The new Renaissance Downtown Lofts for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless is strategically located along a busy Broadway transportation corridor in downtown Denver. Situated in the Arapahoe Square Neighborhood the project transformed an existing one-story abandoned drive up bank into 101 units of permanent supportive housing for chronically homeless individuals.
Energy Conservation Ethic
Designed to meet and exceed Enterprise Green Communities criteria for energy conservation the development sets a new model for urbanism and increased density by stacking community services with residential wings above.
Colorado Coalition for the Homeless stakeholders were passionate about the building providing solar access and daylighting for their clients. The buildings east-west orientation was largely driven by taking advantage of its triangular corner site. It’s wedge shaped form became a catalyst for maximizing the building’s southern exposure, as well as the inclusion of a much needed open space courtyard overlooking the downtown Denver skyline.
Reshaping the Broadway Corridor
The dense six-story, 85,000 square foot building is comprised of 101 one and two-bedroom apartments arranged in a c-shaped cradle, forming a central community terrace on a half-acre corner site. Flanking the community terrace are program spaces that include: a shared kitchen, a central community lounge and conference facility and a recreation billiards and TV room – all overlooking the raised courtyard and landscaped green roof. By incorporating these communal spaces into the raised flatiron building form above on a raised podium – it allowed for a highly interactive street level filled with social programs, counseling facilities, case management offices and medical support facilities. Highly transparent and welcoming at street level the project encourages the buildings residents to reconnect with each other and the city beyond.
Offsite Prefabrication / Technical Challenges with a Triangular Site
Not only is the integration of social service within the building desired to mitigate the most vulnerable / highest users of public services including: jail, detox, municipal courts and emergency services in a unique building program, but the project utilizes an innovative new construction methodology. Faced with a limited budget, a constrained triangular-corner site circumstance the design team determined that off-site premanufactured Prescient light gauge steel panelized wall and floor framing lifted into place over a concrete podium would help provide a higher quality of construction. In addition, it could meet tighter site setback tolerances, accelerate construction time and accomplish the projects sustainability goals and objectives. Renaissance Downtown Lofts is the first mid-rise, multi-unit residential project for formerly homeless individuals employing the Prescient light gauge system in Denver.
Open Arms to the City: Highly Visible (Not Invisible)
The building manages to provide a visual feeling of security, yet with open arms to the city, easing what can be a crippling sense of isolation that can afflict homelessness. It also makes visible, through its strong architectural form and layered transparency – a community with dignity, thus diminishing society’s prejudice for ‘not in my backyard’.
According to Denver’s Mayor Michael Hancock “This Social Impact Bond program will not only measurably improve lives of people most in need while lowering city’s costs, but it will also act as a blueprint for other cities across the country that face similar challenges with homelessness.”
