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Studio Gang's super green Populus hotel opens in Denver

2024-10-15T16:42:00-04:00

Today marks the long-awaited debut of Studio Gang’s Populus hotel project in Denver. The 265-room design is being promoted as the first ‘carbon-positive’ hotel development in the United States and features a combination of highly sustainable building materials and offsetting strategies that target a LEED Gold certification.

Image: courtesy Jason O'Rear

Image: courtesy Steve Hall

The firm’s first project in Colorado precedes their involvement on the Phase 1 redevelopment of the adjacent Civic Center Park. It is designed, as its name suggests, to mirror the natural processes of endemic Aspen trees (aka Populus tremuloides) with a textured facade featuring an arrangement of scalloped windows that contribute passive shading while channeling rainwater with widths tailored to the public and private spaces contained within.

Image: courtesy Jason O'Rear

Founder Jeanne Gang says: "Denver strikes a unique balance between being a vibrant city and a gateway to some of the country’s most awe-inspir...

Can the 'first carbon-positive hotel in the U.S.' claims of the Studio Gang-designed Populus be validated?

2024-09-30T10:28:00-04:00

Populus goes one step further in its boast of being 'carbon positive', not just offsetting the hotel’s carbon footprint but actually taking out far more carbon than it puts in – a promise few businesses would dare to make, for both financial and publicity reasons. As a term, however, 'carbon positive' can be linguistically confusing [...] and with no clear definition of what 'carbon positive' means, there are no metrics by which to determine its validity.

The project, first announced in February 2021, has since garnered skepticism amidst its developer Urban Villages' claims of being a first-of-its-kind carbon-positive American design in the typology. The true sustainability of the firm’s 2009 Aqua Tower in Chicago has been scrutinized in the past by online commenters.

The 265-room Populus, with its blinking 'lids' fenestration, opens for the first time on October 15th.

Studio Gang begins construction on Populus, the 'first carbon-positive hotel in the U.S.'

2022-04-25T12:10:00-04:00

Construction has begun on the Populus Hotel in Denver, Colorado. Designed by Studio Gang, the 13-story, 265-room hotel is described by the team as “the first carbon-positive hotel in the United States,” and the first Studio Gang project to be built in Colorado.

According to the architects, the scheme’s distinctive façade was informed by the patterns found in Colorado’s native Aspen tree, the Populus Tremuloides. The façade is defined by “lids” extending out over each window, which offer passive shading and channel rainwater away from the windows.

The hotel design was first revealed on Archinect in February 2021 and received mostly skeptical responses from our readers.

Image by Studio Gang

The interior sees windows change in size to reflect their public or private use, with windows up to 30 feet high at the building’s base to frame the lobby and amenity spaces. Within the hotel guest rooms, the window base becomes a seat and desk fixture facing toward views of the city or mountains. ...

Studio Gang envisions a tree-inspired mixed-use project to add to Denver's skyline

2021-02-01T17:18:00-05:00

Inspired by the area's natural landscapes and environment, Studio Gang reveals the latest visuals for their most recent mix-used project Populus. Located in Denver, along the city's historic Civic Center Park, the project pulls reference from the aspen tree by using its highly recognizable "eye-shaped" marked bark to design its facade, distinct building color, and vertical scalloped exterior.

Visuals courtesy of Studio Gang

The 13 stories tall building will house forty micro-apartments as well as 250 hotel rooms. Studio Gang collaborated with Denver-based developer Urban Villages. With the aspen tree as its visual muse, it's hard not to see the resemblance. According to the studio, the project's name "Populus" was also pulled from the scientific classification of the aspen tree populus tremuloides.

View more project images below.

Visuals courtesy of Studio Gang

Concept diagram. Visual courtesy of Studio...