Denver, Colorado, USA
Commissioned by Continuum Partners, El Dorado has designed the Market Station with an entire city block from the ground up with 90,000 square feet of office space, 85,000 of retail space, 225 residential units, and various amenities spaces.
Through a rigorous massing and architectural design review process, El Dorado has worked closely with Continuum’s development models to generate multiple site design iterations, ultimately landing onsite strategies that deploy a high concentration of mixed-use urban density fronting Denver’s iconic 16th Street Mall.
The project has been awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2023 American Architecture Awards from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
El Dorado’s architectural strategies represent thoughtful responses to historically sensitive guidelines, freshly re-engaging masonry as an artisan craft through careful attention to fenestration and details.
Leveraging LoDo’s historic service alleyways, the proposed urban design introduces the heart of the site to be an urban discovery, internal to the city block.
The emphasis on “discovered” circulation establishes a new retail ecosystem: flagship retail facing perimeter streets and experimental local retail facing alleys and paseos.
The architect set forth to celebrate Denver’s rich history of artisan brickwork and brick manufacturing.
Multiple full-scale mock-ups were constructed to study brick patterns and textures, establishing a rich framework for “crafted urbanism.”
Historically sensitive massing and fenestration strategies closely followed Lower Downtown Design Guidelines while a variety of brick articulations animated key site relationships and shifts in massing and building typologies.
The architect worked closely with the developer and the Lower Downtown Design Review Board to sensitively respond to a surrounding historic context by re-engaging Denver masonry as an artisan craft.
Central to this approach is celebrating contemporary brick detailing at an urban scale.
Zinc and corten façade elements along Market and 17th Street serve as relief to the primary brick massing.
The result is an exquisite urban expression that restores pride in the craft of Denver masonry and responds sensitively to its historic context without mimicking it.
Project: Market Station
Architects: El Dorado Inc.
Lead Architect: Josh Shelton
Client: Continuum Partners, LLC.
Photographers: Ed Lacasse and David Lauer
