The Crawford Hotel at Union Station

The building ahead is Union Station, but the story worth telling is what lives inside. After a fifty-four million dollar restoration, the station house reopened in July of two thousand fourteen as a hotel. It is called the Crawford Hotel, named for Dana Crawford, the preservationist who spent decades saving endangered buildings across Denver, including Larimer Square.

The hotel has one hundred twelve rooms in three distinct styles. The Pullman rooms are compact and well-appointed, tucked into a floor added between the original wing levels, evoking the efficient comfort of a Pullman sleeper car. The Classic rooms occupy the original building structure and lean into Victorian proportions.

The Loft rooms are carved from the renovated attic, with exposed brick and original load-bearing beams. Downstairs, the Great Hall serves as lobby, public living room, and train waiting area all at once, ringed by independent restaurants and a cocktail bar. New York design firm AvroKo shaped the space to feel active morning through evening.

Behind the building, a canopy covers the tracks used by Amtrak and regional commuter rail. The orange signs reading travel by train still crown the facade.