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Studio Gang, Populus, Denver, Colorado, 2019–24. Exterior view, 2020. Digital rendering. © and courtesy of Studio Gang

Studio Gang

Artist Studio Gang
Bio Established 1997, Chicago
Title Populus, Denver, Colorado
Year 2019–24
Medium Exterior view, 2020
Reproduction of digital rendering
Dimensions 24 × 42 in. (61 × 106.7 cm)
Credit Courtesy of and © Studio Gang.
Label Cats. 83–87

For architect Jeanne Gang and her eponymous firm Studio Gang, design and architecture should make cities better places. This does not just apply to the cosmetic alteration of a skyline but to a reduction of environmental harm and a concrete improvement in the lives of its users. Studio Gang calls this approach “actionable idealism,” and it guides their research-based and localized process.1

Color photograph of trunks from a grove of Aspen trees. The trunks are thin and have white bark with some dark spotting. Yellow and green leaves deep in the background.
Fig. 1 Aspen Grove. Courtesy Unsplash/Photograph by Peng Chen, 2017.

In Denver, Studio Gang’s Populus hotel rises from a triangular junction of three busy Denver streets. The building’s bright facade and varied, oval-shaped windows are a motif that is familiar for many Coloradans: They resemble the white bark and dark “eyes” of aspen trees. On an aspen, these characteristic marks are left behind as the trees self-prune, shedding their lower branches to expose more of the photosynthetic bark, which absorbs light and energy year-round. For Populus, the eye-shaped windows, the largest of which are thirty feet high, accomplish the same effect, providing light, views, and, for some hotel rooms, built-in seating. Extended “lids” over each window redirect rainwater and create shade as an efficient response to the harsh Denver climate; these considerations of local and environmental impacts can also be seen in the architects’ decision to have no onsite parking, encouraging visitors to bike, use public transit, or explore the neighborhood on foot.

Aesthetics are not the only similarity between the hotel and aspens. A cluster of aspens seems to be made of many individual trees (fig. 1), but they are all extensions of the same vast, underground root network, a single part of a larger organism. In the same way, Populus is informed by and will impact downtown Denver as a whole, despite being just one building. By drawing on a quintessential aspect of the regional environment, Studio Gang designed the building to resonate with local residents, adding retail, restaurants, and a public rooftop garden and view deck to create opportunities for connection and community (fig. 2). While Populus takes its name from an aspen’s scientific classification, Populus tremuloides, the homophone “populace”—the inhabitants of a designated place—is also an apt moniker.

diagram of the Populus building. It highlights VIEWS: Aspen Eye and Roof Terrace; ENERGY: Efficient Mechanical Systems, Concrete Structure, High Performance Envelope; URBAN AMENITIES: Café, Bike Share Stations, Bike Lanes, No On-Site Parking; and SOCIAL CONNECTIVITY: Urban Living Room, and Local Food.
Fig. 2 Studio Gang, Populus, Denver, Colorado. Environmental systems and social connectivity, 2023. Digital diagram. © and courtesy Studio Gang.

Kit Bernal

  1. Jeanne Gang, interviewed by Miriam Ho, SITE Magazine, accessed August 8, 2023, https://www.thesitemagazine.com/read/jeanne-gang-actionable-idealism. ↩︎

Studio Gang, Populus, Denver, Colorado, 2019–24. Exterior view, 2020. Digital rendering. © and courtesy of Studio Gang
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Color photograph of trunks from a grove of Aspen trees. The trunks are thin and have white bark with some dark spotting. Yellow and green leaves deep in the background.
Fig. 1 Aspen Grove. Courtesy Unsplash/Photograph by Peng Chen, 2017.
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diagram of the Populus building. It highlights VIEWS: Aspen Eye and Roof Terrace; ENERGY: Efficient Mechanical Systems, Concrete Structure, High Performance Envelope; URBAN AMENITIES: Café, Bike Share Stations, Bike Lanes, No On-Site Parking; and SOCIAL CONNECTIVITY: Urban Living Room, and Local Food.
Fig. 2 Studio Gang, Populus, Denver, Colorado. Environmental systems and social connectivity, 2023. Digital diagram. © and courtesy Studio Gang.
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