Highlands’ Garden Village Denver, Colorado Project Type: Residential Case No: C033001 Year: 2003 SUMMARY Located three miles (4.84 kilometers) northwest of downtown Denver, Highlands’ Garden Village is a mixed-use urban infill project built on the site of a former amusement park. The 27-acre (11-hectare) project features 51 single-family homes, 63 rental apartments for seniors, 54 townhouses, 33 cohousing units, and plans to build ten live/work studios for artists, 14,000 square feet (1,300 square meters) of office space, and 82,400 square feet (7,665 square meters) of neighborhood retail uses. The community boasts a number of outdoor amenities, most notably a series of neighborhood parks and gardens that occupy 3.2 acres (1.3 hectares). Highlands’ Garden Village has garnered national attention for its preservation efforts, as well as the site’s numerous “green features,” including recycled wood furniture in the parks and the “Zipcar” share program, which provides compressed, natural gas–powered cars for the use of residents. FEATURES Built on the site of the 111-year-old Elitch Gardens Amusement Park The 1926 carousel house is completely renovated and serves as a community pavilion The historic Elitch Gardens have been preserved throughout the site and constitute part of the 3.2 acres (1.2 hectares) of open space The Elitch Theater has been redeveloped into a community arts and cultural center Connection of existing street grids and the addition of 82,400 square feet (7,665 square meters) of traditional main street retail and restaurants Single-family homes and townhouses meet or exceed the guidelines of Colorado’s Built Green Program and are E-Star certified by Energy Rated Homes of Colorado Highlands’ Garden Village Denver, Colorado Project Type: Residential Subcategory: Planned Communities Volume 33 Number 01 January–March 2003 Case Number: C033001 PROJECT TYPE Located three miles (4.84 kilometers) northwest of downtown Denver, Highlands’ Garden Village is a mixed-use urban infill project built on the site of a former amusement park. The 27-acre (11-hectare) project features 51 single-family homes, 63 rental apartments for seniors, 54 townhouses, 33 cohousing units, and plans to build ten live/work studios for artists, 14,000 square feet (1,300 square meters) of office space, and 82,400 square feet (7,665 square meters) of neighborhood retail uses. The community boasts a number of outdoor amenities, most notably a series of neighborhood parks and gardens that occupy 3.2 acres (1.3 hectares). Highlands’ Garden Village has garnered national attention for its preservation efforts, as well as the site’s numerous “green features,” including recycled wood furniture in the parks and the “Zipcar” share program, which provides compressed, natural gas–powered cars for the use of residents. SPECIAL FEATURES Built on the site of the 111-year-old Elitch Gardens Amusement Park The 1926 carousel house is completely renovated and serves as a community pavilion The historic Elitch Gardens have been preserved throughout the site and constitute part of the 3.2 acres (1.2 hectares) of open space The Elitch Theater has been redeveloped into a community arts and cultural center Connection of existing street grids and the addition of 82,400 square feet (7,665 square meters) of traditional main street retail and restaurants Single-family homes and townhouses meet or exceed the guidelines of Colorado’s Built Green Program and are E-Star certified by Energy Rated Homes of Colorado PROJECT ADDRESS West 38th Avenue and Tennyson Street Denver, Colorado 80202 DEVELOPER Perry & Rose 910 16th Street Denver, Colorado 80202 303-446-0600 Fax: 303-446-0465 www.rose-network.com SITE PLANNER Master Site Plan Calthorpe Associates 1580 Findlay Way Boulder, Colorado 80305 303-554-7605 www.calthorpe.com Site Plan Civitas, Inc. 1250 Bannock Street Denver, Colorado 80204 303-571-0053 Fax: 303-825-0438 www.civitasinc.com ARCHITECTS Single-Family Homes and Townhouses Wolff/Lyon Architects 777 Pearl Street, Suite 210 Boulder, Colorado 80302 303-447-2786 Fax: 303-447-2968 www.wlarch.com Seniors' Apartments OZ Architecture 1580 Lincoln Street, Suite 1200 Denver, Colorado 80203 303-861-5704 Fax: 303-861-9230 www.ozarch.com Harry Teague Architects 412 North Mill Street Aspen, Colorado 81611 970-925-2556 Fax: 970-925-7981 www.harryteaguearchitects.com Cohousing Cohousing Company 1250 Addison Street, Suite 113 Berkeley, California 94702 510-549-9980 Synergy Design 917 Cottonwood Circle Golden, Colorado 80401 303-278-1880 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT Lee Weintraub Landscape Architecture Community Design 59 Edgecliff Terrace Yonkers, New York 10705 914-965-6540 Fax: 914-965-6546 GENERAL DESCRIPTION A garden community three miles (4.84 kilometers) northwest of downtown Denver, Highlands’ Garden Village is located on a 27-acre (11-hectare) infill site. Home to the Elitch Gardens, the project features a number of housing types, including single-family homes, cohousing, and seniors’ apartments. Interspersed throughout the community are 3.2 acres (1.2 hectares) of parks and gardens, reminiscent of the former amusement park. The project includes the connection of existing street grids and the addition of 82,400 square feet (7,665 square meters) of traditional main street retail uses and restaurants. Effective recycling and reuse programs have made Highlands’ Garden Village a national model for environmentally conscious development. These programs use wind to generate electricity for community buildings, provide residents with access to two energy-efficient cars, and reuse existing city water, sewer, and stormwater infrastructure surrounding the site. THE SITE AND ITS HISTORY The Elitch Gardens Amusement Park opened in 1890 and served as an escape from what was then a seemingly remote, bustling downtown Denver. For over a century, the amusement park offered the public entertainment in the form of carnival rides, live shows, wild animals, and botanical gardens. The Elitch Theater not only was one of America’s longest-running summer showcases, but it also was where the first movies in Denver were shown and where stars such as Grace Kelly and Sarah Bernhardt appeared. While Elitch Gardens Amusement Park stayed much the same over the years, Denver continued to grow as a metropolitan area and housing was eventually developed around the park. In 1994, the amusement park shut down and a gaping hole was left in what had become a working-class neighborhood. Chuck Perry, a local developer and restaurateur, decided to redevelop the former amusement park into a viable community. Partnering with Jonathan F.P. Rose, a developer based in Katonah, New York, the Perry/Affordable Housing Development Corporation was formed and plans for the Highlands’ Garden Village were developed. DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AND DESIGN Rose and Perry bought the Elitch Gardens Amusement Park in 1998 and soon developed a plan for the $50 million mixed-use project. Much of this plan came out of a community-based planning process in which the developers met over 50 times with local residents and groups such as the West Highlands Neighborhood Association, the civic association for the neighborhood that surrounds the development. While there was some disagreement as to what should replace the amusement park, in the end the planning process turned out to be beneficial. One main point of contention was that the new development would have to include seniors’ housing. Perry and Rose agreed to this and were rewarded by the city of Denver with a density bonus for the project. The major obstacle faced during the planning process was the site’s zoning regulations. It was formerly zoned as A-1, which allows only a few uses such as a prison or an amusement park. After two years of negotiation, the area was rezoned as a planned unit development (PUD). In Colorado, a PUD is unique in that it provides developers with higher densities that can be changed quickly to respond to demographic conditions and fluctuating housing markets. Original plans for the development called for streets with widths of 30 feet (nine meters) or less. However, during the planning process the city of Denver required the streets to be 36 feet (11 meters) wide, with Perry and Rose eventually settling with the city on a width of 32 feet (ten meters). With narrower streets, Highlands’ Garden Village is able to have wider sidewalks that promote pedestrian traffic, reduce vehicular traffic speeds, and save money on construction costs. Dismantling much of the old amusement park, including the “Twister” roller coaster, was a priority, but Rose and Perry wanted to retain some aspects that would give the new project an identity and pay tribute to Elitch. The centerpieces of Highlands’ Garden Village are two historic structures from the old park: the century-old, octagonal two-story Elitch Theater; and the Elitch entrance gardens, featuring a 1926 carousel house. The gardens, the carousel house, and the theater all have undergone major restoration and play important roles in the community. The actual theater building is 5,890 square feet (547 square meters) in size and a “fly building” is attached to it that houses back-of-stage operations. Future development plans include demolishing this dysfunctional structure and replacing it with a smaller, updated fly house measuring 9,700 square feet (901 square meters). The Elitch Theater is used by a variety of performing arts groups and the gardens serve as attractive open space, with the floor of the former carousel featuring a meditative walking labyrinth, designed to the golden mean proportions. The golden mean ratio of 1.68:1 has more than just mathematical implications; it is a ratio that has been used in architecture since classical times and serves to strike a harmonic balance between the constructed and living worlds. The carousel itself, along with most of the rides from Elitch’s, was moved in 1995 when the owners relocated closer to downtown Denver in the Platte River Valley.