GreenHaus plays a pivotal role in the redevelopment of Denver’s Sun Valley neighborhood.
Part of the Denver Housing Authority’s effort to replace the area’s obsolete public housing with modern mixed-income homes, the new community features 129 units, including 50 market-rate apartments. The remaining units are home to residents earning between 30% and 80% of the area median income, creating an economically diverse environment. In addition, the units range from one- to five-bedrooms to serve families of different sizes.
“This is a truly mixed-income community,” says Harsh Parikh, president of Santulan Architecture, who designed GreenHaus. “There are units for very low-income residents, and there are market-rate apartments. Creating a true mixed-income community is a sensitive endeavor, but, when done right, it fosters equity and opportunity and destigmatizes affordable housing.”
During the design phase, residents of the nearby Sun Valley Homes public housing development were skeptical of a plan for a large L-shaped building that shaded the main outdoor amenity space. They informed the team at Santulan that they really appreciated the two-story homes they were living in because they provided immediate access to the outdoors.
“It was one of the most community-driven design processes of my career,” says Parikh.
The residents’ desire to have immediate connection to a sunny outdoor amenity radically transformed the design. An angled slot was introduced in the southwest corner by splitting the building into two towers allowing sunlight to flood the main courtyard, and a number of two-story townhomes were arranged around the sun-filled courtyard. A skybridge was introduced to bridge the slot and connect the two towers with a roof deck that offers spectacular views of the nearby Denver Broncos’ stadium and the downtown skyline.
Built to Enterprise Green Communities criteria, GreenHaus features Energy Star appliances, low-flow water fixtures, and a vegetated roof. It also embraces healthy design principles by including different outdoor spaces as well as welcoming and well-lit stairs to nudge people to walk instead of using the elevator.
“GreenHaus epitomizes all the cutting-edge practices in housing design—an inclusive and sustainable, mixed-income community design based on healthy living and universal design principles, through a process heavily informed by community input,” Parikh says.
