Today we have some exciting development news over in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. On Washington Street, between East 14th Avenue and Colfax, a permanent homeless housing project has broken ground. Not only does it eradicate a surface parking lot, it provides low income/homeless housing for the neighborhood. Here is a Google Earth aerial with the project site outlined.
As you can see from the aerial, this block has a lot of surface parking with only two retail buildings fronting Colfax Avenue. Google Street View shows us how much of a dead zone this area is.
This is a joint project between Saint John’s Cathedral and the Saint Francis Center, a non-profit that has been helping the Denver homeless since 1983. The building will rise six stories and provide 50 one-bedroom units that will be approximately 500 square feet each.
This project will also feature a parking podium on the first floor, and 2,600 square feet of community space on the second floor. No plans for ground floor retail have been mentioned. For the full application and details of this project head over here. There are a bunch of preliminary, small renderings on the Saint John’s Cathedral website and we have one very high resolution rendering to share with you today, courtesy of Fox 31 Denver. Humphries Poli Architects is the project’s architect.
The construction time frame for this project is still unknown, but since it has broken ground we can expect 12-18 months until completion.
EDIT – 06/10/2016 10:20am
Here are two more renderings courtesy of Humphries Poli Architects.
But where will I park when I drive to the liquor store?
Well lucky for you, there are two more surface lots on that block. 😉
lolol
Cool project in a great location. It would be nice to see a high quality rendering of the front portion of the building to see how the building addresses Washington St. Either way, it’s exciting to see some permanent supportive housing in a prime location.
http://hparch.com/work/st-francis-supportive-housing/ has two more renderings.
Looks like there are a few more HQ renderings here:
http://hparch.com/work/st-francis-supportive-housing/
Didn’t feel it necessary to mention the architect?
If you have any information on who the architect is please share it, I couldn’t find anybody attached to the rendering provided. Thanks!
http://www.denver-cityscape.com. The project architect is Humphries Poli of Denver.
You guys are awesome! I’m updating the post with the architect’s information. Thanks! 🙂
Okay…parking is going to be a pain on a friday afternoon, that’s for sure. But why a building for homeless so close to a liquor store…really!
ps…love this site!
I am wondering if projects like this have lower parking requirements? Especially given that a lot of the residents will be using public transportation, fewer parking spots could allow for more affordable units at a lower cost.
Some interesting (and funny) points I hadn’t considered (homeless housing proximity to liquor store).
But I love what this project does from an urban design standpoint. I appreciate that it adds density to an already dense neighborhood without the whole-block-behemoth approach (e.g. one city block)
I think, I hope, that as more and more vacant lots become developed, and as land values continue to rise, that the ‘slot’ type infill projects become more prevalent. Buildings from different eras existing next to each other is what gives a city texture and depth. (RE: amsterdam).
Hope this trend continues…