Highlands Garden Village Wins ULI Honor

Development is located on original site of Elitch Gardens

Highlands Garden Village is a mixed-use, mixed-income community considered a model for diverse, environmentally and socially sensitive infill redevelopment. Many of its original 1890s buildings have been preserved, including the Historic Elitch Theater (upper left corner). (Photo courtesy of Aero Arts)

Highlands Garden Village in Denver was one of 10 developments from North America named winners this month of the Urban Land Institute’s Awards for Excellence: The Americas competition.

Highlands Garden Village, developed by Perry Rose LLC and Jonathan Rose Cos., is located on the original 27-acre site of Denver’s first amusement park, Elitch Gardens.

The mixed-use, mixed-income community is a model for diverse, environmentally and socially sensitive infill redevelopment. It preserves many of the original 1890s buildings, adds 306 residential units, including affordable, senior and co-housing, along with retail and restaurant spaces, a school, theater and open space.

Developed by Perry Rose LLC and Jonathan Rose Cos., the community is located  on the original 27-acre site of Denver’s first amusement park, Elitch Gardens. (Photo courtesy of Aero Arts)

The other winners were:

• 2200–This mixed-use project is located on 2.5 infill acres in Seattle’s fast-growing South Lakes Union neighborhood.

• 1180 Peachtree—Hines’ speculative, 41-story office tower in downtown Atlanta is the nation’s first to be pre-certified a LEED-CS-silver high-rise office building.

• The ARC—Town Hall Education Arts & Recreation Campus—Located in the most underserved and impoverished of Washington, D.C.’s neighborhoods, this 110,000-sq-ft, mixed-use, youth-oriented community center was built by a nonprofit organization on federally owned parkland.

• Bob and Diana Gerding Theater at the Armory—The derelict Portland Armory in Portland, Ore., was transformed into a platinum LEED theater—the nation’s first for a performing arts center.

• Daniel Island—In 10 years, the 4,000-acre Daniel Island was has been turned from a private hunting retreat to a community of 6,000 residences that has become a natural extension of Charleston, S.C.

Highlands Garden Village  adds 306 residential units, including affordable, senior and co-housing, along with retail and restaurant spaces, a school, theater and open space. (Photo courtesy of Perry Rose LLC)

• Downtown San Diego Revitalization—The 60-block revitalization of San Diego’s deteriorating East Village neighborhood began with a public investment in a major league ballpark and has continued with 7,400 residential units, 750 hotel rooms and 1.2 million sq ft of commercial space.

• High Point—High Point is a 120-acre, ecologically-conscious, planned community in Seattle with half of its 1,600 homes completed. Half of the homes are market rate and the other half are affordable rentals.

• The Rand Corp. Headquarters—By selling almost 12 acres of its 15 downtown acres to the city of Santa Monica, Rand was able to build a LEED-gold facility while the city gained desirable land for expanding its civic and cultural center.

• Urban Outfitters Corporate Office Campus—The company consolidated its corporate and various brand headquarters in 250,000 sq ft of renovated industrial buildings on 11 acres of the decommissioned Philadelphia Navy Yard.

King’s Lynne in Lynn, Mass.—The nation’s first public housing project to be converted into private housing received the 2007 Heritage Award.

The winners were chosen from a field of 23 finalists among 170 entries. Projects were evaluated on the basis of financial viability, resourceful use of land, design, relevance to contemporary issues and sensitivity to the community and environment.

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