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DECEMBER 2017 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \ 81
A gleaming, faceted gem has risen in
downtown Denver and its arrival has
been impossible to miss. As youmove
around the city, its shape changes, its
skin shifts from reflective to translu-
cent, and its unique roofline trans-
forms from mirroring the foothills to the crown of
a diamond.
Such is the shape-shifting splendor of 1144 Fif-
teenth, the $300 million, 40-story, 600-foot-tall,
662,000-square-foot, Class A skyscraper of shim-
mering glass and aluminum at the corner of 15th
and Arapahoe streets. The building is slated to open
in January.
It’s the tallest office tower to be built in Denver
since the 1980s and the latest Denver addition from
Hines, which brought us the legendary Wells Fargo
Tower – also known as the Cash Register Building
– in 1983.
And its latest lustrous gift to the Mile High sky-
line was made possible by the collaborative efforts
of Hines Denver, Hines Houston and a team of ar-
chitects at world-renowned Pickard Chilton, based
in New Haven, Connecticut.
The high-rise will feature retail and lobby on
level 1, state-of-the art fitness facility and a tenant
living room on level 2, parking on levels 3-13 and
offices on levels 14-40. There are also two levels of
parking below grade.
Worth the Wait
Hines began working on 1144 Fifteenth in 1999.
And if you’re Hines, you didn’t get to be a global
real estate giant by rushing into construction. You
study. Then study some more. You wait. And you
don’t move until the time is right.
“We looked at a bunch of different data points
and the most pointed fact was that if you took all
the space in the central business district and add-
ed it up, it’s about 25 million square feet and the
average age of an office building in that popula-
tion of buildings is 33 years old,” says Jay Despard,
Hines senior managing director. “So we saw 1144 Fif-
teenth not only as an opportunity to energize this
high-rise space, but to make something iconic for
the Denver skyline — to redefine the landscape of
downtown Denver.”
The gravity of the opportunity to change Den-
ver’s skyline for decades forward was not lost on
Pickard Chilton Principal Tony Markese, FAIA.
“The chance to do something in a city that has
such a great urban situation and have a significant,
positive impact for years to come was something
that really appealed to us,” says Markese.
So, Why the Delay?
“We really couldn’t quite get the cycles right. The
project began, then the tech bubble hit. Then we
picked it up again and the recession in ’08 hit,” says
WORDS: Kevin Criss
PHOTOS: Michelle Meunier Photography