Top Story
About TAXI
Owner: Zeppelin Development
Designer: Alan Eban Brown, Will Bruder, David Baker, Harry Teague, Stephen Dynia, Groundworks Design, Wenk + Associates
Location: Denver, Colorado
Why TAXI?
What’s the impact of the redevelopment of a 20 acre former brownfield yellow cab headquarters on an obsolete industrial neighborhood, minutes north of downtown Denver? A creative brew of award-winning design, a sustainable people-friendly landscape, and numerous amenities transformed an abandoned brownfield site into an award-winning hub for 21st-century entrepreneurs: TAXI. Twelve years after buying the site adjacent to the South Platte river, Zeppelin Development injected economic and creative vitality into Denver’s most interesting urban neighborhood: River North. For a decade, TAXI has been catalytic to development in this gritty urban community. Once vacant sites and buildings now hold galleries, entertainment venues, workshop incubators and multi-family projects.
TAXI’s mixed-use campus is home to designers, web developers, dozens of residents, and amenities including Fuel Cafe and an early childhood education center. Five fully-occupied buildings (175,000sf) include a mix of repurposed structures and new. The newest – Drive, a 40,000sf workplace, opens in late 2012. Drive returns TAXI to its roots – hosting small manufacturers with clients across the globe. Future phases include family housing and the headquarters for a water-intensive collaboration between designers and researchers, focusing on water quality and passive purification systems. At full build out, TAXI will include 800,000sf of mixed-use creative industries – an economic driver of the region.