280 E 20th Ave

280 E 20th Ave is a 8-story condominium building in Greater Downtown Denver. Its floor plate has 98% of its area within daylight reach of a facade and scores 95 out of 100 on this screen’s measures, which is part of why it works as housing.

CO-1 · Screened 2026-10-04 · Already housing

Also addressed as 298 E 20th Ave and 1975 N Grant St: Denver’s address records place all 3 on this one footprint.

Where 280 E 20th Ave 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
280 E 20th Ave

280 E 20th Ave 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. 280 E 20th Ave 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. The inset places it among every building the screen covers.

Typical floor plan: 98% of the building’s floor area sits within daylight reach of a facade; the drawing shows its typical floor, where the share is 100%. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. Other floors of the building do carry windowless core. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 34 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, and here it meets in the middle: the plate is thin enough that no floor is left windowless. 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 is already a condominium building: Denver's property records list 112 condominiums here, on 95% of the floor area they record. It is on the map because the city's building outlines file it as commercial, but this site does not count it as a conversion candidate.

Across its 7 residential floors this building carries 2,706 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 280 E 20th Ave, 2026-10-04.

Suitability scoreStrong candidate	95 / 100
Storiesfrom 93 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	8
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floor 1: 21,321 sq ft · Floors 2–3: 20,705 sq ft · Floors 4–8: 16,845 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	16,845 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	98%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	34 ft
Windowless coretypical floor; the building-wide total is in the text above	0 sq ft
BuiltDenver does not publish a construction year with this data	—
ZoningNorth Capitol Hill	C-MX-12
Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract	No

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

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

The typical floor has 805 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 5,652 ft of it in total, divided among the 131 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is elongated at 0.33: a slab or an L, which is why so much of the floor lies within reach of a window: the outline buys daylight that a square plan of the same area would not. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 18.7 homes per floor. Its floors are not alike, though: the typical floor's deepest interior point is 34 ft from a facade, while its worst floor reaches 51 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 280 E 20th Ave scores 95 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 100, Scale 87, Finance 76 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 280 E 20th Ave. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency98% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	100	45%	45.0
Interior depthdeepest interior point 34 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	100	25%	25.0
Scale131 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	87	15%	13.1
Financeremaining gap is 14% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	76	15%	11.4

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 76 out of 100: remaining gap is 14% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

Other buildings screened near 280 E 20th Ave

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 210 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

1901 N Grant St
11 stories · 88% daylit · already an apartment building
about 210 ft away
1900 N Grant St
14 stories · 86% daylit · 158 estimated homes · scores 86/100 (Strong candidate)
about 290 ft away
1915 N Logan St
11 stories · 83% daylit · already an apartment building
about 380 ft away
1905 N Sherman St
10 stories · 100% daylit · 54 estimated homes · scores 87/100 (Strong candidate)
about 450 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.