CREJ

/ BUILDING DIALOGUE / MARCH 2017

Denver history.

According to Tom Noel, history professor at the Universi-

ty of Colorado Denver, originally the land belonged to the

Southern Arapaho under the terms of the 1851 Treaty of Fort

Laramie. For decades earlier it had been their winter home,

but when gold was discovered in June 1858, Chief Little Raven

and his tribe were pushed out as scores of prospectors and

fortune seekers overwhelmed the area with tents, lean-tos

and crudely constructed log cabins.

The first “store” in the camp opened there Oct. 29, 1858, and

less than a month later Denver City was founded, named af-

ter Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver.

For the next 159 years, the location became an underuti-

lizedmess of rail yards, warehouses and strewn garbage. Now

it’s a gleaming testament to Denver’s rise.

Design and a Blessing

From 2007 to 2009, developer Ray Suppa – of Palace Lofts

and Waterside Lofts fame – worked with the city of Denver

and the Urban Land Institute to change the zoning from

R-MU-30, which required a boxy LoDo-style building en-

velope no higher than 90 feet tall to PUD (Planned Urban

/ The Confluence Goes with the Flow /