Populous Denver is a 13-story hotel in downtown Denver, Colorado, United States, located adjacent to Civic Center Park. The hotel opened in October 2024 and contains 265 guest rooms. Designed by the architecture firm Studio Gang and developed by Denver-based real estate company Urban Villages, the hotel features a carbon-positive environment that has drawn praise in the national media and has been named one of the Time magazine's "World's Greatest Places of 2025".
During the COVID-19 pandemic when the hospitality industry was experiencing a downturn, the Urban Villages publicly unveiled the name and renderings of the Populus Denver, and framed the project as a long-term, counter-cyclical investment based on expectations that travel demand and civic events would rebound by the time the building opened. They had acquired control of the site in early 2016 after purchasing the property from the City and County of Denver and a private partner for $2.5million. The earlier plans focused primarily on micro-apartments, but the program was later revised to emphasize hotel use as part of a broader vision for Civic Center revitalization.[1]
Populus occupies a triangular site bounded by West Colfax Avenue, 14th Street, and Court Place in downtown Denver, directly across from Civic Center Park.[1] Construction began in 2022 and continued through 2024, a period marked by elevated material costs and labor constraints stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. The project topped out in 2023, with interior buildout and systems commissioning continuing into 2024. It opened to guests in October 2024.[2]
In 2022, it had funded the planting of tens of thousands of Engelmann spruce trees in Colorado, however, a large number of those died due to extreme weather, though it continued planting an additional number of trees in subsequent years.[3][4]
Design
Inspiration for the exterior façade, found on quaking aspen trees.
The hotel is designed by Studio Gang, marking the firm's first completed project in Colorado.[5][6] The façade is reported to be biomimetic, featuring 365 irregularly shaped vertically oriented glass fiber reinforced concrete window openings designed to provide shading and protection from the rainwater. The windows are inspired by the dark markings found on the bark of quaking aspen trees, and thus the hotel's name is derived from the tree's scientific name, Populus tremuloides.[6][7][3]
Reportedly, the hotel aims to be a carbon-positive by sequestering more carbon dioxide than it emits through construction and ongoing operations.[8][9][10] Interior spaces are designed by Wildman Chalmers and are made from the cold-formed steel with no straight 90-degree angle in its architecture, along with a low-carbon concrete mix. It has 265 guest rooms with eco-friendly accessories, and an online carbon offset dashboard is displayed as well.[3][4][10][11]
The lobby features "forest floor" materials, along with the reception desk made from the felled cottonwood tree, walls decoration from the beetle-kill pine, and the ceiling decorations from the reclaimed lumber snow fences. The hallway features dark theme to evoke the nature-inspired experience of being inside a treehouse. The building envelope and the electricty is made from renewable and biodegradable materials, and an on-site biodigester processes food waste into a local fertilizer. Instead of a self parking garage, the hotel relies on the nearby public facilities.[3][4][12]
Operations
Operated by the Aparium Hotel Group,[2] the hotel includes multiple food-and-beverage venues. Pasque, a ground-floor restaurant, features a sculptural installation above the bar made from Reishi, a leather-like material derived from mycelium. Stellar Jay, a rooftop bar, features a public terrace with a view towards the Civic Center.[4][9][13]
Additional amenities include meeting and event spaces, interior lounges, and guest-experience details such as wooden room keys with biodegradable sleeves containing wildflower seeds.[13]Populus Seattle, a similar hotel also by Urban Villages, opened in Seattle in 2025.[4]
Reception
Many local viewers and publishers found the structure's appearance similar to a cheese grater[14][12][15][16] or having the eye-shaped windows.[6][7][3][17] In 2025, Time included Populus on its list of the "World's Greatest Places", citing the hotel's biophilic design, rooftop amenities, and sustainability narrative,[13] and Esquire named it in its list of the "Best New Hotels in the World", calling it a "revolutionary property" with the "idea of honoring nature".[18] It won the Glass Magazine Award for Best Green Project due to its climate-conscious design in reducing the carbon-footprint,[19] and received a Michelin Key from the Michelin Guide, recognizing excellence in design, service, and overall character.[20]
Vitello, Rachel (August 26, 2025). "2025 Glass Magazine Awards". Glass Magazine. Archived from the original on October 18, 2025. Retrieved February 13, 2026.
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