Residential/Hospitality: Best Project: Theo Luxury Residences

Theo Luxury Residences
Denver
Best Project

Owner: Continuum Partners and CIM Group
Lead Design Firm: Shears Adkins Rockmore Architects
General Contractor: Saunders Construction
Structural Engineer: Fortis Structural LLC
Civil Engineer: Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc.
MEP Engineer: Abel Consulting Group LLC

Theo Luxury Residences offer 275 apartments and 43,000 sq ft of retail space. Theo includes one-, two- and three-bedroom units as well as studio residences. Amenities include a resort-style pool, a pet spa, kitchens for entertaining, a bike-repair room and club rooms with fireplaces. Resident parking is provided in a garage north of the building and accessed via a pedestrian bridge that connects the garage and Theo on the sixth and seventh levels.

Theo is the first building to open as part of Denver’s Ninth and Colorado project, the former site of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. The development will help to reinvigorate an area that once played an important role in advancing the field of medicine, but that eventually became an eyesore and remained dormant for years. The site is being reintegrated into the surrounding community to help meet the commercial and residential needs of the area.

Theo is the tallest building in the neighborhood and provides beautiful views of the mountains and the city. The complex rises to three different heights: The residential portion is seven and nine stories high, while most of the amenities take up two stories.

The contractor used drones to track progress and analyze how much earth needed to be moved to balance the site. Drones were also employed to develop graphics that combined with a 3D model to show how the building would eventually look.

The original site, developed in the early 1920s, included many mature trees on its south side. Scanning technology helped determine which trees could be saved and which ones needed to be removed, based on the design. Much of the old landscaping was donated to associations or transplanted in local parks.

Throughout the project, the contractor emphasized community involvement. Onsite hiring led to jobs for neighborhood residents, who in turn became ambassadors for the project. The contractor also recognized the site’s long history as the birthplace of CU’s Health Sciences Center. Bricks from the old building were distributed as mementoes to families whose children were born there.