DENVER’S NEWEST HOTEL, POPULUS, HAS A DECIDEDLY DECIDUOUS AESTHETIC THAT’ S INTENDED TO INSPIRE.
Architectural Digest top 100 firm Studio Gang designed Populus, a new nature-inspired hotel in Denver’s Civic Center Park, to emulate an aspen tree. PHOTO COURTESY OF STUDIO GANG
Wildman Chalmers Design conceived the hotel’s interiors to celebrate nature. PHOTO BY NEPHEW
ASPENS ARE A COMMON SIGHT in Colorado’s mountain forests. This summer, however, a 13-story homage to the trees will stand out in the capital city’s skyline. Conceptualized by architecture firm Studio Gang, Populus (populusdenver.com) features an ivory exterior with multisize, oval-shaped windows that resemble the distinctive “eyes” on the trunk of its namesake Populus tremuloides. Opening this summer, the Denver high-rise is also America’s first carbon-positive hotel.
Populus is a study in biophilic design, a building technique that infuses natural elements throughout a structure. “It’s going to be hard,” says Jon Buerge, president and partner at Populus’ developer, Urban Villages, “for a visitor of Populus to walk away not feeling inspired by nature.”
Inside, guests will find a forest floor inspired lobby with purposely imperfect stone aggregate underfoot. The hotel’s middle layer, or understory, includes neutral-toned meeting spaces and 265 light-filled rooms and suites, most with elegantly curved, hammock-esque seats set in the aspen-eye windows. The hotel’s top level, inspired by the forest canopy, is a celebration of color and light with an outdoor bar, a landscaped terrace and an eatery with green cork walls and a light fixture that uses wooden discs to refract light as if it were peeking through leaves. Elevator music here is birdsong, the tittering changing with the time of day and the season.
Yet Populus does more than mimic the outdoor environment—it has been thoughtfully designed to respect it. Using wood from reclaimed snow fencing and beetle-kill pine reduced the hotel’s overall carbon footprint. So did low-carbon concrete mixes, fewer finish materials and building materials with high-recycled content. The hotel’s remaining carbon cost is offset by planting trees in Colorado’s Gunnison County, more than 70,000 Engelmann Spruce to date. “We thrive when we have nature as part of our lives,” Buerge says. “By leaning on nature to inspire design, we’re bringing nature into the city.”
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