DENVER | Main Development Thread #7

[Agent Orange]

Originally Posted by CherryCreek

If you can't put in slot homes because of zoning change, WHAT do you DO with that site? LoL

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7441...7i13312!8i6656

I really admire this condo building on Franklin near 18th, built in 2006 with some art deco vibes. Despite being taller than the 100 year old houses on the block, I think it fits in really well, adding appropriate density to the neighborhood, and it looks much better than the classic pre-2018 slot home.

A skinnier version might work on the Tennyson site (not sure about zoning), though I don't know if the numbers work these days. For the TakeFives out there, this is an example of the missing middle I wouldn't mind seeing pop up in more SFH neighborhoods. Building looks better in person, check it out on your next bike ride.

[CherryCreek]

Originally Posted by corey

I really don’t mind slot homes if it means that $300,000-$400,000 condos are produced. I don’t know what prices they actually bring. I think it was a mistake to completely ban them. I find them to be very urban and they actually remind me of some of the housing I’ve seen in Japan. A problem with entry level condos and houses though is that wealthy people buy them up for rental properties. One thing I’ve noticed about desert cities like Phoenix, Albuquerque, and Phoenix is that they have interesting, even artistic, low maintenance, and mostly hardscape (rocks, concrete, sculptures) highway landscaping. I think Denver could get some great ideas from these cities.

Some slot homes look better than others, if there's adequate space and other "humanizing" elements between them. Perhaps you could adopt design requirements that mitigate some of the worst features. Here's some on York Street that look half way decent. Units facing the street help.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7245...7i16384!8i8192

[Stonemans_rowJ]

*correction: wealthy people buy up ALL real estate and they prefer single family homes.

This site would frankly be terrible for just about anything at this point except for maybe just retail on bottom and office on top due to the fact that there are 6 giant living room windows going down the length of each side looking into your house or condo. If you had condos and built to the lot line (not even sure if that's possible under this zoning, you could reach out and high five the guys in the slot home when the Broncos score! Yard if duplex would have 0 privacy and this is important to people buying $800k-$1M duplexes.

[CherryCreek]

Originally Posted by Agent Orange

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7441...7i13312!8i6656

I really admire this condo building on Franklin near 18th, built in 2006 with some art deco vibes. Despite being taller than the 100 year old houses on the block, I think it fits in really well, adding appropriate density to the neighborhood, and it looks much better than the classic pre-2018 slot home.

A skinnier version might work on the Tennyson site (not sure about zoning), though I don't know if the numbers work these days. For the TakeFives out there, this is an example of the missing middle I wouldn't mind seeing pop up in more SFH neighborhoods. Building looks better in person, check it out on your next bike ride.

Another nice condo building, modern and contemporary, but fitting in within an historical neighorhood - this one at 8th and Humboldt.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7293...7i13312!8i6656

[BG918]

Originally Posted by Stonemans_rowJ

*correction: wealthy people buy up ALL real estate and they prefer single family homes.

This site would frankly be terrible for just about anything at this point except for maybe just retail on bottom and office on top due to the fact that there are 6 giant living room windows going down the length of each side looking into your house or condo. If you had condos and built to the lot line (not even sure if that's possible under this zoning, you could reach out and high five the guys in the slot home when the Broncos score! Yard if duplex would have 0 privacy and this is important to people buying $800k-$1M duplexes.

I could be wrong but you will likely need at least a 5 ft. setback on both sides. You could do condos (side by side with an interior corridor) with most of the windows on the Tennyson side and higher up windows along the sides. This could actually be a good place for modular units like what they're doing at 43rd & Tennyson:


https://milehimodern.com/development-collection/maison/

[jhwk]

Originally Posted by CherryCreek

If you can't put in slot homes because of zoning change, WHAT do you DO with that site? LoL

Now a horrible site for SFH, or Duplex. A slot home is about the only thing that would work there, and it wouldn't be pretty.

Aside from parking, would there be anything that prevents a developer from building something like this 26-unit apartment in Cap Hill (built 1923?)? It looks to me like it would just fit on the lot.

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/1509...nue-Denver-CO/

I lived in a very similar one. My windows lined up with the building next door too - I just figured that's the way it is in a city.

[jhwk]

(double posted)

[mr1138]

I think that this 10th and Bannock example is starting to think the right way. This site planner appears to understand that Denver lots are about twice as deep from street to alley as places (think New York, Boston) where townhomes typically stand, and that additional units can actually face the alley.

Granted, this developer was working with a corner lot, making it easy to connect their new service access to the alley. But I remain a believer that some creative city planning could help solve this problem for the lots that are mid-block.

[CherryCreek]

Originally Posted by jhwk

Aside from parking, would there be anything that prevents a developer from building something like this 26-unit apartment in Cap Hill (built 1923?)? It looks to me like it would just fit on the lot.

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/1509...nue-Denver-CO/

I lived in a very similar one. My windows lined up with the building next door too - I just figured that's the way it is in a city.

I found the solution. This would fit perfectly between the 2 Slots.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.7391...7i13312!8i6656

[TakeFive]

$310K to $530K

Attainable Options For Millennials

[EngiNerd]

Since there is conversation of Tennyson going on I want to put in my , the new-ish apartment building across from the Oriental Theater is probably the most atrocious building I have seen in recent years. Completely out of place with the character of that stretch. Just look at that street level!

[CherryCreek]

Originally Posted by EngiNerd

Since there is conversation of Tennyson going on I want to put in my , the new-ish apartment building across from the Oriental Theater is probably the most atrocious building I have seen in recent years. Completely out of place with the character of that stretch. Just look at that street level!

What an ugly scar on the neighborhood. Truly monstrous. People move to the neighborhood because of its old charm, and historical feel. And then some developer takes a dump on the street and leaves us with that.

Sad.

Edit: I guess the fugliness of this turd is old news. The developer is proud of it. https://crej.com/news/mathieson-takes-critics/

[TakeFive]

^ Even compared to the often uneven, duck-taped properties and earthy past that is one Ugly Duckling. For nearby residents and those who knew the area, the quaint charm of the past, this is proof-positive that not all change is good.

[Robert.hampton]

I feel like developers have been dropping turds all over Tennyson for 3-4 years now, but that one is truly bad.

[CastleScott]

^ Wow! That is truly beyond ugly-I'm surprised that the developer didn't do more to make it fit in more-40 yrs from now that turd bomb could be gone-at least plant more trees along the street which wold help a bit. I grew up not too far from there in Arvada and I use to go down Tennyson a lot as my doctor's office was at 38th and Tennyson plus that was another way to get downtown instead of I-70 to I-25.

[bunt_q]

The next generation's affordable housing. Third world cities are full of buildings like those.

[corey]

Wow, that apartment building is completely atrocious! On a prominent corner no less. It even makes the eLoft on 15th Street look good by comparison. It’s really sad to see what is happening to Tennyson St. I used to love that strip now I don’t even go over there anymore. It’s being filled up with the generic, ugly, cheap crap that comes with over-gentrification. Developers jump all over a “trendy” neighborhood and transform it in just few years into something generic and unrecognizable from what it used to be. How many damn brew pubs, bicycle shops, and trendy cafes does Denver need anyway?

[FunctionForm]

Originally Posted by CherryCreek

What an ugly scar on the neighborhood. Truly monstrous. People move to the neighborhood because of its old charm, and historical feel. And then some developer takes a dump on the street and leaves us with that.

Sad.

Edit: I guess the fugliness of this turd is old news. The developer is proud of it. https://crej.com/news/mathieson-takes-critics/

When I saw this photo, I tried to be objective before scrolling down to the comments. I expected the comments to be glowing about how an empty lot has been turned into density. Because density is certainly a great thing, right?

When I read your comment I was relieved. This building is terrible. I wondered if it is section 8 housing. And even if it is, then it's even worse that we would think so little of our poorest that we would place them in such an atrocity. But the City let that happen.

[bunt_q]

I don’t actually see what the problem is. Sure it’s ugly. But it looks pretty much the same as everything else we are building these days; that’s just what modern materials look like. Otherwise, it’s a 5 story lot-line mixed use building on a main street - exactly what we want more of and what real cities are uniformly made of. So I refuse to criticize it on architecture alone. Hate to break it to you all, but the Victorian era is over, and so are the days of building lovely charming brick structures at affordable prices.

I would actually be curious what suggestions any of you would make to improve this building that are not mainly about materials and a gut feel about how the building looks. I can predict maybe two people on this forum who will be able to offer a single constructive suggestion that doesn’t effectively amount to wanting an architectural time machine. Sometimes I feel like I should get you all (and even more so, the Fugly crowd) red ballcaps made that say Make America Brick Again.

Also, find me a set of building architecture anywhere in the country - or the world, even - that you all like that is not also primarily occupied by/built for the wealthy. I would venture everything you all like is also expensive. But most people are not wealthy, and most buildings are not beautiful, and that is okay. Even most of Paris is Fugly. I am sure this building is quite nice for those who will live in it, and that is what matters. If the criticism is that this doesn't belong on Tennyson - well, I would remind those of you who have lived in this city for longer than 15 minutes that until very recently, there was nothing fancy about Tennyson. Quite the opposite - it was a neighborhood for regular working people. I find it hard, then, to criticize a building that appears to have been built for regular working people because it is not fancy enough.

[BG918]

Originally Posted by bunt_q

Even most of Paris is Fugly.

Very true outside the Haussmann areas. Same goes for most European cities. I was in Japan earlier this year and the dominant urban form there is so banal and bland it makes you somewhat appreciate the multi-colored boxes we see in the U.S.