Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - Denver printing scion Barry Hirschfeld and his business partner Jim Johnson will build the city's first "sliver skyscraper" in the Golden Triangle neighborhood.

Created by mark. Last modified on 2004-01-17 13:45:57

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,33%257E456580,00.html?search=filter
By Kristi Arellano
Denver Post Business Writer

Tuesday, March 12, 2002 - Denver printing scion Barry Hirschfeld and his business partner Jim Johnson will build the city's first "sliver skyscraper" in the Golden Triangle neighborhood.

The 17-story tower at 1212 Delaware St. won't be the first high-rise residential development in the neighborhood south of downtown. The neighborhood already has two towering condo buildings and others on the drawing board, but it will be the first in the city to use the sliver style, which has a wide base and an ultra-narrow tower.

"There's been a continued acceptance of more sophisticated structures in the Golden Triangle," said Joe Poli, principal with Humphries Poli architects, which designed The Argyle.

"I think this is the next step. It's a higher and more elegant tower. It's more modern," he said.

The 46-unit art deco tower, called The Argyle, will be 190 feet tall and have only four units per floor. Condos will start at about $350,000, Johnson said.

Construction of The Argyle could begin as early as this summer and should take about 18 months, Hirschfeld said. The development's sales center will open Sunday.

Hirschfeld and Johnson are also building 251 Steele - a six-unit residential building with roughly 2,500 square feet of retail space in Cherry Creek North - and they're selling the last units at Baker Commons, a five-story, 48-unit loft building on Broadway near the Mayan Theatre.

The Golden Triangle Neighborhood Association voted to support the design of The Argyle, but some neighbors worry that it's too tall.

"The height doesn't comply with the spirit of the neighborhood plan, but it represents good design in so many other ways," said Margerie Hicks, executive director of the association.

Zoning in the Golden Triangle allows high-rise construction, but many residents think such buildings should remain on the outer edges of the neighborhood, said Larry Fullerton, who has developed mid-rise condo buildings in the Golden Triangle. The city of Denver defines high-rises as buildings that are nine stories or taller.

The Golden Triangle experienced a development boom that started in the mid-1990s when developers began transforming the neighborhood from a sea of parking lots into a residential enclave.

The first phases of development included renovations of existing buildings and new mid-rise buildings. Those were followed - to the dismay of some neighbors - by developer Craig Nassi's 17-story Belvedere, which was completed last year, and his 16-story Prado tower, which is almost finished.

Other towers planned for the neighborhood include Nassi's Beauvallon, a pair of 14-story towers on Lincoln Street between Ninth and 10th avenues and Mile High Developments' 15-story building at Eighth Avenue and Broadway.

If all the projects currently planned for the Golden Triangle are completed, they would nearly double the roughly 300 units of new or renovated housing in the neighborhood, Hicks said.

While The Argyle's narrow profile and art deco style are new to the Golden Triangle, neighbors said the building should be right at home in the neighborhood's eclectic mix of mid-rise Mediterranean-inspired condo buildings, contemporary loft structures and Old World European towers.

Each condo in The Argyle will be a 1,328-square-foot corner unit, and buyers will have the option of purchasing more than one unit to create a larger living space.

The Argyle will feature two townhome-style units on the ground floor. The rest of the units will be on the sixth floor and higher. A small lobby, storage units and roughly 92 parking spaces will occupy the remainder of the first five floors.

Hirschfeld and Johnson are confident that the units will sell, even though some softening has occurred in the higher-end housing market.

"It's hard to speculate how good or how bad the market is, but we think we've got something special," Hirschfeld said.

"Hopefully, people will embrace it as well as we do."