551 E Colfax Ave

551 E Colfax Ave is a 5-story apartment building in Greater Downtown Denver. Its floor plate has 93% of its area within daylight reach of a facade and scores 89 out of 100 on this screen’s measures, which is part of why it works as housing.

CO-1 · Screened 2026-09-19 · Already housing

Also addressed as 563 E Colfax Ave, 571 E Colfax Ave and 1509 N Pearl St: Denver’s address records place all 4 on this one footprint.

Where 551 E Colfax 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
551 E Colfax Ave

551 E Colfax 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. 551 E Colfax 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: 93% 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, 33 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 an apartment building: Denver's property records list 98 apartments here. 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 4 residential floors this building carries 6,035 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 551 E Colfax Ave, 2026-09-19.

Suitability scoreStrong candidate	89 / 100
Storiesfrom 65 ft aerial-survey height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	5
Height bandsfloor plate by floor range, from the city's roof outlines	Floors 1–2: 24,822 sq ft · Floors 3–5: 19,815 sq ft
Floor platetypical floor, from the city outlines	19,815 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	93%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	33 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-MS-8
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 883 ft of exterior wall, and across 4 residential floors the building carries 3,349 ft of it in total, divided among the 83 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is elongated at 0.32: 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 20.8 homes per floor. Its floors are not alike, though: the typical floor's deepest interior point is 33 ft from a facade, while its worst floor reaches 58 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 551 E Colfax Ave scores 89 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 100, Scale 55, Finance 68 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 551 E Colfax Ave. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency93% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	100	45%	45.0
Interior depthdeepest interior point 33 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	100	25%	25.0
Scale83 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	55	15%	8.3
Financeremaining gap is 19% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%	68	15%	10.2

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 55 out of 100: 83 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

Other buildings screened near 551 E Colfax Ave

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 360 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

1595 N Pearl St
5 stories · 89% daylit · 47 estimated homes · scores 77/100 (Strong candidate)
about 360 ft away
1575 N Pennsylvania St
10 stories · 100% daylit · already an apartment building
about 450 ft away
401 E Colfax Ave
7 stories · 96% daylit · 84 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
about 490 ft away
1580 N Logan St
11 stories · 91% daylit · 92 estimated homes · scores 85/100 (Strong candidate)
about 600 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.