Bradburn Westminster, Colorado
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Bradburn Westminster, Colorado Project Type: Residential Case No: C035018 Year: 2005 SUMMARY Bradburn is a $220 million, 123-acre (49.8-hectare), mixed-use, master-planned new urbanist community in Westminster, Colorado—an inner suburb of 107,000 residents located on the northwest boundary of Denver in Adams County. When completed, Bradburn will feature more than 800 residences—275 single-family homes, 150 townhouses, 310 rental apartments in Bradburn Row, and 33 live/work units—along with 108 apartments sitting above 154,830 square feet (14,384 square meters) of retail space arranged in a main street format. In addition, there will be 29,000 square feet (2,694 square meters) of office space, a preschool, a church, and 16 acres (6.5 hectares) of open space. Comprising three neighborhoods and a village core with shops, restaurants, offices, and residences, Bradburn represents Westminster’s first implementation of new urbanist zoning to create a compact, walkable mixed-use neighborhood. FEATURES Mixed-Use—Three Uses or More Pedestrian-Friendly Design Bradburn Westminster, Colorado Project Type: Residential Subcategory: Planned Communities Volume 35 Number 18 July–September 2005 Case Number: C035018 PROJECT TYPE Bradburn is a $220 million, 123-acre (49.8-hectare), mixed-use, master-planned new urbanist community in Westminster, Colorado—an inner suburb of 107,000 residents located on the northwest boundary of Denver in Adams County. When completed, Bradburn will feature more than 800 residences—275 single-family homes, 150 townhouses, 310 rental apartments in Bradburn Row, and 33 live/work units—along with 108 apartments sitting above 154,830 square feet (14,384 square meters) of retail space arranged in a main street format. In addition, there will be 29,000 square feet (2,694 square meters) of office space, a preschool, a church, and 16 acres (6.5 hectares) of open space. Comprising three neighborhoods and a village core with shops, restaurants, offices, and residences, Bradburn represents Westminster’s first implementation of new urbanist zoning to create a compact, walkable mixed-use neighborhood. LOCATION Outer Suburban SITE SIZE 123 acres/49.8 hectares LAND USES Single-Family Detached Residential, Townhouses, Apartments, Neighborhood Retail Center, Office, School, Church, Open Space KEYWORDS/SPECIAL FEATURES Mixed-Use—Three Uses or More Pedestrian-Friendly Design WEB SITE www.bradburnvillage.com DEVELOPER Continuum Partners, LLC 1430 Wynkoop Street Denver, Colorado 80202 303-573-0050 Fax: 303-573-0011 www.continuumpartners.com PLANNER/RESIDENTIAL DESIGN GUIDELINES Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company 1023 S.W. 25th Avenue Miami, Florida 33133 305-644-1023 Fax: 305-644-1021 www.dpz.com ARCHITECTS Barrett Studio Architects 1944 20th Street Boulder, Colorado 80302 303-449-1141 Fax: 303-449-9320 www.barrettstudio.com OZ Architecture 1820 Folsom Street Boulder, Colorado 80302 303-449-8900 Fax: 303-449-3886 www.ozarch.com Wolff-Lyon Architects 777 Pearl Street, Suite 210 Boulder, Colorado 80302 303-447-2786 Fax: 303-447-2968 www.wlarch.com ArchitectureDenver 1855 Blake Street, Suite 100 Denver, Colorado 80202 303-893-1600 Fax: 303-893-5658 www.architecturedenver.com Van Meter Williams Pollack 1529 Market Street, Second Floor Denver, Colorado 80202 303-298-1480 Fax: 303-893-2595 www.vmwp.com LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Civitas, Inc. 1200 Bannock Street Denver, Colorado 80202 303-571-0053 Fax: 303-825-0438 www.civitasinc.com CIVIL ENGINEER MB Consulting Mark Bishop, Project Engineer 333 West Colfax Avenue, Suite 500 Denver, Colorado 80204 303-825-7475 Fax: 303-825-7341 www.mbcdenver.com PROJECT DESCRIPTION Bradburn is a $220 million, 123-acre (49.8-hectare), mixed-use, master-planned new urbanist community in Westminster, Colorado—an inner suburb of 107,000 residents located on the northwest boundary of Denver in Adams County. When completed, Bradburn will feature more than 800 residences—275 single-family homes, 150 townhouses, 310 rental apartments in Bradburn Row, and 33 live/work units—along with 108 apartments sitting above 154,830 square feet (14,384 square meters) of retail space arranged in a main street format. In addition, there will be 29,000 square feet (2,694 square meters) of office space, a preschool, and a church. Comprising three neighborhoods and a village core with shops, restaurants, offices, and residences, Bradburn represents Westminster’s first implementation of new urbanist zoning to create a compact, walkable mixed-use neighborhood. Bradburn’s grid of through-traffic, sidewalk-lined streets is oriented toward Rocky Mountain vistas. The community includes 16 acres (6.5 hectares) of parks, open spaces, and playgrounds, and greenway trails link it to 2,500 acres (1,012 hectares) of city-owned natural and agricultural open space on the Great Plains. The four sections (the three neighborhoods and village core) of the Bradburn site plan are aligned on a street grid and connected to each other by a diagonal landscaped boulevard. The plan concentrates density along the busy 120th Avenue arterial and transitions to lower-density rural areas as the plan continues southeast toward Dry Creek Open Space, a natural prairie environment within Westminster’s open-space system. Bradburn stands in contrast to its context of gated communities and big-box stores linked by eight-lane arterials. With its detailed, narrow streets and homes decorated in many styles, colors, and materials, the community offers a new urbanist alternative to the lower-density suburbs surrounding it. The contributions of several leading new urbanist architects and 14 different homebuilders helped ensure architectural diversity at Bradburn. Building types range from one-story main street retail structures rendered in cross-hatched brick, to a cottage-style daycare building, brick apartments, townhouses, live/work lofts, single-family residences, and custom homes. BACKGROUND Developed by Continuum Partners, LLC, Bradburn was conceived to honor Westminster’s past and its historic core. The community is named for Donald Bradburn, the first local son killed in World War I. Neighborhood parks take their names from settlers’ families and local orchards. The planners of Bradburn studied the fragments of Westminster’s historic railroad core to glean ideas for architecture and streetscapes. Continuum Partners was founded in 1998 as a new urbanist firm on a mission to introduce new product types intended to transform suburbs. The company has become known for the $800 million transformation-in-progress of the failed Villa Italia Mall in Lakewood, Colorado, into Belmar, a 100-acre (40.5-hectare) downtown-style environment. While Belmar aims to show that a post–World War II suburb can support a traditional downtown, Bradburn provides an urban alternative for people who prefer to live in the suburbs—whether to be near work or good schools, or because desirable city neighborhoods are too expensive. During the mid-1990s, communities within metropolitan Denver showed growing interest in smart growth and new urbanism. Governor Roy Romer started a Governor’s Smart Growth Awards program. Among projects recognized were new urbanist master plans for communities ranging from the 80-acre (32.4-hectare) Prospect New Town in Longmont to the 4,700-acre (1,902-hectare) Stapleton in Denver. In May 1998, a Congress for the New Urbanism meeting held in Denver in conjunction with ULI’s spring meeting drew thousands of attendees and intensified regional interest in compact development. In 1997, the city of Westminster developed a comprehensive land use plan that called for the creation of a mixed-use neighborhood center. Two years later, municipal officials proved receptive when Continuum Partners started discussing plans for 123 acres (49.8 hectares) of former wheat fields. The site’s original zoning was for 113 acres (45.7 hectares) of agricultural uses and ten acres (4.05 hectares) of conventional suburban retail uses. In July 2000, Continuum purchased the 113 agriculturally zoned acres (45.7 hectares) for $8 million and began to pursue planning, design, and rezoning. Continuum hired a team led by founding new urbanist firm Duany Plater-Zyberk (DPZ) to create a land plan, a site plan, residential design guidelines, and principles for rezoning. Continuum and DPZ collaborated closely with key city departments including fire, engineering, public works, and planning to convince government officials that a higher density and narrow streets would work. Team members even interviewed drivers of garbage trucks and service vehicles to help plot road widths and turning radii. Public safety officials then accepted the idea of narrower new urbanist streets. Since Bradburn has no culs-de-sac, safety officials realized that trucks could simply drive through and did not require wide streets for U-turns. A team from this group also visited and studied DPZ’s flagship project, Kentlands in Gaithersburg, Maryland. In April 2001, after a brisk three-month review process, the city approved a new category of traditional mixed-use zoning for the site. This new zoning permits Bradburn’s mixed-use program, along with variations to conventional street dimensions and specifications, alleys, utility placements, and rights-of-way. With the rezoning completed, Continuum bought the site’s last commercially zoned ten acres (4.05 hectares) for $1.8 million to assemble the full 123 acres (49.8 hectares). During the rezoning process, Continuum began developing and testing residential architectural design guidelines with homebuilders. The result is DPZ’s Bradburn Architectural Regulations, which are administered by an architectural control committee selected by the developer. The design of commercial buildings is regulated by the Bradburn Prototype Book, created by Wolff-Lyon Architects, Barrett Studios, and OZ Architecture in 2000. Bradburn broke ground for infrastructure in May 2001. The first homes were under construction by December, and models opened in June 2002. The first retail buildings opened in early 2003, with Bradburn Row Apartments opening in 2004. Ninety-five percent of these apartments have been leased at rents ranging from $800 to $1,600 a month.