Continuing with their recent expansion into the United States, MAD has officially broken ground on a new residential development in Denver called One River North.
The Beijing and Los Angeles-based firm is looking to cement its footprint in North America with a sixteen-story tower for one of Denver’s most vibrant neighborhoods. Located in the River North Art District (RiNo) just above Coors Field and the city’s downtown business center, the new development will feature187 residential units carved into a sculptural, curvilinear tower with a jagged open chasm and four hikeable footpaths, providing users with an unencumbered view of the majestic Rocky Mountains from which its shape takes inspiration.
A rooftop pool, spa, and garden areas complete the 216-foot-tall structure with a water feature to further enhance the deliberate sense of connection between residents and the natural world created by Ma Yansong’s design team.
“If we regard modern cities as man-made landscape on the earth, we need to design canyons, woods, creeks, and waterfalls, transforming concrete forests into second nature,” the architect said.
“One River North is the model for how we should be living, surrounding ourselves in the natural environment, bringing nature into our homes and creating authentic, biophilic experiences coupled with modern comforts and conveniences,” Kevin Ratner, the co-founder of developer The Max Collaborative added.
Ratner was recently behind the transformation of Denver’s Stapleton International Airport redevelopment, now called Central Park, which added 12,000 residences, 400,000 square feet of office space, and over 1,000 acres of parks and open space in one of the largest mixed-use projects in the history of the western U.S. He referred to the development as a “serene retreat in the sky.”
The construction of One River North is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
17 Comments
These gimmick-laden projects that rely for whatever effect they have on simplistic gags are like one-liner jokes. They don't benefit from being seen or heard a second time.
In this case, MAD's superficial design is already tired and becoming more tedious with every passing day.
This is fantasy. This is Denver, not SE Asia, where the renderings were outsourced to (or where the plants library was lifted). The garden spaces will never look like this.
The resources necessary to sustain the landscape to the level shown in the renderings should shame the developers and architects. Such resources could be instead used at the ground level - the equivalent cost of which could cover 6 square blocks with street trees, bioswales, streetlamps, benches, pocket parks and be truly transformational in getting people to engage their community.
what do people do in these spaces? don't people feel resentment toward coworkers when they're stuck inside working on some spreadsheet and others are outside working on their tan?
well it's a residential building.
thought it was an office. i'm bad at reading words
MAD is firmly entrenched as the poor man's ZHA - though to its credit, the firm has executed swirly forms far better than its contemporaries. The whole schickt with Chinese landscape paintings resonates with the zeitgeist and serves the developer clients well. Ma waxing lyrical about landscapes is pretty funny though, once you realize all they are doing is mimicking the silouettes of trees and mountains with materials that do not have that kind of formal resolution. Some of their best work eschews gimmicky language for material innovation. This may not be one of them.
To your second point. As much as I want to be a naysayer on this sort of project.... but so far I can't really knock MAD for failing to deliver. Drove by Gardenhouse randomly the other day... looked good...
Denver is not Los Angeles by a lot, I hope they had a reality check before starting construction or those creeping vines will be more like icicles, oh! and the pools will have to be heated.
They have 2 projects in China that share very similar designs - the one in Beijing was Grade A office space and featured a splendid curtain wall complete with tightly curved glazing (Courtesy of the facade engineers) while the other couldn't afford such a system and used metal fins to mimic mountain silhouettes. The contrast was stark. Their best projects, IMO, are that kindergarten in Japan and the Harbin opera house. From the photos they seem to have spectacular interiors and the exterior geometry translated well into concrete reality.
JLC-1 I'm not arguing that point. More that they have a lot better record of meeting set expectations than people are giving them credit for. I too am skeptical of the planting, but don't want to take as hard line of a stance on it... I was really skeptical of the opera house too...
THE EARTH IS HEALING
Yeah, NO. That vegetation will not exist in Denver. Have you noticed your building is between a rail road and an industrial park?
nice neighborhood
A design scheme out of an apocalyptic movie like the one with Will Smith and the zombies (the remake of Omega Man) without any understanding of horitculture, climate, and maintenance. The cost of developing and more importantly maintaining gardens in the sky - as well as the knowledge and experience necessay to do so - is effectively non-existent.
But it makes for easy sales to municipal agencies and tenants with photorealistic renderings - "Look, it's green!"
Boeri pulled it off in Milan, don't see why a building in Denver can't be full of plants and trees, judging from the drone image there's plenty of green around.
"Snow in Milan usually falls at least once every year, and sometimes can be abundant, although it tends to melt soon enough."
"As reported by the National Weather Service, the long-term average seasonal snowfall for Denver is 56.5 inches, with a minimum and maximum range of 21.3 inches to 118.7 inches."
So, there are trees in Denver and there are buildings in Denver, I really don't see why there can't be trees on/in buildings in Denver.
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