If you were magically transported from your living room to the lobby of any of Denver’s many hip new hotels, could you tell—just by looking at the decor—that you were in the Mile High City? Semple Brown wanted to ensure that guests of the Hotel Born could do just that, so the Denver firm created architecture and interiors that celebrate the hotel’s location just steps from Union Station, a vibrant downtown hub and gateway to ski country.

The look is “traditional yet contemporary, urban yet alpine,” Semple Brown project architect Haily Tweedie says of the new hotel’s inviting spaces, like this nook near the lobby. Here, simple knotty-pine paneling cozies up to a modern, board-formed-concrete fireplace surround; plaid upholstery and a wool lampshade contrast with a sleek wood table. A wraparound picture shelf—”an idea that came from the Craftsman-style architecture prevalent in the Capitol Hill neighborhood,” Tweedie says—displays paintings by Colorado native Stephen Batura. The fresh look is right on pace with Denver’s crop of cosmopolitan hotels and has that often-missing piece of the design puzzle: a sensibility that’s uniquely Colorado. hotelborndenver.com

5280 Home December 2017/January 2018
More From The Issue