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In the heart of downtown Denver, Populus brings the rhythm of Colorado’s wilderness into the city skyline. Designed by Studio Gang, the 13-storey hotel reflects the patterns of native aspen trees through a façade of sculptural, eye-shaped windows and interiors by Wildman Chalmers Design that flow from forest floor to canopy. Built with low-carbon materials and guided by regenerative principles, Populus Denver is America’s first carbon-positive hotel.
Its distinctive façade, rippled with eye-shaped windows, feels alive, a sculptural skin inspired by the markings left on the native aspen trunks as they shed their lower branches. These “eyes” soften the skyline and give guests unique views of the Rocky Mountains, the Colorado State Capitol, and Civic Center Park.
Inside, Wildman Chalmers Design and Fowler Architecture have created an interior that moves through an imagined woodland. The ground-floor lobby and Pasque restaurant form the “forest floor,” earthy, tactile, and warm, think reclaimed wood, clay tones, and a statement Reishi Tapestry made from the root structures of fungi.
Guest rooms and suites ascend through the “trunk”, where curved window seats and soft drapery create shade from the bright Colorado sun, carpets are woven from recycled fibres, wood sourced from fallen beetle-kill pine, and custom furnishings made with bio-resins and reclaimed metals. Before reaching the luminous rooftop, Stellar Jay, a restaurant and bar alive with colour, light, and mountain air.
The hotel is designed as America’s first carbon-positive hotel, conceived to give more back to the planet than it takes. Its sculptural exterior uses low-carbon concrete over traditional materials, cutting emissions by up to 40%, along with reclaimed wood features throughout the interiors, from Wyoming snow fencing in the lobby to beetle-kill pine headboards in guest rooms.
Dining at Populus follows the same ethos. Stellar Jay, the hotel’s indoor-outdoor restaurant and bar, serves dishes created with ingredients sourced from regenerative farms and ranches, complemented by zero-waste practices. A biodigester processes 100% of food waste, transforming it into compost for local farms.
Beyond the building, Populus partners with Grassroots Carbon, OneTreePlanted and Terrapass to support verified forest and soil carbon credit initiatives across the US. Its signature One Night, One Tree programme plants a tree for every night’s stay, restoring landscapes in Colorado’s Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, Gunnison, and White River National Forests.
