“I’m a big nature fanatic,” confesses architect Jeanne Gang, an avid hiker and the genial founding partner of the award-winning firm Studio Gang. Her outdoorsy predilections, not to mention her knack for balancing flair and function, reveal themselves fully in a new project, the Populus hotel in Denver. Spanning 13 stories and 265 guest rooms, the building takes direct inspiration from Colorado’s native Aspen trees, with fiberglass-reinforced concrete panels the color of bark, street-level columns reminiscent of trunks, and fenestration that invokes the dark markings left by shed branches. “With a hotel, the main thing are the windows,” explains Gang, who first developed the concept in the quiet of an alpine forest. Above each opening, streamlined “eyelids” provide relief
from the harsh mountain sun, helping to reduce solar gain inside the hotel. That’s just one part of Gang’s rigorous strategy to make the hotel energy efficient and raise the sustainability bar in the hospitality industry. Surfaces, for instance, feature upcycled materials like salvaged fencing and repurposed leather veneers, respectively deployed as ceilings and tabletops. (Wildman Chalmers Design and FOWLER Architecture and Design collaborated on the interiors.) And the rooftop plantings, designed by the landscape architects Superbloom, will attract not only the public but also pollinators. “The idea is to surround people with biophilia,” says Gang, adding, “and get them in the mood of being in nature.” populusdenver.com
