It’s been almost a year since we presented the renderings of the Gensler designs for Denver International Airport’s South Terminal Redevelopment Program, which includes three major elements: a new 500-room Westin hotel, an extension of the Jeppesen Terminal, and a new Public Transit Center for RTD’s East Line that will connect DIA with Union Station in Downtown Denver.

What I have for you today is not a construction update. Robert and Ryan are in charge of that department, and they have a bunch of blog posts on the East Line/DIA terminal construction in the works. Instead, I’m happy to offer a new batch of renderings of the DIA project, courtesy of my friends at Gensler. The images below are not significantly different from the ones we posted last year; rather, they reflect refinement of the design one would expect in a big project like this over the course of a year. With major construction fully underway, these renderings (and videos!) give us a clearer sense of what the final outcome of the South Terminal Redevelopment Program will be.

But before we begin, let’s be clear about one thing: the combination of RTD’s East Line rail transit, the Denver Union Station transit center, and DIA’s South Terminal Redevelopment Program represents one of our region’s most profound and strategic civic investments in a generation. Most cities across America would love to have any one of these three projects going on in their city. We’ve got the whole enchilada: a $2 billion trio of integrated infrastructure projects that competitively positions the Denver region for the next century. For a detailed discussion about the importance of these projects, check out our DenverUrbanism podcast from last November.

On to the renderings! As we like to do here at DenverUrbanism, all images are big and high resolution. Click to embiggen/zoom to enjoy at full size.

First, the South Terminal Redevelopment Program overview showing the Westin Hotel and the Public Transit Center generally viewed from the south looking north. You’ll notice that the train platforms have been shifted to the left (west) to accommodate an additional set of platforms for future transit lines yet undetermined:

 

 

Here are a few images showing the RTD train platform and Public Transit Center under the dramatic glass canopy:

 

 

Connecting the existing Jeppesen Terminal with the new Westin Hotel and Public Transit Center is a 60,000 square-foot public plaza on Level 5 designed to accommodate not only pedestrian traffic, but also exhibition space, restaurant patio seating, observation lounges, and other public amenities:

 

In the center of the plaza is a grand escalator that will transport travelers the four levels between the Public Transit Center level and the main floor of the Jeppesen Terminal:

The South Terminal Redevelopment Program also includes several additional elements, including a bus terminal and hotel porte-cochère on Level 1, a hotel conference center on Level 2, a new airport security area on Level 4, and hotel lobby and restaurant functions on Level 6:

 

Finally, here are two videos, courtesy of Denver International Airport and Gensler. This first one shows a flyover in and around the entire project:

and this second one shows an animation of the construction sequence for the project:

The Westin hotel will open in 2015 and the Public Transit Center, along with RTD’s East Line, will open in early 2016.