Experience a pleasurable sort of financial crash for a change by conking out at the old Colorado National Bank — its sheets heavy on the thread count, its duvets heavier on the plush, as they are.
Almost a century old, the building is now the 230-room, somewhat laboriously named Renaissance Denver Downtown City Center Hotel. What it lacks in snappy nomenclature, it more than makes up for in ample marble, travertine, bronze and terra cotta.
If the exterior’s Colorado Yule white marble columns and walls are giving you déjà vu, it’s not a glitch in the matrix — that’s the same neoclassical, Greek revival architecture Honest Abe’s memorial enjoys in DC.
Just make sure you set your TomTom to the downtown version if you Google “Renaissance” + “Denver” — there’s another very different, very Jawa Sandcrawler-looking Renaissance hotel squatting world-wearily on Quebec Street, way out in the ’burbs.
When should you visit? The obvious answer is before winter strikes back, but otherwise, no rush! Denverites don’t sprechen Sie rush. This Ren Den’s only been open a couple of months, and it ain’t going anywhere — here, five reasons why you two crazy kids need to introduce yourselves.
Info: From $199
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1. The vault in our stars
Renaissance Denver Downtown City Center Hotel The freebie interactive cultural walking tour, available this fall, will take you through various points of interest throughout the former bank (and the A/C’s so brrr, brrr good). QR codes will be placed on plaques — just scan them with your smartphone and images and info (from art and banking history to cocktail ingredients) will pop up on your screen. Definitely track down the bank’s old vaults. They were reinforced to protect its booty of gold, bonds and, later, greenbacks — no surprise their doors were nearly three-feet thick and weigh 31 tons. Three of the vaults have been preserved for you to crack and explore; they’re now used as tech’d out meeting/event spaces.
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2. Lobbying hard for it
The Renaissance Denver Downtown City Center Hotel Lobby envy — every other hotel in the city has now officially been diagnosed with it, thanks to the grand one here. Its three stories of beyond-cosmic space are plastered with 16 restored murals (five triptychs and one large work) with a Native American theme, originally painted in 1925 by the Banksy of his day, Allen Tupper True. Denver curator NINE dot ARTS is responsible for the more modern artwork and signature pieces from locally based creatives, which joyfully weirdify the atrium’s tables and desks. There’s also a history wall explaining all the old photos, artifacts and murals — food for thought best chased with a cocktail and/or (er, definitely and) custom-brewed Former Future beer at the lobby’s Teller Bar. The locally sourced American West cuisine at Range, the lobby’s “original concept restaurant and bar,” is brought to you by execuchef Paul Nagan.
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3. System of a down
The eight-story hotel’s imposing monogrammed bronze doors open onto 17th Street at Champa — a k a the “Wall Street of the Rockies” — just as they first did back in 1915. You’re right on the edge of LoDo (Denver’s groovy Lower Downtown district) and steps/pedal cranks from Coors Field, the 16th Street pedestrian mall and all the shops and restos galore on Larimer Square.
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4. Key and peel
The valet service nails it. The parking out in the back lot is cramped and in short supply, to say the least, so you’re going to need these guys ($35 a day). The crew here are attentive and good-humored, and quick to defuse any would-be blowups with impatient young parents who need their Subaru, like, now, on the one hand, and angry little old ladies who think the valets are driving said Subarus way too fast, on the other.
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5. Right on Q
Renaissance’s signature Navigator hospitality concierges love a good inquisition. Ask the team here anything, anything at all: where to climb, where to enjoy the best view of the Rockies, where the best live music and supping spots are. Oh, who are we kidding — quit beating around the bush and just ask ’em to point you in the direction of their favorite breweries.