More than 400 workers have been busy building what will likely be one of the hottest -- or at least most distinct -- places to live in Denver, a rising building that's been making I-70 travelers wonder: Is that building fine art or just broken?
One River North, the 16-story apartment building with a giant canyon filled with plants carved down the center, will open this spring on the outskirts of Elyria Swansea, in the River North Art District.
The project is a joint effort between the Max Collaborative, Uplands Real Estate Partners, Wynne Yasmer Real Estate and Zakhem Real Estate Group. MAD Architects and Davis Partnership Architects designed the building, and Saunders is overseeing construction.
If all goes as planned, people will start moving in this April, and construction on the project is wrapping up fast.
Plants are planted. Paint's being brushed on the walls. Grout's going between the tiles. And high-end appliances are already installed in many units.
The canyon's walls are curved, with a look you might find in a dinosaur-themed amusement park, a stark contrast with the mirrored, rectangular exterior. The interiors and most of the exterior, in contrast, are largely minimalist in design.
The mirrored glass exterior has been a worry for some bird watchers, who hope the building doesn't become a mass grave.
But there's a plan for keeping the lights in the building from killing migrating birds, as other Downtown buildings have.
Madeline Haslett, who will be overseeing programming in the building as the residential community director of Kairoi Residential, says the development group has been talking about the potential bird trouble.
"One thing that we have talked about is figuring out kind of what that migration pattern looks like and then working with the community as a whole to ensure that lights are off at certain times to kind of help with that flow," Haslett told Denverite.
Bird fears aside, more than 2,000 people have expressed interest in moving into One River North.
If you're hoping to join the throng, you might be in luck. The apartments are already 11% full just over a month before people start moving in.
Apartments are listed from less than $2,000 for a one-bedroom and go up to roughly $16,000 a month for a penthouse, according to Lynsee Mann, a regional manager with Kairoi.
Many of the units include stunning views of the best and worst of the Denver landscape: the Rocky Mountains, Downtown Denver, the River North Art District, along with train yards, the smelly Purina plant and the distant Sun Corps plant that has paid millions in pollution violations.
If you fear that part of Denver's industrial life is over, take a look from the trendy balcony and see just how much still exists.
Of course, that landscape could likely change in the years to come, as construction parking lots and yards filled with semi-trailers turn into new developments and the city continues to expand.
