a 1000 footer. That's why projects like 1800 Larimer and Solera are so important, along with the Embassy Suites on 14th. They're infill, midrise towers that are extremely important for density, pedestrian friendliness, and overall urban appeal.

A new tallest would be great, but I'd rather see several 20-30 story buildings rather than 1 70 story building. In fact, I'd rather see several 10-15 story buildings than one 20-30 story building!

Denver's doing a pretty good job at getting rid of its surface parking lots. Of course there are still way too many of them around 20th/Broadway as well as Arapahoe Square, but they'll eventually disappear as well. We need to get rid of the remaining lots in the heart of downtown, then we can start working on the crap around the outer edges of downtown!

Aaron (Glowrock)

[dktshb]

I remember back when I lived in Denver there was still surface parking lots even on 16th street mall. Of course I moved in 93 which I guess is a whole generation ago now.

[pablosan]

Wow! That is super tall. Too tall. I think a little over 1000' would be pretty cool. I do think that if a supertall was ever built in Denver, you would probably go another 10 years before any further office developments were built. Surely 1000' would flood the market with about 1.5 million square feet of office space. The building in question looks really cool too.

[QuarterMileSidewalk]

Thanks for the compliments and suggestions, all... I've worked on a new model... It'll be exactly 1100 feet tall, with a new, sloping roof. Same site, 18th and Broadway, across from the Brown Palace Hotel. Ideally, it would be a mixed-use project.

I changed the coloring as well; ditched that copper for sandstone, is it better that way or with the copper? I thought that a more subtle shade would help it fit into the skyline a little better.

The goal of the diagonals across the full height of the tower, and now the slanted roof as well, was to evoke the jagged Rocky Mountains in the distance. It strikes me as very "Libeskind"-ish (It'll complement the art museum!)... I've generally liked Libeskind's work.





[URL=http://img119.imageshack.us/i/viewsouth.jpg/]

[Crush_Buds]

Wow you actually changed ever single thing I was gonna recommend from your post just now before you edited it! From the roof, to the width! I like it a lot more now. I did like the blueish color you used before you changed it to this now "3rd" design. But this color scheme is still really good. That would be an awesome penthouse/office-of-the-overlord to have!!

GREAT design IMO. I like everything about it now.

[QuarterMileSidewalk]

Thanks! when I drew it the first time, I used a different method to get the overall shape than I had for the 1500 foot version. I didn't like how it came out, so I redrew it with the first method, but shorter. Then I changed the colors.

As for the blueish stuff, you mean instead of the sandstone? I had it with aluminum on top, and the blue below, then changed it to blue over sandstone.

[Crush_Buds]

Well won't the sandstone eliminate a vast amount of windows? I think the sandstone color is good, but I think people would want there to be more windows instead. It would seem odd to reside in a building with such a shape and be covered in the darkness of opaque sandstone. , especially towards the lower portion of the tower. Maybe two toned-windows could be a solution to emphasize the angles of the building instead? Just my random thoughts about it if it were a reality.

[covertb]

I like the idea of a 1000 foot tall building better than the 1500 for the time being. Right now, 1500 looks too out of place. Denver needs to work its way up to a 1500 foot building. A 1000 foot building would have to be built first. But I was wondering, doesn't Denver have a height restriction so the mountain view is not blocked? Or did Denver used to have a height restriction? I hope there is no restrictions. I'm all for very tall buildings in the great city in Mile High.

[jomaled]

Hi, I like your supertall building design, very iconic and fits right in with the "western" esthetic. What we need here is tall structure where people can go up and view the city and it's environs (like a Sears tower, Empire State bldg, CN tower, etc.) Are there any buildings like that here which allow for viewers to to to the top floor? In fact, a tower of some sort would be perfect (like Seattle's space needle), and then a bunch of 15-30 storey buildings can be constructed to fill in the skyline just nicely.

[pablosan]

I find the latest version (1100') to be more asthetically pleasing to the eye. it isn't so overbearing and fits into the context of the skyline. I like it's location too. Mixed use would be perfect here.