Denver Stories

While our 25 team members come from 25 different places and have worked on projects around the globe, Civitas’ heart is in Denver, Colorado—right here at 1200 Bannock Street. Our building is one of the few non-museums within downtown Denver’s museum district. And if you’ve ever wondered why we have garage-style doors? It’s because our building was originally an automotive center when it opened in 1919. We’ve opened our doors for this year’s Doors Open Denver program, hosted by the Denver Architecture Foundation, and we’ve had fun celebrating some of our favorite Denver spaces that also happen to be legacy Civitas projects, including…

Just a few short years after the firm’s launch, in 1988, a decades-long effort began to redevelop the former Stapleton International Airport—a 4,500 acre site that, by 2001, would become recognized as the largest and most successful urban redevelopment project in the United States. Stapleton succeeded by creating a diverse residential development with retail, office and industrial components that generated billions in economic impact and employed thousands, and it set the standard and paved the way for much of the Denver region’s growth. In fact, Stapleton—now named Central Park—continues to grow and our team has remained involved for the long term, recently working on the master plan and design of more than 250 acres of parks, recreation spaces, open spaces, stormwater facilities and natural habitats that restore the native prairie.

That same year, in 1988, the firm led the Larimer Square Historic District redesign and renovation project, emphasizing the historical aspects and sprucing up the nonhistorical design—turning the square into one of Colorado’s premier shopping destinations and earning several industry accolades. With long-lasting impact, in 2016, Curbed Magazine named Larimer Square as one of the eleven best streets in America.

Between 1994 and 2000, Civitas would envision the redevelopment of Denver’s Central Platte Valley and Commons Park, creating a critical formal element to tie Denver together—a central spine that connected the city to the river. The design team saw that the park could serve as an engine for the redevelopment of the 75 acres of underused railway yards lying between the city and the river, and ultimately participated in over 30 design initiatives, including the 19-acre Commons Park. With a vision to turn the valley into a walkable center that would attract people to visit, live, work and play, Civitas led years of public meetings, discussing ways to give life back to the Platte River so that it could bring life back to the city of Denver. The resulting park has since become a flowing landscape that includes over 10 acres of habitat restoration, wetlands that buffer and cleanse stormwater, upland songbird habitats, and a half-mile of reconstructed river bottom to support aquatic habitat and boating. As Mark Johnson once wrote, Commons Park “has an urban edge that addresses the needs of the city. Yet, a substantial portion of the park is planted in native grasses, shrubs, and wetlands to meet the needs of the river.”

The 5280 Trail is a 5.28-mile loop that is envisioned to connect six distinct downtown Denver neighborhoods with an integrated system of urban spaces, places and trails. It celebrates the cultural identity of each neighborhood and encourages connectivity within and between them, with a design language that threads these places together and guides people through them. It promotes health by getting people outside, and it creates a stronger sense of place. In creating the trail, Civitas’ design team was inspired by Colorado’s outdoor lifestyle and by the mountain trail mentality that is so present and has developed a design scheme that mimics the simplicity and clarity of being on a mountain trail. As Civitas principal and project lead, Chris Parezo, said, “the trail makes Denver feel a little smaller and more intimate, and you immediately understand why connection can be so powerful. This project will change minds about what it means to be in downtown Denver.”

And because office buildings need parks too, The Hub is a 275,000-square-foot transit-oriented development in Denver’s River North, or RiNo district, adjacent to the 38th & Blake RTD station. Complementing the eight-story building’s architecture, Civitas designed an expansive 15,000-square-foot, fourth-floor roof deck, which serves as a focal point for the development. The client, Beacon Capital Partners, had originally sought a fun and engaging amenity that would appeal to the building’s creative office tenants and reflect Denver’s outdoor lifestyle and social scene. The large, landscaped roof deck would ultimately become a healthy differentiator for the property, and contributed to the project earning LEED Gold certification in 2020, as well as a Merit Award for Design from the Colorado chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in the same year.

Stop by, when you’re in Denver, or reach out virtually when you’re not. We’d love to hear your Denver stories too!