According to Denver assessor records, the high-rise condominium building at 550 E. 12th Avenue was built in 1967. The building was first known as the Penn Square Apartments, and is now known as the Penn Square Condominiums.
A 1970 white paper focused on the masonry construction of the building lists the architect as Michael W. Lombardi & Associates, the owner as Loup-Miller, and Loup-Miller Construction as the builder. In research, conflicting information on the architect was found. In the 1996 obituary of architect Tom Hite, he is credited as the designer of Penn Square. It is possible that Hite, who had his own firm in 1967, collaborated or subcontracted to Lombardi & Associates for the design of the building, but research was inconclusive. Notable structures designed by Hite include the Monaco Lanes Bowling Alley, Parkway Towers, and the Windsor Gardens condominium complex. Lombardi & Associates designed Larimer Place at 1551 Larimer Street in downtown Denver.
As a state-of-the-art modernist apartment tower, Penn Square appears to have attracted notable tentants. According to an article in the October 1980 issue of Denver Magazine, "When it first opened in 1967, Penn Square Penn Square, at the corner of East 12th Avenue and Pennsylvania Street, attracted a number of well-known writers. Among its one-time residents: Leon Uris, James Michener, Harold Robbins and Herman Wouk.” Although research revealed little about the tenure of Uris, Robbins, or Wouk at Penn Square, James Michener is noted to have lived in the building with his wife, Mari, a Colorado native from Las Animas, from about September 1972 until September 1973, while he researched and completed the first draft of his novel, Centennial.
