1956 Lawrence St

1956 Lawrence St is a 12-story building in Greater Downtown Denver with 89% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 160 homes and scores it 92 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

CO-1 · Screened 2026-09-19 · Strong candidate

Build a conversion planCheck its numbers, lay out its homes and get a two-page PDF. Free.

Also addressed as 1966 Lawrence St and 1996 Lawrence St: Denver’s address records place all 3 on this one footprint.

Where 1956 Lawrence St is

Its block in Greater Downtown Denver, drawn from Denver's own building outlines and street centerlines.

Suitability score

0–29

30–49

50–69

70–100

Already housing
Not screened
1956 Lawrence St

1956 Lawrence St and the 1,000 ft of Greater Downtown Denver around it. The streets are drawn at the width of the right-of-way they run down, sidewalks included, and named, and every building on these blocks is drawn. What is left open and stippled is neither: a surface lot, a plaza or a vacant parcel. The screened buildings are colored by the ramp above, the same one the district map uses, carry their score, and each is a link to its own page. Each casts a shadow as long as its measured height lets it, so towers stand out from the low buildings around them; the unscreened buildings have no measured height and cast none. 1956 Lawrence St is outlined in its own score color at the outline it covers at ground level. Dashed inside it is the typical floor, the one the floor-plate figure below draws, because this building steps back as it rises. Its windowless core is hatched. The inset places it among every building the screen covers.

Typical floor plan: 89% of the building’s floor area sits within daylight reach of a facade; the drawing shows its typical floor, where the share is 96%. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 600 sq ft per typical floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 42 ft from the nearest window. A–A is where the section beside it is cut.

Section A–A: cut across the depth of the plate, through the middle of the core. Daylight reaches 35 ft in from every facade, fading as it goes, and the hatched stripe left between the lit edges is floor that gets converted and can never be rented: 600 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 18,640 sq ft over 11 residential floors. The steps are where the building sets back as it rises. The shaded ground floor is converted like the rest and counted as no homes.

This building does not pencil at default assumptions, even with a modeled RESIDE Act grant.

Across its 11 residential floors this building carries 18,640 sq ft of windowless core — area that must be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered but can never be rented as an apartment.

Modeled conversion metrics for 1956 Lawrence St, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreStrong candidate	92 / 100
Storiesfrom 141 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	12
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floors 1–2: 21,814 sq ft · Floor 3: 20,814 sq ft · Floor 4: 18,955 sq ft · Floors 5–11: 15,152 sq ft · Floor 12: 1,119 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	15,152 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	89%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	42 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	600 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	160
Conversion cost$360/sq ft all-in on 168,766 sq ft	$60.8M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$23.0M
Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap	$9.6M
BuiltDenver does not publish a construction year with this data	—
ZoningCBD	D-C
Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract	No

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

40 ft of exterior wall for each home the screen estimates — enough for two- and three-bedroom homes across the plan.

The typical floor has 613 ft of exterior wall, and across 11 residential floors the building carries 6,340 ft of it in total, divided among the 160 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.51: a squarish plan, with enough perimeter for a conventional double-loaded corridor. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 14.5 homes per floor. Its floors are not alike, though: the typical floor's deepest interior point is 42 ft from a facade, while its worst floor reaches 65 ft. The score follows the typical floor, so a podium that could not hold a bedroom does not by itself sink a slim tower above it — but it is there, and it is part of what would have to be drawn around.

Why 1956 Lawrence St scores 92 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 98, Interior depth 94, Scale 100, Finance 63 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 1956 Lawrence St. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency89% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	98	45%	44.1
Interior depthdeepest interior point 42 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	94	25%	23.5
Scale160 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	100	15%	15.0
Financeremaining gap is 22% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	63	15%	9.5

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 63 out of 100: remaining gap is 22% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 168,766 sq ft of converted floor, or $60.8M in total — about $380K for each of the 160 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 1956 Lawrence St: base cost plus the code work a change of use triggers.

Base conversion cost	$260/sq ft
Plumbing risers to every unit	$40/sq ft
Operable windows and glazing	$30/sq ft
Additional egress stair	$18/sq ft
Fire sprinklers (NFPA 13R)	$12/sq ft
All-in	$360/sq ft

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 18,640 sq ft of windowless core, which has to be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered like the rest of the building and then earns nothing. Against it the model sets a completed value of $236K a home, which for 160 homes is $37.8M.

What would have to be true

A $23.0M gap before any grant, $13.4M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 26% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $23.0M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 160 homes finishing at $380K rather than the $236K the model assumes — 61% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $224 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $9.6M moves that threshold to $320K a home. That is still above the $236K assumed, leaving $13.4M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1956 Lawrence St, one alone would close the gap at:

Single-assumption flip points for 1956 Lawrence St, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Average unit sizethe binding constraint — the least this building would need	26% downto 556 sq ft
Conversion cost per square foot	31% downto $181/sq ft
Completed value per home	35% upto $320K

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1956 Lawrence St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Greater Downtown Denver

1956 Lawrence St ranks 16th of the 214 buildings screened here, against a median score of 72.

Its floor plate is better lit than 70% of them, and shallower than 79% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 124th largest by estimated homes. The full survey of all 214 buildings ranks and maps every one of them, and the list by address links each to its own page.

Within CBD and the D-C zone

9th of 75 in CBD, 6th of 72 zoned D-C — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

Denver places 75 of the screened buildings in CBD. 1956 Lawrence St ranks 9th of them against a median score of 71. 40 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 56 ft from a facade against this building’s 42 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 33,698 homes. The group’s top scorer is 918 17th St, at 97.

72 of the screened buildings are zoned D-C. 1956 Lawrence St ranks 6th of them against a median score of 73. 39 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 57 ft from a facade against this building’s 42 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 32,881 homes. The group’s top scorer is 721 19th St, at 95.

Its nearest match in size: 1580 N Lincoln St

The screened building closest to 1956 Lawrence St in converted floor area is 1580 N Lincoln St: 168,075 sq ft over 13 stories, against 168,766 sq ft over 12 here.

1956 Lawrence St scores 92 to its 73, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 94 out of 100 here, 51 there (deepest interior point 60 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 4,200 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1956 Lawrence St $9.6M, on the assumption it qualifies. Whether it does, no published dataset can say.

That figure assumes the building meets the Act’s vacant-and-abandoned test, which turns on code-enforcement and receivership records no city publishes.

It does not sit in a 2018 designated Opportunity Zone, so it would not draw that Section 201 priority.

Other buildings screened near 1956 Lawrence St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 160 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

1955 Arapahoe St
13 stories · 100% daylit · already an apartment building
about 160 ft away
1215 19th St
17 stories · 91% daylit · already an apartment building
about 290 ft away
2020 Lawrence St
12 stories · 85% daylit · 294 estimated homes · scores 85/100 (Strong candidate)
about 400 ft away
2000 Arapahoe St
13 stories · 85% daylit · 140 estimated homes · scores 74/100 (Strong candidate)
about 420 ft away

A screen, not a feasibility study, from outlines and heights rather than plans: the method and how to correct a figure. If you know this building’s interior, you know what this model cannot see.