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Bell Tower design: Vote on which is better

Vertical lines added to design to address review board critics

By John Rebchook, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published July 25, 2008 at 9:05 p.m.
Updated July 27, 2008 at 10:15 a.m.

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Revised design of the Bell Tower development

Revised design of the Bell Tower development

Architect Curt Fentress' original design

Architect Curt Fentress' original design

Poll

Which design of the proposed Bell Tower project do you like better?


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The proposed $300 million, 34-story Bell Tower development along Cherry Creek at Speer Boulevard and Larimer Street has been made to look "taller and thinner" by the use of more clear glass and vertical lines running the length of the building, the tower's architect said on Friday.

The changes should address criticisms received last month by members of the Lower Downtown Design Review Board, architect Curt Fentress said.

The latest version will be presented to the board on Aug. 7.

"They used the word 'feather-like' to describe what they wanted, and that is not usually a word you associate with a 400-foot-tall building," Fentress said at his office.

He placed a model of his firm's latest design next to the previous model to display the differences.

"It's like dressing for a party with clothes that make you feel taller and thinner," Fentress said. "It's like the pinstripe suit I'm wearing. Before it was more of a Scottish plaid. The building will have a pinstripe that will run from the lapel to the cuffs."

He said he also may insert pieces of stainless steel in the aluminum stripes, as he did at the 1999 Broadway office tower he designed, to "catch the light as the sun moves across the sky and dances off the tower."

Fentress said the "fractured" design from the two-story balconies along the 35 units captures the "ruggedness of the Colorado Rocky Mountains," and will also give buyers the "sense they are living on a cliff. It redefines living in the sky."

Fentress also noted that 89 percent of the land on the site remains open. "I don't know how you could have any more open space and still have a building," Fentress said.

City planner Tyler Gibbs just received a package of the new design and said it is "premature and probably inappropriate" to comment before he prepares a staff report.

The building is being proposed by developer Buzz Geller. "Iconic buildings are always more expensive to build, because they never fit the mold," Geller said. "This building will be even harder and more expensive because each and every floor will be different as far as layout goes. It will truly be like 35 custom homes."

Geller said that because the tower sits on a 45-degree angle on the site, the widest perspective of the building will be from the Auraria campus. The much more typical view for people driving on Speer will be of a slender building, he said.

In addition, the five-story office building on the site will have a brick exterior instead of the original granite on the part that faces the LoDo area, with a glass facade across from the tower. This addresses another concern of some of the board members, said Ned Kirschbaum, technical design director and principal of Fentress Architects.

And the land around the office building has been reconfigured to "be more of a place, instead of a path," as board member and architect Joseph Poli had suggested last month, Kirschbaum said.

Geller is betting that people will be willing to pay in the neighborhood of $7.5 million to $25 million for the units.

Developments of such unique design often command enormous premiums when sold, so despite their initial price, they often prove to be excellent investments, Geller said.

rebchookj@RockyMountain News

Comments

  • July 28, 2008

    10:09 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    uncledan writes:

    I am all for more signature bldgs in the city....but this thing is a mess. Way too busy.

  • July 28, 2008

    12:35 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    kalonblake writes:

    What happened to the designated viewshed point at Bell Park? They made the Broncos change the profile of Invesco Stadium because of it. This completely obliterates it. It shouldn't be built.

  • July 28, 2008

    1:29 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Diff writes:

    These are only drawings, but from them I have to say that one is just as ugly as the other.
    What ever happened to taste, and an elegant, classic sense of style?
    The Art museum is fine - art housing art, but as a prominent "land mark" building for downtown, this seems a little too outside the box for me.
    However this is a notch above the "Blue Devil" out a DIA.

  • July 28, 2008

    3:21 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jnkjson writes:

    Can't/won't build it. There isn't a bank in the world that would finace this thing in this market + material price inflation and they couldn't pull it off if they had $150M cash and 100% presale rate.

  • July 28, 2008

    3:54 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    jimmyrobot writes:

    kalonblake...

    The location of this building is outside of the view shed. Search the city website for information on the 4th special review district in Lower Downtown for the council-approved re-zoning of this site.

  • July 28, 2008

    4:36 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Biff writes:

    It's very tough to tell what a building will look like from a picture of a rendering. If....and this is a big IF...this ever gets built, it will be very pleasing to the eye. Does anyone think that a person who will pay those prices will expect anything less?

  • July 29, 2008

    9:54 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    SayWhat32 writes:

    First I have to say that the design has not changed much just the color of the materials on the model and from my opinion it does seem to be a little more please to the eye.
    I applaud the owner and architect for stepping outside the conservative Colorado architecture style. People need to understand that architecture is a part of our social network and reflects ideas, technology, and construction methods of a particular time period. When you travel to other major cities you will know why Denver is considered a cow town. Tyler Gibbs and the rest of the review board need to open there eyes to the future and see what is happening around the world and stop trying to make every building in Denver look like a historic building.