The Denver Rescue Mission recently broke ground on their new Lawrence Street Community Center, located next door to their shelter facility at Park Avenue and Lawrence in the Arapahoe Square district.

The new Community Center will provide a safe place for the homeless to gather and receive needed services during the daytime before the Denver Rescue Mission’s shelter opens for the evening. The one-story facility will feature a kitchen, a 216-seat dining area, showers and restrooms, and an enclosed courtyard. For more details about the project and the services that will be offered at the Lawrence Street Community Center, the Denver Rescue Mission’s website has a nice bullet-point summary.

I’ve outlined the project location on this Google Earth image from October 2014:

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This rendering, courtesy of Eidos Architects, shows the one-story facility and courtyard. The two-story building on the left is the existing Denver Rescue Mission and the two-story building on the right is an unrelated property across the alley on Arapahoe Street.

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Ryan and I were at the site around the end of January when the project officially broke ground:

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The Lawrence Street Community Center is expected to open Fall 2015.