Populus Denver
The hotel's exterior, 2024
Interactive map of Populus Denver
General information
Location	240 14th Street Denver, Colorado 80202
Coordinates	39°44′15″N 104°59′26″W / 39.7374°N 104.9905°W / 39.7374; -104.9905
Opening	October 2024
Management	Aparium Hotel Group
Technical details
Floor count	13
Design and construction
Architect	Studio Gang
Developer	Urban Villages
Other information
Number of rooms	265
Website
populusdenver.com

Populous Denver is a 13-story hotel in downtown Denver, Colorado, 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 has been widely described as the first "carbon-positive" hotel in the United States, a designation that has drawn both praise and scrutiny in national media.^[1][2][3]

Since opening, Populus has been named one of Time magazine's "World's Greatest Places of 2025" and received a Michelin Key from the Michelin Guide.^[4][5][6]

Populus occupies a triangular site bounded by West Colfax Avenue, 14th Street, and Court Place in downtown Denver, directly across from Civic Center Park. Urban Villages acquired control of the site in early 2016 after purchasing the property from the City and County of Denver and a private partner for $2.5 million. Early plans for the site 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.^[7]

In December 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Urban Villages publicly unveiled the name and renderings while the hospitality industry was experiencing an unprecedented downturn. The developer 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.^[7]

The hotel was designed by Studio Gang, marking the firm's first completed project in Colorado. The building's sculpted exterior features irregularly shaped, vertically oriented window openings inspired by the dark "eye" markings found on the bark of quaking aspen trees.^[3][8]

Architectural publications described the façade as biomimetic and highly textured, intentionally departing from the glass curtain-wall typology common among contemporary downtown hotel towers. The exterior is composed of 365 glass fiber reinforced concrete panels with deeply recessed openings that provide shading, thermal regulation, and a distinctive visual identity.^[1][9]

Interior spaces were designed by Wildman Chalmers to extend the nature-inspired concept indoors, intending to evoke the experience of being inside a tree, with darker, "forest floor" materials at ground level transitioning upward to lighter spaces framed as a canopy.^[4]

Populus has been widely reported as claiming to be the first carbon-positive hotel in the United States, meaning it aims to sequester more carbon than it emits through construction and ongoing operations. Coverage noted that this claim goes beyond the carbon-neutral designations commonly used in the hospitality industry.^[10]

According to national reporting, the project used a concrete mix claimed to emit approximately 30 percent less carbon dioxide than conventional concrete and incorporated repurposed materials throughout the building. These included wood from an already felled cottonwood tree used for the reception desk, beetle-kill pine for walls and headboards, and reclaimed wooden snow fencing used as decorative ceiling elements. The hotel did not incorporate an on-site parking garage, instead relying on nearby facilities and encouraging public transit use.^[4]

Reported sustainability measures include an all-electric building system, a high-performance building envelope, durable textiles, carpeting made from recycled and biodegradable materials, and an on-site biodigester that processes food waste into material used in local agriculture. The hotel also provides an online carbon dashboard intended to display emissions and offsets for guests.^[11]

An in-depth analysis by The New York Times examined the hotel's carbon-positive claims and questioned the effectiveness of carbon offset strategies, particularly large-scale tree-planting programs. The article reported that Populus funded the planting of approximately 77,000 Engelmann spruce trees in Colorado in 2022, of which about 80 percent died due to extreme weather. Urban Villages stated that it intended to continue the program and plant an additional 50,000 to 70,000 trees in subsequent years. The analysis placed Populus within a broader regulatory and policy context, noting increasing scrutiny of environmental marketing claims in the United States and Europe and ongoing debate over whether voluntary sustainability measures are sufficient without systemic regulatory change.^[4]

The hotel includes multiple food-and-beverage venues, most notably the ground-floor restaurant Pasque and the rooftop bar Stellar Jay. Pasque is a fine-dining restaurant focused on seasonal and regional ingredients, featuring a sculptural installation above the bar made from Reishi, a leather-like material derived from mycelium. Stellar Jay occupies the rooftop level and includes a public terrace and bar with panoramic views of downtown Denver, acting as a draw for both hotel guests and local patrons as part of the hotel's broader effort to help activate the Civic Center area.^[5][11]

Additional amenities include meeting and event spaces, interior lounges, and guest-experience details such as wooden room keys with biodegradable sleeves containing wildflower seeds.

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. The hotel opened to guests in October 2024.^[2]

Since opening, Populus has received extensive coverage from local, national, and international media outlets, including The Denver Post, Westword, Forbes, Vogue, Time, and The New York Times. Public reaction to the building's exterior has been polarized. Local outlets reported that some observers praised the sculptural façade and its departure from conventional hotel design, while others compared its appearance to everyday objects, most notably likening it to a "cheese grater".^[7][12]

In 2025, Time included Populus on its list of "World's Greatest Places", citing the hotel's biophilic design, rooftop amenities, and sustainability narrative. The same year, the hotel received its first Michelin Key from the Michelin Guide, recognizing excellence in design, service, and overall character.^[5][6]

Following the opening of the Denver hotel, Urban Villages developed a second hotel in Seattle, Washington. Like the Denver property, the Seattle hotel emphasizes sustainability-oriented design and operations, though it was developed as a distinct project rather than as part of a standardized hotel brand.

• Sustainable architecture

• Media related to Populus Denver at Wikimedia Commons