Historic Denver has announced the projects it will be honoring in its 2026 awards. Since 1970, Historic Denver has been celebrating the people and projects making a difference in the city. The organization’s 56th Awards Celebration will be held Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, at The Brown Palace Hotel to recognize this year’s honorees for their significant contributions to preserving Denver’s unique architectural and cultural heritage.
“Historic Denver’s annual Award Celebration brings together Denver’s civic and business leaders, design professionals, respected craftspeople, and community advocates from across Denver to honor the people and projects that are making a difference to our city,” Historic Denver President and CEO John Deffenbaugh said. “Together, we’ll honor the remarkable people and projects that ensure Denver continues to excel and remains one of the most vibrant and culturally rich cities in the country.”
PROJECT HONOREES
COMMUNITY PRESERVATION AWARD WINNERS
Community Preservation Awards are presented annually to projects, institutions, and individuals that make exceptional contributions to preserving Denver’s heritage. Honorees demonstrate high-quality restoration, respect for the city’s historic fabric, and a strong commitment to community.
La Vista Motel — 5500 E. Colfax Avenue
Built in 1956, the La Vista Motel is a mid-century Modern roadside motel that shows what East Colfax Avenue’s many surviving motor courts can become through thoughtful reuse. Revived from the brink of loss into a vibrant anchor on East Colfax Avenue, the project saw owner Nathan Beal of St. Bernard Properties navigated a demanding individual National Register nomination and historic tax credit process, working with an architecture, design and preservation team on a full-gut renovation that restored the motel’s essential character. The property reopened in December 2025 with 23 guest rooms and an on-site café and cocktail bar, El Piñon, offering a model for how Denver’s roadside history along Colfax can be brought back to life.
Project partners: Nathan Beal, St. Bernard Properties (Owner/Developer); Ryan Goold, Sopher Sparn Architects; Melissa Friday, Xan Creative; Jane Daniels, Daniels Preservation Services; Travis Laude, Studio Mast; and Eric Proctor, First Oklahoma Bank. With support from History Colorado and Historic Denver.
Livestock Exchange Building, National Western Center — 4701 N. Marion Street
For most of the 20th century, the Livestock Exchange Building was the administrative and social hub of the region’s livestock trade. Built in three phases beginning in 1898, its original wood, marble and terrazzo finishes remain intact after a year-long restoration led by developers Andrew Feinstein and Kevin Preblud of the EXDO Group and Justin Croft and Jon Hartman of Croft Hartman. Now the centerpiece of the National Western Center, the building has been reimagined as The Exchange, welcoming back the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, the oldest statewide cattlemen’s association in the United States which was headquartered in the building from 1950 to 1991, and introducing The Stockton, a new regenerative-beef steakhouse by acclaimed restaurateur Bryan Dayton, opening in fall 2026.
Project partners: Andrew Feinstein, EXDO Development Group (Developer), and Justin Croft, Natural Object (Design/Development).
Larimer Square Preservation and Revitalization Project — 1430 Larimer Street
By 2020, Larimer Square—Denver’s first locally designated historic district—faced a new crisis as several facades neared collapse. Asana Partners responded with a tens-of-millions-of-dollars restoration, repairing more than 300 historic windows, installing 21 tons of new stone, and creating an ongoing preservation-based maintenance plan to protect the block’s future as Denver’s crown jewel.
Project partners: Asana Partners, with Rhonda Maas and Elizabeth Maas of Building Restoration Specialties, Spectrum General Contractors, Swinerton Builders, Perkins&Will, Rowland+Broughton, and Civitas.
REMIX AWARD
Presented to projects that have creatively combined the old and new, this award honors preservation, rehabilitation, or restoration projects that involve an older structure with new additions or alterations that contribute to the building’s story or the community’s appreciation of the structure.
Cookie Factory — 425 W. 4th Avenue
Built as a paper mill in 1941 before entering its 60+ year history as a fortune cookie factory, this Baker neighborhood warehouse sat abandoned for years until designer, developer and philanthropist Amanda Precourt revived the historic structure. Precourt collaborated with lead project architect Aaron Gray of Davis Urban to re-conceptualize the building as a 5,000-square-foot contemporary art space and a newly built 8,000-square-foot residence above, designed to hold Precourt’s world-class collection of contemporary art. The main floor of the building opened as Cookie Factory in May 2025 with a free community block party and the inaugural exhibition, “Nothing Without Nature” by artist Sam Falls, and the gallery remains free and open to the public. As a truly arts-centered space, Cookie Factory shows that preservation and innovation can elevate one another.
Project partners: Amanda Precourt, AJP Realty & Design; Matt Davis, Davis Urban and Aaron Gray, Davis Urban and Scout Architecture and Design; and Matthew Pierce and Daniel Martell of Character Built
The Cleo Center for the Healing Arts — 2025 N. Washington Street
The Cleo Center for the Healing Arts pairs the historic Shorter AME building, a National Historic Landmark and one of Colorado’s earliest African American churches, with a new 25,000-square-foot wing designed by Fentress Studios and built by Mortenson. The addition never physically touches the historic church, a gesture the design team calls “the Kiss,” and its facade is clad in solar panels that transcribe the choreography of Cleo Parker Robinson’s “Mary Don’t You Weep” in dance notation. Opened in January 2026, the center equips a landmark Denver institution for its next chapter.
Project partners: Mortenson Construction and Fentress Studios, a Populous Company.
2026 INFILL AWARD
Presented to newly built commercial or residential projects situated within historic districts. These developments stand out for their sensitivity to scale and street-wall aesthetics while showcasing ingenuity in their composition and blending modern design elements within a historic context.
Bud’s Garage — 3291 to 3297 Zuni Street
For roughly five decades, this Potter Highlands corner was home to Bud’s Zuni Service, a beloved auto shop and former gas station. Designer and developer Celeste Ballerino, with Rhys Duggan, acquired the site directly from the Vecchiarelli family and, after four years of work through environmental remediation and material sourcing challenges, restored it to residential use as a fully brick, modern Italianate duplex, a style rarely attempted in new Denver construction. The neighborhood association recommended approval without a single requested change.
Project partners: Brian Dale of Sort Studio (Architect), with investors Erin Little and Marc Persusse.
ALAN GASS AWARD — New This Year!
Presented to a project or individual that has contributed to Denver’s community through the adaptive reuse, renovation, or preservation of mid-century modern architecture. This inaugural honoree is recommended by Docomomo Colorado, in partnership with Historic Denver.
All Inn Hotel — 3015 E. Colfax Avenue
Denver’s newest preservation award debuts with a fitting first honoree: the All Inn Hotel, a restoration of the 1959 Fountain Inn, once a “luxury motor hotel” and later home to the beloved Rockbar. After sitting vacant since 2022, Owner Brian Toerber led a roughly $22 million restoration that preserves the building’s neon signage, exposed rock wall, and mid-century character while introducing a 54-room boutique hotel and restaurant.
Project partners: Steven Waters (Soigné Holdings, All Inn Hotel Food and Beverage Partner), Abigail Plantier (Maximalist, Interior Designer), Michael Dire (Arcsano, Architect), Matt Huelskamp and Colin Stone (Hyder Construction), Tracy Huggins and Mike Guertin (Denver Urban Renewal Authority), Frank Swain (PACE Equity), John Deffenbaugh (Historic Denver), Catherine Stroh (Colorado Historic Foundation), Sherwin-Williams, and the Collective Clean Energy Fund.
HISTORIC DENVER’S 56TH ANNUAL AWARDS DINNER & GALA
Tickets are on sale now for Historic Denver’s annual gala, which will be held Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, at Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel. This event is Historic Denver’s largest fundraiser of the year and one of a limited number of events granted the rare privilege of taking over the grand Atrium Lobby during the two-hour cocktail reception.
For tickets and sponsorship information, visit Historic Denver’s 56th Annual Gala event page.
