A Denver office tower just turned part of its ground floor into a working artist's studio. 1290 Broadway, a LEED Platinum tower in the Golden Triangle neighborhood, has launched what it calls Denver's first Class-A artist residency, naming Denver-based artist and designer Jenny West as its inaugural resident for a six-month stint inside the building's lobby.
As reported by Mile High CRE, West will use space in the tower as a studio to create original work on site. West, a trained interior architect and product designer, is known for monumental site-specific installations, including an 80-foot sculpture. Her Golden Triangle studio, confirmed in a statement on her own site, will be open to visitors by appointment.
West has global experience that stretches from Italy to Tanzania, and her studio time at 1290 Broadway will center on producing abstract paintings, mixed-media works and large-scale installations in dialogue with the building and the people who move through it, according to the announcement on her website. She's also expected to host classes, pop-up creative talks and art-coaching workshops inside the space, bringing a rotating cast of visitors into a building that otherwise runs on nine-to-five office rhythms.
A Résumé Built on Boardrooms and Gallery Walls
West's path to the lobby studio runs through both corporate interiors and fine art. Per her artist biography, she earned a Bachelor of Interior Architecture and Product Design from Kansas State University before spending nearly a decade at Knoll, Inc. as a Global Account Director and Transformation Leader. She founded her own practice, Jenny West Artist, LLC, in Colorado in 2013, and she holds NCIDQ, LEED AP ID+C, Fitwel and PROSCI Change Management credentials.
Her commissioned portfolio already includes two major Denver pieces for Cushman Wakefield: the 80-foot multi-material sculpture Aerial Palette and the 20-foot painting Dyadic XL. West's portfolio includes commissions for collectors, architects, landlords and developers alike.
Why a Tower Would Give Up Its Lobby
The residency arrives as downtown Denver's office market is under real strain. Vacancy downtown reached 38.2% last quarter, up 3.3 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2024, according to The Colorado Sun. That rate had sat at just 27.2% in late 2022. The newspaper's reporting notes that tenants are gravitating toward the newest, nicest Class-A properties, even as more than 1 million square feet of new office space has come online since 2022 — intensifying competition among landlords for a shrinking pool of renters. By comparison, the Sun reported Denver's suburbs carried an overall 28.3% vacancy rate, while Cherry Creek's stood far lower at 12.6%.
Newmark represents leasing at 1290 Broadway, and the tower's push to differentiate itself includes more than the art program — the building also touts a four-story lobby, high-speed elevators and covered parking as part of its pitch to tenants.
Leaning Into the Golden Triangle's Cultural Identity
1290 Broadway is located in Denver's Golden Triangle neighborhood.
The program places an artist at 1290 Broadway for West's six-month term.
How It Compares to Denver's Other Artist Programs
1290 Broadway isn't the only Denver property experimenting with artist residencies to stand out. Developers behind FLORA, a 12-story residential building in the River North Art District, launched The Residency at FLORA, letting creators across disciplines — from visual art and music to culinary arts and architecture — live and work on site, as reported by the Denver Post. Each FLORA resident gets one to four months of rent-free housing in a furnished penthouse, a project space, a $500 stipend and promotional support, with the inaugural cohort beginning in February 2026 inside a building that features 92 residences and more than 7,500 square feet of amenities.
Compared with FLORA's residential program, 1290 Broadway's six-month term inside a working Class-A office tower represents a different bet on what office real estate can offer in a market still searching for ways to pull tenants back downtown.
