Jeanne Gang reinvents hospitality with an Aspen-inspired hotel

Photo: Jason O’Rear

“I am a big nature fanatic,” confesses the architect Jeanne Bendean avid hiker and the genius founder of the award-winning company Studio gang. Her love of outdoor activities, not to mention her talent for balancing flair and functionality, is on full display in a new project, the Populus hotel in Denver. Spanning 13 floors and 265 guest rooms, the building is directly inspired by Colorado’s native Aspen trees, with fiberglass-reinforced concrete panels the color of bark, street-level columns reminiscent of trunks, and windows that evoke the dark markings left behind by fallen branches. “In a hotel, the windows are the most important thing,” explains Gang, who first developed the concept in the tranquility of an alpine forest. Above each opening, streamlined “eyelids” provide illumination
against the bright mountain sun, reducing solar gain in the hotel. That’s just part of Gang’s rigorous strategy to make the hotel energy efficient and raise the sustainability bar in the hospitality industry. For example, surfaces feature upcycled materials such as salvaged fencing and repurposed leather veneers, used as ceilings and table tops respectively. (Wildman Chalmers Design and FOWLER Architecture and Design collaborated on the interiors.) And the rooftop plantings, designed by 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

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Originally published on Architectural summary

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