SEPTEMBER 2015 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \
75
A Rubik’s Cube
of complex design
and engineering
feats packages
big building in
small site for
DIA’s new
Westin Hotel
and Transit
Center
D
enizen is a new breed of apart-
ment for the Mile High City.
The slick 275-unit complex is
as transit-oriented as develop-
ments get.
“It’s about 20 feet from the
front door to the platform,” says Steve Ko-
vach, senior project manager for PCL Con-
struction, motioning from the stoop of one
of the townhomes at Denizen, the new
apartment complex at Alameda Station.
“This used to be an RTD parking lot.”
Metro Denver’s transit agency, RTD, in
recent years has taken a new tact to pro-
mote transit-oriented development (TOD)
around light-rail stations by partnering
with the private sector, and Alameda is the
first to bear fruit.
Developer D4 Urban struck a complicated
deal to develop the 3.8-acre site from black-
top into something that’smuch less car-cen-
tric. “We did one parking space per unit as
opposed to one per bed,” Kovach explains.
But there’s plenty of bike parking, as well
as bike rentals, a bike workshop, trail access,
a walkable neighborhood, and, of course,
the light rail. For most potential residents,
a car is an easily substitutable luxury – or
maybe even a costly hassle.
WORDS:
Eric Peterson
Taking transit-
oriented
development to
the next level in
Denver’s Baker
neighborhood
