Areas served by this guide: downtown districts and their buildings
Downtown Denver is not one building type. A brick warehouse in LoDo, a glass tower near Union Station and a 1920s apartment block on Capitol Hill each fail differently when water or fire gets in. These pages describe what is typical in each district, what complicates a restoration there, and which city offices to check with. Confirm details for your own property.
- Union Station and Riverfront: newer towers, new kinds of losses
Much of the Union Station neighborhood was built in the last couple of decades. Newer buildings fail differently: fewer old pipes, more complex systems, shared podiums and many separate owners.
- Ballpark: restaurants, lofts and warehouses near Coors Field
The Ballpark area mixes older industrial buildings with newer apartment blocks, and much of the ground floor is food and drink. That shapes the most common losses and how hard they are to work on.
- Golden Triangle: condos, galleries and offices near Civic Center
The Golden Triangle combines residential condominiums, cultural buildings and small offices and galleries. High-value contents and many associations set it apart from the office core.
- Capitol Hill: converted mansions, Colfax storefronts and older apartment blocks
Capitol Hill's commercial properties are mostly small and old: mansions converted to offices, street-front retail along Colfax, and early 20th century apartment buildings with commercial ground floors.
- Five Points: historic storefronts and new mixed-use along Welton Street
Five Points sits just northeast of downtown, with a historic commercial spine along Welton Street and a wave of newer mixed-use buildings. Old and new buildings bring different risks to the same blocks.
- The Central Business District: office towers along 17th Street
The CBD, centered on 17th Street and the 16th Street corridor, is the heart of downtown's office market. Its towers bring height, building rules, older systems and many tenants to every loss.