1801 California Street is a

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. The building was completed in 1983, and rises 53 floors and in height. The building stands as the second-tallest building in Denver and Colorado, and as the 151st-tallest building in the United States. 1801 California Street was previously occupied by offices for

US West US West, Inc. (stylized as US WEST) was one of seven Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs, also referred to as "Baby Bells"), created in 1983 under the Modification of Final Judgement (''United States v. Western Electric Co., Inc.'' 552 ...

, and then served as the world

headquarters Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the to ...

Qwest Communications Qwest Communications International, Inc. was a United States telecommunications carrier. Qwest provided local service in 14 western and midwestern U.S. states: Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dako ...

. In summer 2011 following

CenturyLink Lumen Technologies, Inc. (formerly CenturyLink) is an American telecommunications company headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, that offers communications, network services, security, cloud solutions, voice, and managed services. The company is ...

's acquisition of Qwest, the Qwest sign was removed from the top and replaced with the CenturyLink sign. Upon its completion in 1983, the building stood as the tallest building in the city. However, it held that distinction for less than a year, being surpassed by Republic Plaza in 1984. The building has a brown concrete

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

, and has a stepped design featuring four setbacks. It is an example of late-modernist high-rise architecture. The shape of the building resembles two interlocked octagonal sections, which separate near the building's roof. The roof houses an antenna mast; with this structure included, the building reaches to a total height of , surpassing the roof of Republic Plaza. Therefore, when measuring by pinnacle height, 1801 California Street remains the tallest building in Denver. 1801 California Street once held the distinction of hosting the brightest high-rise signs in the world, surpassing even the brightly lit high-rise logos found on the skyscrapers of

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. Four Qwest logos were installed in 2000, after the corporation moved their offices from 555 17th Street, situated two blocks away. The signs, light blue in color, were at the time the brightest high-rise lights in the world, visible from over away. However, Qwest removed the signs in 2004 due to increasing complaints from residents of

Downtown Denver Downtown Denver is the main financial, commercial, business, and entertainment district in Denver, Colorado. There is over of office space in downtown Denver, with 132,000 workers. The downtown area consists mostly of the neighborhoods of Uni ...

and rising energy costs, and the lights were replaced with ones of a darker blue color. In December 2011, Brookfield Office Properties acquired 1801 California Street from

Public Service Enterprise Group The Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) is a publicly traded diversified energy company headquartered in Newark, New Jersey and was established in 1985 with a legacy dating back to 1903. The company's largest subsidiary is Public Service Elec ...

for $215 million. In October 2015 the Transamerica logo was added to the skyscraper. On November 2, 2015 Transamerica relocated its Denver operations to 1801 California and now occupies several floors of the building. In the lobby of the building is an Ink Coffee and 1801 Eatery, and the Guard and Grace steakhouse. Brookfield sold a 51% interest in the property to AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust for $286 million on March 30, 2018. Exterior shots of the building were used as the setting for Colbyco in the

television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite television, satellite, or cable television, cable, excluding breaking news, television adverti ...

Dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

''.

References

{{Denver skyscrapers Skyscraper office buildings in Denver Office buildings completed in 1982 Telecommunications company headquarters in the United States Lumen Technologies 1982 establishments in Colorado Brookfield Properties buildings Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design gold certified buildings

See also

References