CREJ

DECEMBER 2016 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \

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ordon Beckman, acclaimed design director for John Portman & Associates, sits in

Union Station pondering the firm’s first project in Denver, LoDo’s Union Tower

West.

“I judge a project on three scales,” says Beckman. “How does it work in the urban

scale, how does it work in the building scale and how does it work in the detail

scale. And this stacks up very, very well.”

It sure didn’t start out that way.

1801 Wewatta Street was a dusty lot with the weird shape that languished on the wrong

side of the tracks from Union Station.

It was also one of the last parcels in a white-hot neighborhood where anything of sub-

stance could be developed.

Now it’s Union Tower West, a visually stunning 12-story, 312,000-square-foot, mixed-use

gem at 18th and Wewatta. Slated for completion in mid-January, it will contain three

floors of office space, the upscale Hotel Indigo on three floors and three floors of parking

with plenty of restaurant and retail space to keep the scene buzzing. It hits all the touch

points of connectivity, walkability and urbanism for Denver’s newest neighborhood,

The Commons.

But, in the beginning, the vision wasn’t so rosy.

“We saw this project as an opportunity, but we had to figure out how we could make

something of the site,” says Thomas Dooley, project manager for Greeley-based Hensel

Phelps.

Hensel Phelps secured the site along with Atlanta-based developer Portman Hold-

ings. They partnered to bring in John Portman & Associates, who in turn tapped

Beckman as the architect to make something spectacular out of the ragged parcel.

John Portman & Associates’ portfolio is as big as some of the 4 million-square-

foot office towers they design around the globe. But according to Beckman, Union

Tower West is anything but small.

“To me, this is not a little project, this is a big project with a big urban impact,

with a big architectural impact, and it deserves all or more of the attention of any

large projects,” says Beckman. “We have a very difficult site, with unusual geom-

etry. It’s triangular on one side, it’s got a curve on one side and it’s got two flat

edges. It’s a very difficult site but a site that prompted creativity.”

Faced with the challenge of combining hotel, office space, retail and parking,

Beckman sat down and began to sketch. And everything pretty much fell into

place. Or, stacked into place would be more accurate.

“I tell you I did these sketches at about 9 o’clock one night because it had

been bothering me for three days,” says Beckman. “Then it hit me – let’s take

what is there and figure out the best way to put a hotel on it, the best way to

get the office floor plates this size and, well, it all came together.

“You just take the perfect diagram for each component and start to weld

them together into one. All the time dealing with this irregular site and

the desire to work with the curves of Wewatta and suddenly they begin to

make sense together. I sat at the desk until midnight or something because

WORDS:

Kevin Criss