Uptown Girl

Portofino Tower Sets the Standard for Upper Downtown Redevelopment

By Kim Shadwell

Photo by Kim Shadwell

She's tall and refined, with beautiful proportions and the confidence to be comfortable within her own skin. Her Italian heritage blends well with some American refinements, and she's the hottest topic in Denver society.

Named after the exclusive Italian Riviera resort, she's called Portofino.

The new $29 million, 14-story Portofino Tower offers upscale living in Denver's "uptown" business district. It features 55 units totaling 107,000 sq ft of residential space and an additional 47,000 sq ft of heated underground parking.

Designed by Davis Partnership with J.E. Dunn Construction Co. acting as the general contractor, Sagebrush Development's condominium tower will be complete this month, with more than 65 percent of the units already sold or reserved.

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Genuine Beauty

Portofino Tower's developer wanted an upscale image to match its strategy of realizing proper unit/sales costs appropriate for the market. Davis Partnership was asked to design a neo-classical building with literal references to Greek and Roman architecture.

As the concept evolved, Davis Partnership collaborated with the developer to achieve a design that, while classical in its inspiration, is more rooted in American architecture of the early 20th Century. An emphasis was placed upon the use of enduring, classical materials - limestone, marble and granite - and cement plaster.

"We used genuine materials as opposed to a building that is 'faux' everything," said Brit Probst, AIA, a principal at Davis Partnership. "On this building, if it looks like stone, it's stone."

The detailing of materials, proportioning of windows and development of strong forms at the top of the building are key components in the design.

Fitting In

The new building sits only 15 ft from another residential property, so the working quarters were tight. Zoning, planning and neighborhood design requirements - bulk planes, setbacks, step-backs, build-to lines and height restrictions based upon view-plane ordinances - placed a number of constraints on the project. The final design complies with all those requirements and still meets the developer's needs for aesthetics, marketability and cost.

"It's an interesting zoning district because they're trying to make pedestrian-friendly buildings," said Probst. "We had to step the building down at the edges and relate it to the scale of the neighboring building, setting the building back as it goes up. I think it's going to be a very street-friendly building."

Good Form

The main structure is constructed from an all-concrete frame positioned on a mat foundation system with 320 tons of reinforced steel. The building's exterior finish combines the use of stucco and limestone. The foundation consists of 3,200 yds of concrete from a monolithic pour that took seven-and-a-half hours to complete - one of the largest single pours in Colorado.

Dustin Liljehorn, J.E. Dunn Construction project manager, said it took 85 trucks running continuously for seven hours to complete the five-ft, six-in. deep mat. It was done on a cost basis because the bedrock on the site is so deep it was less expensive to pour a big mat than to drill caissons.

Cosmopolitan Views

The residential units, with both city and mountain views, range in size from 900 sq ft to a two-story, 4,400-sq-ft penthouse and list from $355,000 to $2.5 million. At 1,200 to 1,500 sq ft, the four units on the third level will have some of the largest outdoor living spaces in Denver for this type of building. The penthouses step back to allow for large balconies, and nearly every unit has a balcony of some sort.

Davis Partnership's Michel Pariseau said the view from the east side of Portofino looking south toward the State Capitol: "looks like a street in Paris. Most people think that if you're not looking at the mountains you have no view, but it's actually sensational."

Refinement Epitomized

Portofino's condominiums feature high-end interior finishes such as cherry wood, marble, granite slab countertops, and stone and wood flooring. The finishes in the "standard" units were mixed and matched so the apartments aren't all the same.

"It's a little different than what I'm used to on the developer side, where they just standardize the units and people change them from there," said Dan Ezra, Sagebrush Development's owners representative. "[Sagebrush] changed them a lot so you don't walk into the same unit with the same wood floor, the same stain on the cupboards, same cabinets and same counter tops."

The high-rise building also offers its residents an exercise room, sauna and steam rooms, current-resistance lap pool, wine room and business center. In addition, each unit is fitted with T-I high-speed Internet access lines.

Even the public areas have the atmosphere of a beautiful, richly decorated home. The hallways feature custom-made, dye-cast, one-piece carpet; niches with solid granite shelves and cloth covered walls that will hold artwork and sconces imported from Italy.
The main entry, featuring a curving stairway, was designed to create an intimate, gracious sense of home.

"It's setting the standard for Uptown," Ezra said.

Useful Sources

For more information on Portofino Tower and the team that built it, go to the following Web sites:

www.theportofinotower.com
www.jedunn.com
www.sagebrushcorp.com
www.davispartner.com
www.martindesigninc.com

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