Touted as the nation’s first carbon-positive hotel, Populus recently broke ground in downtown Denver. Scheduled to open in late 2023, Populus is a 13-story, 265-room hotel with a rooftop restaurant and bar, all designed by Studio Gang.
Developed by Urban Villages, the triangular-shaped, 130,000-square-foot building will be entirely carbon positive, from construction to operations. Populus will minimize its carbon footprint in the development stage by using low-carbon concrete mixes and high-recycled content materials, maximizing structural efficiency, using fewer finish materials, and minimizing waste. The team will consider the carbon footprint of the origin and creation of the materials as well as their transport. The hotel’s overall use (operational carbon) and every guest stay will be offset, in addition to the building’s embodied carbon.
The project also will involve an offsite ecological effort, including an initial commitment to plant trees that represent over 5,000 acres of forest, offsetting the equivalent of nearly 500,000 gallons of gas.
With design by Studio Gang, and with the Beck Group as the architect of record, Populus draws inspiration from the area’s iconic Aspen tree. Studio Gang designed the hotel, its first building in Colorado, with eye-shaped windows that echo the Aspen eyes. As part of the overall green vision, “lids” over each window extend slightly outward to shade the interior, improve energy performance, and channel rainwater.
Inside, the windows change in size to reflect the public or private aspect of various spaces—with windows up to 30 feet high at the building’s base. In the rooms, the windows not only provide immersive mountain and city views but also serve as seats or desks, further connecting occupants with the outdoors.
“Improving the resiliency of our cities has never been more urgent—and it includes reducing carbon emissions as well as strengthening community bonds,” Jeanne Gang, founder of Studio Gang, said in a statement. “We’ve designed Populus to be a new destination in downtown Denver that combines these environmental and social ambitions.”
On the Building Team:
Owner and/or developer: Urban Villages
Design architect: Studio Gang
Architect of record: The Beck Group
MEP engineer: Klok Group
Structural engineer: Studio NYL
General contractor/construction manager: Matt Archuletta
Related Stories
| Mar 11, 2011
Holiday Inn reworked for Downtown Disney Resort
The Orlando, Fla., office of VOA Associates completed a comprehensive interior and exterior renovation of the 14-story Holiday Inn in the Downtown Disney Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. The $25 million project involved rehabbing the hotel’s 332 guest rooms, atrium, swimming pool, restaurant, fitness center, and administrative spaces.
| Mar 11, 2011
Guests can check out hotel’s urban loft design, music selection
MODO, Advaya Hospitality’s affordable new lifestyle hotel brand, will have an urban Bauhaus loft design and target design-, music-, and tech-savvy guest who will have access to thousands of tracks in vinyl, CD, and MP3 formats through a partnership with Downtown Music. Guest can create their own playlists, and each guest room will feature iPod docks and large flat-screen TVs.
| Mar 11, 2011
Texas A&M mixed-use community will focus on green living
HOK, Realty Appreciation, and Texas A&M University are working on the Urban Living Laboratory, a 1.2-million-sf mixed-use project owned by the university. The five-phase, live-work-play project will include offices, retail, multifamily apartments, and two hotels.
| Mar 9, 2011
North Korea resumes construction of 'world's worst' hotel
Is North Korea finally serious about completing construction of Ryu-Gyong Hotel—once called the world’s worst building—after years of neglect and secrecy?
| Mar 9, 2011
Igor Krnajski, SVP with Denihan Hospitality Group, on hotel construction and understanding the industry
Igor Krnajski, SVP for Design and Construction with Denihan Hospitality Group, New York, N.Y., on the state of hotel construction, understanding the hotel operators’ mindset, and where the work is.
| Mar 9, 2011
Fast food franchises are taking the LEED
Starbucks, Arby’s, and McDonald’s are among the top when it comes to fast food franchises implementing sustainability practices. This article takes a look at the green paths these three brands are taking, and how LEED factors into their business and their future.
| Feb 15, 2011
Iconic TWA terminal may reopen as a boutique hotel
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey hopes to squeeze a hotel with about 150 rooms in the space between the old TWA terminal and the new JetBlue building. The old TWA terminal would serve as an entry to the hotel and hotel lobby, which would also contain restaurants and shops.
| Feb 9, 2011
Hospital Construction in the Age of Obamacare
The recession has hurt even the usually vibrant healthcare segment. Nearly three out of four hospital systems have put the brakes on capital projects. We asked five capital expenditure insiders for their advice on how Building Teams can still succeed in this highly competitive sector.
| Jan 25, 2011
AIA reports: Hotels, retail to lead U.S. construction recovery
U.S. nonresidential construction activity will decline this year but recover in 2012, led by hotel and retail sectors, according to a twice-yearly forecast by the American Institute of Architects. Overall nonresidential construction spending is expected to fall by 2% this year before rising by 5% in 2012, adjusted for inflation. The projected decline marks a deteriorating outlook compared to the prior survey in July 2010, when a 2011 recovery was expected.
| Jan 25, 2011
InterContinental Hotels Group gets LEED pre-certification
InterContinental Hotels Group, the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms, announced that its in-house sustainability system Green Engage has been awarded LEED volume pre-certification established from the USGBC and verified by the Green Building Certification Institute. IHG is the first hotel company to receive this award for an existing hotels program.
