A “beautiful aspen tree” has been planted on a triangular piece of land in downtown Denver, Mayor Mike Johnston said during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new Populus Hotel.
The hotel opened to customers Tuesday, but the event Thursday marked the official opening of doors to the community. The hotel’s exterior was inspired by Colorado’s signature quaking aspens. The name Populus comes from the scientific term for aspens: Populus tremuloides.
“We really do hope that Denver will be proud of what we have accomplished here. It was really important to us that the design draws from the natural elements that can be found within the region, which have made Denver and Colorado so special,” said Juliane Wolf of Studio Gang, a Chicago-based architecture firm.
The 265-room, 13-story hotel sits at the north end of Civic Center Park and the Denver City and County Building. The rooftop restaurant and terrace have views of the Denver Art Museum, Denver Public Library and the state capitol.
There are plenty of views from inside as well from the many windows on all three sides of the building. The windows are shaped like the characteristic patterns on aspen trees. When the trees shed their lower branches, dark, eye-shaped marks are left on the bark.
On the exterior, the “lids” of each window stretch outward to shade the interior while also channeling rainwater, according to Studio Gang’s website.
Trees are at the heart of the hotel’s efforts to be the first “carbon-positive” hotel in the U.S. The terms “carbon neutral” and “net zero” are often used when talking about trying to reduce and offset emissions produced by buildings. Carbon positive can mean going beyond cutting emissions to create environmental benefits, such as producing more renewable energy than one building can use or offsetting more than one building’s carbon emissions.
George Prine, the hotel’s general manager and with the Aparium Hotel Group, said Populus worked with the U.S. Forest Service and other agencies to plant about 77,000 trees in Gunnison County as a way to help sequester carbon. Working with the National Forest Foundation, the hotel will plant one tree for every night’s stay, Prine said.
“We’re going to be planting 200,000 to 250,000 trees every year,” Prine said.
The project’s developer, Urban Villages in Denver, focused on creating an environmentally sustainable building.
“At our core, we are environmentalists. We’re looking at our responsibility in the built environment,” said Urban Villages CEO Grant McCargo. “We really do feel that we’re environmental stewards when we do a project. It’s not just for our time owning it, but are we creating a legacy that will go on for generations?”
Throughout the hotel, warm, earthy colors and natural materials are used. The main desk in the lobby was carved from a fallen cottonwood tree. The ceiling on the ground floor features distressed wood slats that came from snow fencing in Wyoming. A sculpture made from leather-like material grown from mushroom roots hangs over a restaurant entryway.
Populus will use 100% renewable sources for its electricity, hotel officials said.
Wood from trees killed by beetles covers the wall behind the check-in desk and was also used for some of the headboards in the rooms. The hotel’s artwork includes pieces by local artists. Elevator rides feature bird songs recorded in Rocky Mountain National Park by Jacob Job, a Colorado-based conservationist and natural sound recording artist.
Amenities include two restaurants: Pasque and Stellar Jay. Pasque is named after a wildflower native to Colorado and will anchor the ground floor. Stellar Jay is named after a common Colorado bird. The restaurants are using a biodigester to convert food waste into compost and fertilizer.
The rates for a room at Populus start at around $299 and range up to $899. The hotel didn’t disclose the project’s entire cost.
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