The redevelopment of the former East Village public housing complex in Downtown Denver’s Uptown/Curtis Park districts is under construction with its next phase. The first phase of new construction occurred on what the Denver Housing Authority identifies as Block 1–the odd-shaped block bounded by Park Avenue, Court Place, Washington Street, and Cleveland Place. That first phase wrapped up in 2007. Here are a couple of photos of the completed Block 1 phase:
Now under construction is DHA’s Block 3, the city block bounded by Park Avenue, Tremont Place, 24th Street, and Court Place. Block 3 will contain 93 mixed-income rental units and 32 market-rate for-sale units in a series of 3-, 4-, and 5-story buildings. Here are renderings of Block 3 courtesy of
Studio Completiva, the project architect.
And finally, here’s a recent photo of construction at the site (thanks, Nathan):
After Block 3, construction will cross over to the Uptown side of Park Avenue, where Blocks 4 and 5 will include 388 units.
Thank you for the timely information! I just asked about this project a day or two ago. It looks like the last phases in the Uptown section will be coming on line just as I become more serious about moving in a few years. Good to see this is progressing as initially described. I think this (Uptown) is becoming a great urban neighborhood.
This is starting to look like a seaside village. Pity it's not next to the Millenium Bridge.
These use to be projects right?
oh goodness, those are ugly.
oh goodness, you should've seen what the projects used to look like. LOL
Architecture aside, the idea of putting a massive amount of poor people together in one place seems like a terrible idea. Hasn't this kind of urban planning theory become debunked in the last 20 years? I guess they are mixing it up a little bit with the market-rate units, but it still seems like a bad idea. But then again, I'm not an urban planner….
"Massive amount of poor people"? This consists of mixed-income units and market rate units. So, the "poor people" will live among not-so-poor people. What, do you prefer that all poor people be put on a bus and shipped out of town?
Anon 9:16- No, I prefer they be integrated into town so the city doesn't develop low-income pockets that most people avoid (including developers). I firmly believe that low income people absolutely should be an integral part of the community – I just don't see this kind of development as an appropriate solution.
I was in New Orleans a couple of weeks ago talking to some developers and non-profits. New Orleans has several Hope VI projects in the works. One comment was that even the market rate units often have lower income people in them utilizing Section 8 vouchers. The developers actually like this situation as they get market rates from a more stable source – even better than people paying themselves. Has anyone seen or heard this happening elsewhere? If given the choice, will people actually choose to live in a mixed income area?
Being single and middle class, the only way I could own a place is if the market rate were depressed by surrounding project housing!