University Hill Hotel

New hotel situated at the edge of the Hill Commercial District, the Downtown, and the CU campus will draw new year-round business and daily activity to the community.

Wenk Associates is serving as the landscape architect on the Hill Hotel project which will feature a 189-room hotel, 9,000 SF of retail space, and two large plazas to create a vibrant mixed-use development that revitalizes the Hill.

The hotel’s public plaza is designed for day-to-day gatherings and for larger events and is intended to be the center of public life for the Hill. Situated on a slope, the continuous plaza steps down and forms a series of unique outdoor spaces that provide different experiences and microclimates (sun and shade). The upper plaza provides a central gathering area that can accommodate markets, art festivals, food trucks, and music as well as a leisurely place catch up with friends. Adjacent retail, private patio, and café spaces add vibrancy to the plaza. Groves of trees provide shade and comfort in the summer months while also mediating the public and private zone. An amphitheater-like seating area for events, people watching, or enjoying a cup of coffee resolves the nearly sixteen feet of vertical elevation change within the plaza, while the lower plaza design accompanies the retail uses lining its edges with seating and gathering spaces.  A generous building setback on adjacent streets creates wider sidewalk areas for pedestrians, street trees, and amenities.