Denver’s Innovative Architecture Opens Their Doors: Taxi and Topo Designs Flagship Store

Our first two stops for Doors Open Denver featured innovative architecture in the north part of the city, the co-working space Taxi which mixes contemporary architecture with a natural setting and the Topo Designs flagship store, made entirely out of shipping containers at 25th and Larimer. Is this what the future looks like? We asked participants what they think.

Young Architects 

It is refreshing to see a company like Zepplin Development take on brownfield sites, places that everyone sort of sees as eyesores. They are buying these backlots and redeveloping them, bringing life and fresh materials to the site. I think good architecture makes use of raw materials and the architects and developers of this site did an amazing job bringing good design while maintaining a solid business sense.  

I think innovative architecture preserves buildings and does not demolish them. It’s such a waste and you have to remediate the site afterwards and do environmental impact statements. There is an aura and a history to a building that develops over time and I think it is important to avoid demolition at all costs.

I just bought a condo by the MCA so we are excited about what’s going on in Denver and seeing what architecture develops. With new technology, I think we will see more and more adaptive reuse of spaces that rely on renewable energy. Or buildings completely off the grid using advanced battery technology.

Terry, Denver Architect, and wife Anne

It seems today’s designers are less elegant about the materials they choose in terms of value, and more creative about how they are using raw materials. The site here was probably pretty inexpensive to buy. The city will fill out, I think in the future. We will be more connected to our neighbors and the neighborhoods will have distinct identities. I am working on quite a few projects near light rail rail stations around town, people will be interested in alternative transportation options, and live near them.  

Nate - Topo Design 

This building was the first built of its kind in Denver. It was finished just over 2 years ago and definitely draws people in who have never seen a space like this before. But it makes sense to people, instead of these structures just wasting away in shipping container graveyards. I like more minimal and clean design, and I look to Toyko and Copenhagan as examples of what I hope Denver to me more like in the future.  

Tourists from Scotland, Belgium, Florida, Seattle

I was just in Corpus Christi and saw some of these shipping container buildings there. I’ve never seen one in person, I have only seen them in articles, and online.

I think this is a really original concept. I also really liked what they did at Union station. Modern minimalist design looks too easy to me. I like to see more curves and angles, I am from Edinburgh, Scotland so this kind of architecture doesn’t make sense to me.

Eric – Denver Restaurateur

So the restaurants I work for are all spaces that have been reclaimed and redeveloped, Linger was an old mortuary, and Root Down was a gas station. Our new project, Ophelia was a brothel. Denver is growing exponentially, and in the future I think we will see the neighborhoods becoming stronger, even using their old names, to create an identity.