Denver, Colorado
Z Portfolio LLC
362,500 sf
In 2019, Helpern Architects won a limited competition to create a conceptual plan and then design a mixed-use complex of buildings in a growing neighborhood on the Denver outskirts. There was no program for the site; that, too, was part of the design challenge.
The site was a family’s long-held corner property midway between a new tech center and downtown, near the University of Denver, a new light rail station, and a major interstate exit.
After the client accepted our concept, we moved to a feasibility study, then a massing and preliminary conceptual design that was used to obtain City approval for a zoning change – indicating, in essence, that we had achieved the best solution for the site.
The development we created on the 77,500-sf site included an office building, apartment building, 150-key hotel, retail, and, underneath, a parking garage for perhaps 300 cars. The built area could total as much as 400,000 sf, exclusive of the parking – density that required the zoning change.
A landscaped central plaza that would always be open to the public would be both an amenity for the buildings’ occupants and a benefit to the neighborhood.
A skybridge eight floors up on the north side between the hotel and the apartment building would in effect serve as an arched gateway to the plaza. A double-height space 30 feet wide by 120 feet, perched over a 90-foot-wide pedestrian space, the “bridge” might house a restaurant with remarkable views to the mountains around Denver.
To test our concept for functionality, technical considerations, constructability, and aesthetics, we formed a Denver-based team that included an architect, civil engineer, and Z Portfolio’s owner’s representative.
The City-approved design was the basis for our client to invite and interview several developers to bid on the design, but no developer was chosen.
