1900 Lawrence

Each of those steps does two things at once. It breaks the mass down to something a low-rise neighborhood can stand next to, and it leaves a floor plate uncovered. That is where the eleven private terraces come from — not added to the building, but left over by its shape.

The curtain wall is unitized and high-performance, articulated with vertical fins held off the glass on standoffs, which gives the surface a texture that changes as the light moves across it through the day. Profiled column covers modulate the facade to express the structural rhythm behind it, and at each massing transition they switch orientation, so the shift reads in the skin as well as the silhouette.

Six levels of podium parking sit above two more below grade. All of it is behind the tower’s own curtain wall, carried down to the sidewalk without a change of material, so the pedestrian never meets a garage. On a street where the neighbors are brick warehouses at three and four stories, that decision matters more than the 632 spaces it conceals.

At the ground the tower is anchored between two plazas at the south and west corners, both connected to food and beverage venues and both furnished for sitting rather than passing through. The building sits between protected bike lanes and perpendicular busways with a light-rail station nearby, and scores 96 for walking, 98 for transit and 95 for biking.

Interior

The lobby spans the full 19th Street block and is glazed nearly end to end, so from the sidewalk it reads as covered outdoor space rather than a room. A slatted wood ceiling runs its length and planted trees stand inside the glass. A full-height folded travertine wall, its geometry drawn from the Rocky Mountains, gives the space the one solid thing in it.

Level 7 is the amenity floor, and it opens directly onto a 10,000-square-foot communal terrace that doubles as the green roof over the parking podium. Large operable glass walls open the rest of the level to it. The terrace faces Coors Field with the Front Range behind, which is the argument for the whole indoor-outdoor premise: in this climate the doors are open most of the year.

The rest of the floor is arranged for a range of group sizes. A multiuse conference center takes the west end under a coffered wood ceiling threaded with light, dividing down for smaller sessions or opening up to seat a few hundred. A boardroom and a hospitality-level lounge sit alongside it, and the artwork and finishes stay warm and domestic rather than corporate.

Movement is the other half of the program. The fitness center is professionally managed, with group exercise rooms whose doors open for natural airflow, and a golf simulator and the rooftop deck extend the same idea further up the building. The deck carries what is claimed as the world’s highest outdoor pickleball court.