One Cheesman Place - Denver, CO
As the Senior Design Associate of the Mulhern Group, Robert Fitzgerald was called upon to re-design a building in which he had played only a minor role many years earlier. While he working with Skidmore, Ownings, and Merrill in the early 1980's, that firm put forth the design of a modernist, glass-clad luxury high rise residence at one of the most precious sites on Denver's venerable Cheesman Park. The project lacked financing at the time however, and was shelved. Prior to its revival 8 years later, under new ownership and a "new" architect, the city had passed a 50 ft. height limit on the site and the neighborhoods had come to expect only parkland at the vacant ground.
Using contextual cues from surrounding neighborhoods and great park-side buildings from around the world, the structure, utilizing the previously accepted and very small "foot print" of its predecessor, was redesigned and re-presented by Fitzgerald in tens of neighborhood meetings, city negotiations, and televised council hearings. Eventually the height limit was overturned, the neighborhood groups lauded the Post-Modernist structure and the right to develop a 28- story high-rise was restored with the closing of High Street into the park. The economy once again intervened and the project was unfortunately replaced by an impenetrable wall of townhomes.
Photos
As the Senior Design Associate of the Mulhern Group, Robert Fitzgerald was called upon to re-design a building in which he had played only a minor role many years earlier. While he working with Skidmore, Ownings, and Merrill in the early 1980's, that firm put forth the design of a modernist, glass-clad luxury high rise residence at one of the most precious sites on Denver's venerable Cheesman Park. The project lacked financing at the time however, and was shelved. Prior to its revival 8 years later, under new ownership and a "new" architect, the city had passed a 50 ft. height limit on the site and the neighborhoods had come to expect only parkland at the vacant ground.
Using contextual cues from surrounding neighborhoods and great park-side buildings from around the world, the structure, utilizing the previously accepted and very small "foot print" of its predecessor, was redesigned and re-presented by Fitzgerald in tens of neighborhood meetings, city negotiations, and televised council hearings. Eventually the height limit was overturned, the neighborhood groups lauded the Post-Modernist structure and the right to develop a 28- story high-rise was restored with the closing of High Street into the park. The economy once again intervened and the project was unfortunately replaced by an impenetrable wall of townhomes.
