DECEMBER 2015 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \
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WORDS:
Sarah Goldblatt, AIA
D
eveloped to respond to Cherry Creek North’s growing demand for upscale places
to work within the area’s historically boutique office market, the luminous new
eight-story tower – located at 100 St. Paul – can be considered anything but back-
ground. Yet, the new structure does more than vie for attention. A closer look
reveals a building highly attuned to its specific setting – including its crisp, glass
facades that echo Denver’s ever-changing quality of light and, at times, appear
to recede into the atmosphere. In Cherry Creek’s sea of new development, establishing a
connection to its place is a rarefied challenge that 100 St. Paul takes on with confidence.
When the Denver-based Pauls Corp. set out to establish Cherry Creek North’s first Class
A office space in 30 years, it did so with vision and panache. Back in 2008, the company
– then mired in the recession and now headquartered in the new building – respond-
ed to First Bank’s request for proposals with a unique office and retail concept for its
signature site at the corner of First Avenue and St. Paul.
“We envisioned a very elite group of tenants that valued quality architecture, great
views and an irreplaceable location,” explains Andrew Sturno, managing director for
the Pauls Corp. Indeed the irregular T-shaped site, formerly occupied by a one-story
First Bank branch and fast-food hold-out Burger King, projects slightly forward of
its neighbors, perceptually edging into the curving confluence of First Avenue and
Steel Street. “Unless First Avenue moves, you’ll always have unobstructed mountain
views from every floor,” explains Sturno of the building’s singular location.
With an effort led out of its Denver office, green building experts HKS Archi-
tects Inc. designed the core and shell to exceed the city’s LEED requirements and
to respond to its unique four-sided site – all within the parameters of an ap-
proved planned unit development. “You can see it from all directions,” says HKS
principal and project manager Mike Vela of the project’s dynamic site. “We knew
the architecture needed to be responsive or it would be a missed opportunity.”
To highlight the corner
and
anchor the 148,000-square-foot, zero-lot line
building, HKS Architects incorporated an eight-story, all-glass, circular rotun-
da that serves as a visual pivot point for the 135,000-sf office tower component
that flanks St. Paul Street and then fans out along First Avenue to define the
urban edge. A glass and steel canopy announces the building’s formal en-
trance to the west, while tenant and visitor garage access is from the north.
While the FirstBank branch occupies its familiar ground-level location
for easy customer access and visibility, upper-level tenants can experience
what might be considered an architectural sleight-of-hand. Not only does
the cantilevered rotunda space provide panoramic views across the Front
Range, its precise positioning also gives the illusion of standing directly
over First Avenue below. To further enhance occupants’ connection to
their surroundings and balance solar gain on each exposure, the building
is clad in a finely tuned combination of unitized curtain wall systems and
Rising to the
Occasion
Cherry Creek North’s newest office tower
provides place-making with a difference
Photo courtesy GE Johnson
