DENVER UNION STATION, Hangar 2, Aria Apartments, John Shaw and Paul Books take top honors at 2015 ULI Colorado Impact Awards

More than 350 leaders in land use attended ULI Colorado’s second Impact Awards program last Thursday at the Seawell Grand Ballroom at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts.

Combining two project team submittals, Denver Union Station (DUS) won in the Influence category for the entire project including the historic Crawford Hotel, Great Hall, Transit Hub, Wynkoop Plaza, and adjacent neighborhood development in the DUS master plan.

The two project teams—the Union Station Alliance and Denver Union Station Neighborhood—each received a custom Impact Award trophy designed and fabricated by Public Works.

Aria Apartments at Aria won the Infill category, and Hangar 2 at Lowry took the Innovation Category.

In accepting the Aria team award, developer Chuck Perry stressed the importance of equity in urban developments.

Project finalists included 1175 Lee Hill, a housing first project in Boulder; Renaissance Denver, the adaptive use of the historic Colorado National Bank Building as a hotel at 17th and Champa; The Source on Brighton Boulevard; The Amherst low-income apartment renovation in Denver’s Harvey Park neighborhood; and the 25th and  Larimer mixed-use “container building” in RiNO.

Dana Crawford, who won the inaugural Legacy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2013, passed the torch to 2015 honoree John Shaw, who has a long history of community service in addition to key roles in Denver Tech Center, with Opus, McWhinney, Denver Union Station, and Fitzsimons redevelopment.

Shaw said he’s “followed Dana Crawford around like a puppy dog” for 40 years and like Dame Dana, has no intention of slowing down.

Infill developer Paul Books of Palisades Partners won the Rising Star Award recognizing achievement of a leader under age 35. Denver Councilman Albus Brooks presented Books with the award, praising Books for his efforts to revitalize the historic Welton corridor in Five Points.

Other presenters included emcee Tom Clark of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation and sponsors RJ McArthur of EKS&H, Kirk Monroe of Vectra Bank Colorado, Jay Philps of Otten Johnson, and Chris Pangburn of Redland.

ULI Colorado thanks all the event sponsors and the volunteer team led by co-chairs Stacy Stout and Beverly Carlson: Brian Cohen, Kylee Gurney, Tyler Ideker, Tom Kooiman, Jackie Sciarra, and Cyndi Thomas.

Impact Awards 2015 jury: Laura Aldrete, Jim DeFrancia, Curt Fentress, Cal Fulenwider, Bill Mosher, Ralph Pace, and Julie Underdahl.