By JOHN REBCHOOK
DENVER (AP) – Downtown Denver’s skyline is set for its biggest metamorphosis in 20 years.
At least a dozen buildings along the fringe of the central business district either are under way or on the drawing board.
Together, the buildings represent more than $1.2 billion in new construction. And no one doubts that others will follow in the coming years.
The buildings will not be as large as some skyscrapers built during the oil boom days of the 1980s. But there’s little doubt that the new buildings will change the fabric of downtown.
“This will clearly be the first major time the skyline has changed since the ’80s,” said developer George Thorn.
For the most part, the new breed of buildings will be hotels and condominium towers instead of the office projects of the previous boom.
But the new buildings, which range from the first Four Seasons in Denver to smaller buildings by famed architects Daniel Libeskind and Daniel Adjaye, will change the view of downtown from every direction.
The buildings are coming at a time when there’s a worldwide trend to spend more money on architecture, especially for residential properties, as developers are finding that the well-heeled are willing to pay a premium for great design. The concept even has led to a new word: starchitecture.
The latest buzzword is used to describe works of celebrity architects such as Libeskind and London-based Adjaye. A recent Time magazine article on starchitecture used a drawing of Libeskind’s Museum Residences in Denver as its main illustration. This marks the first residential development in the U.S. for Libeskind, who created the master plan for the World Trade site in New York City.
“I think the key here is that I hope that the buildings that are constructed are of such significance that they do arouse national and international attention,” said Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. “I think there are a lot of high-quality buildings planned in premier locations. It makes them a kind of legacy project.
“I hope 100 years from now, people will cherish these buildings like we cherish buildings constructed a century ago.”
Why is the skyline important? Mark Hinshaw, director of urban design for LMN Architects in Seattle, has an answer.
“Skylines are powerful symbols of culture and community,” Hinshaw said. “They’re a literal bar chart. You can see it from a distance, and you know it is something that is dynamic and growing.”
In earlier eras, churches often created skylines for cities, he said. And as commerce began to take off in Europe, often a “tower was built just for the sake of marking the center. Sometimes it was just a pure symbol,” serving no utilitarian purpose, he said.
Architect Brad Buchanan, who is designing the 31-story One Lincoln Park condo tower, said Denver is lucky that residential buildings are fueling downtown’s latest growth spurt.
Buchanan was recently in Vancouver, British Columbia, and he found himself thinking that he was looking at Denver’s future.
“Talk about a phenomenal skyline,” Buchanan said. “When you look across the bay at downtown Vancouver, you see all of these residential buildings. Residential buildings have a couple of things going for them naturally. They are inherently more intriguing than office buildings from an architectural and design viewpoint.”
The reason is economics.
“Denver buys views,” Buchanan said. “If you go from the 12th floor to the 44th floor of an office building, the tenant typically will pay a slight premium. But in residential, you get big upticks in what people are willing to pay by going higher.”
Chris Frampton, of East West Partners, the development company that is building the 23-story Glass House condo tower in the Central Platte Valley, said downtown’s skyline has been “staid” for a while. That will soon change, he said.
“All of the drawings I’ve seen for new buildings are really pretty thoughtful,” Frampton said. “I think that is pretty darn cool. Taken together, it’s going to be pretty spectacular. …
“It will never be like driving along the BQE (Brooklyn Queens Expressway) and looking at Manhattan,” Frampton said. “But it’s pretty exciting to think that on Monday Night Football, millions of fans are going to be seeing a different view of downtown.”
