New Members Club Invisible City Is the Latest Denver Destination for Late-Night Adventurers and Creatives

Behind unassuming doors in the heart of the Art District on Santa Fe lies a portal to the new headquarters of Invisible City. More than just a club or music venue, it's a private, immersive social lounge intended to serve as a living record of Denver's creative development.

One of the reasons that Paul Laurie founded Invisible City is because he has a deep-seated desire to turn abandoned locations into thriving centers of creativity and community. "There are so many buildings in Denver that just disappear," he says. "And so the goal is to put up a beacon for people to use and save these historic buildings that have so much value."

Additionally, the adventure-loving Denver native saw Invisible City as a means of infusing spontaneity and fun into his hometown. After graduating from East High School, Laurie couldn't wait to get out of the Mile High and travel the world. "I started a student travel company [Walking Tree Travel] that took high school kids abroad to do community service everywhere, and decided to come back here with my two business partners to set up shop. But I didn't really love the Denver that I left as a kid," he admits. "So I started thinking, ‘What's going to make you excited to be here?’ I wanted to either do something about it or shut the fuck up, because I don't like complaining."

He started Silver Spork Social in 2014, an underground supper club that sought to breathe new life into abandoned warehouses and forgotten corners of the city through pop-up dinner parties in secret locations around Denver. "I put no information online, because I figured if someone had a sense of adventure, then they would sign up and they would come," Laurie recalls. "Silver Spork Social started and went really well. Over time, people were asking me to throw parties for them based on that supper club idea, so I ended up starting Invisible City with the idea of being the public-facing end of a very underground supper club."

Invisible City began in 2017, hosting events in an old synagogue off West Colfax. "It was about to be torn down, but my friends owned it, so I got to turn it into my house and this amazing community hub," Laurie says. "We took it over because we wanted to save the building from getting torn down."
According to Laurie, within its first two years in the synagogue space, Invisible City welcomed more than 20,000 visitors through its doors. "As COVID was approaching — not that we knew it was approaching at the time — we were planning to pivot to make something that was bigger than the space or any one person," he says. "We started this membership model so that we could take the idea of Invisible City and spread it to different people around town."

Laurie bought a new location, again from a friend, and Invisible City opened its new headquarters, dubbed the Clubhouse, at 941 Santa Fe Drive in September. The space is adorned with artifacts and curiosities from Laurie's worldwide travels, creating a homey atmosphere in which every corner tells a story and every event is a new chapter waiting to be written.

Before it was home to Invisible City, the building housed a dance studio and school for eight years. "I was looking for a space that you could feel the history seeping through (even if you didn’t know what it was), that was centrally located, that had lots of light and a variety of large and small nooks and crannies, and tall ceilings and good bones for lighting, aerial, sound and performance," Laurie says. "I wanted a place hidden in plain sight, and this was just the ticket."

A self-described "hoarder at heart," Laurie challenged himself to not buy anything new for the clubhouse. Every item in the building is something from Invisible City's first location or was given to him by a friend or family member. "I wanted this to feel like you're walking into an eclectic home or an old-fashioned Indiana Jones museum," Laurie says. "People often ask me, 'How could you trust all these strangers...with your most valuable possessions?' And it’s because they see it as home, so they treat it as a home."
At Invisible City, Laurie wants visitors to leave their preconceived notions behind and allow themselves to be surprised by the variety of unique activities. "I’ve realized my entire life is about helping others create micro-moments," he explains. "The way we set up most things is by thinking about how we can create a canvas for the people who come here. People who come to Invisible City are not attendees or guests; they're participants in everything that we do. When people come in these doors, you can really see all these little magical conversations happen, because people feel safe, open and accepted from wherever they're coming from."

The events are carefully crafted to offer unique twists on activities you might see at other locations around town. "We create events that push the envelope," Laurie says. "Recently, we hosted a Pop-and-Lock night, which was a very serious lock-picking class paired with a champagne tasting. We have a Shibari/Scout Night coming up, which will be hosted by a Japanese shibari knot-tying [expert] and an Eagle Scout; they both teach you practical knot ties, but by the end of the night, the Boy Scout will be tied up in the chair.

"We try to play with things that have been normalized in society and explore how we can introduce people to different arenas," he continues. "And then at the same time, we want to fill this with other community events by people who already have their own ideas and want to use the space. Whether that is a Gaga dance class, different DJ sets or musicians from Red Rocks who come perform after hours, we just want this to be a space that's used by many types of groups."

Invisible City recently hosted a Halloween-themed event that included a nearly two-hour set from Denver icons itchy-O and DJ sets by JÅZ, Sweven and Thunderthief. And on November 3, it held a free program for members called Nocturne that explored phantoms, temptation and folly, with performance art by Quixotic, the group behind the immensely popular Sensatia Cabaret; and music by Que, co-founder and resident of Zodiac Hause, and Gavlak, whose international sounds and rhythms transcend conventional dance floor experiences.
Not all concerts are limited to members; tiered tickets are available for non-members for some events. For example, Invisible City partnered with fellow Santa Fe Drive business ESP HiFi, a Japanese kissa-style vinyl listening bar, to host its Remote Viewing live DJ series on November 11 and offered tickets to the public.

In addition to those shows, "Tuesdays and Thursdays are public-facing and open to all as a member engagement campaign," Laurie notes. Both days host the recurring Pen to Paper event and Artist Playground ($25 for non-members), which invite people to come network and explore creativity through writing, yoga workshops, painting, wine tasting and much more.

"We've done this sort of thing before at our old space, and it was so beautiful; you’d see jugglers in one corner, people with easels painting portraits, people on their laptops, people doing meetings, people on dates, stretch sessions, massages and flash tattoo artists set up," recalls Laurie. "It really becomes a community hub."
But the full Invisible City experience is reserved for its members, and extends well beyond the Clubhouse. Members receive a personalized "Key to the City," which grants access to all weekly events. It is a physical key that triggers Invisible City light boxes at certain venues around town, alerting staff (and other patrons) that a member has entered and granting access to hidden perks. It also unlocks secret rooms around Denver and provides discounts on tickets to private events and partner perks, such as free food and drinks, backstage passes and pop-up parties. For a limited time, Invisible City is accepting applications to become a founding member at a discounted rate of $45 a month.

"People find out about us through word of mouth, and we've been around for a long time, so we’ve built some good trust in a lot of different circles in Denver," Laurie says. "We are excited to see the clubhouse grow as an alternative to more traditional spaces that people can use. Come and just hang out here on a Tuesday or Thursday. Join our mailing list. Or if you just want to take the leap of faith and get a membership, we will reward you in spades."

Learn more at invisiblecity.com.