10/02/2026
This hotel was designed to look like a grove of aspen trees.
Populus, a 265-room hotel in Denver, Colorado, takes its unusual façade directly from one of the state’s most recognizable trees.
Designed by Studio Gang, its eye-shaped windows were inspired by the dark marks left on the white bark of quaking aspens after the trees shed their lower branches.
The windows are not purely decorative. Their projecting “lids” help shade the interiors and channel rainwater away from the façade.
Completed in 2024, the 13-story hotel was also designed around an ambitious sustainability strategy and has been presented by its developers as the first carbon-positive hotel in the United States.
Populus, Denver, Colorado — Studio Gang.