Design

Zoning Limitations

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Zoning-limitations

Zoning-limitations

The City of Denver has some fairly complicated and restrictive zoning requirements, limiting lot coverage as well as designating the area where you can locate the house and garage. The open space requirement and location of the structure(s) on the lot creates obvious constraints for this small narrow lot (37’ x 132’).

Initially, our goal was to build a 2400-2500 sf home, but once we designed the house we were at 2800 sf. We knew we were exceeding the open space requirements (62.5% of the lot is required to be open) with the initial first floor layout. After going over the zoning requirements once again, we realized that we needed to make serious adjustments, both in terms of square footage reductions, as well as adjusting the placement of the house on the lot.

Reducing square footage at this point was a significant challenge for us. The City offers a lot coverage incentive if you detach the garage. In other words, we can have more house with a detached garage, so we detached it. Sacrificing the benefits of an attached garage was difficult -- but once we accepted that and made some further square footage cuts (specifically eliminating the guest room/kids playroom, we are now at 2500 SF! Depending on the pricing, we may rough in for a future guest suite in the basement. In any event, we will have more outdoor space for play and sun.

Exterior Finishes

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Through a quick series of sketch overlays, we've been exploring exterior finishes.

Current Renderings

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We’ve been refining and fleshing out the plans for a month now.  There are still ideas we want to explore, but they will have to wait until after the pricing set goes out.  We need a reality check on how this project is shaping up financially.

Current Challenges:

  1. Closing off the basement at the stair in a creative and subtle way Still struggling with the entry/foyer area--we need storage and some privacy from the street
  2. Window placement and size at the kitchen--it’s going to be directly across from the neighbor, but Nancy wants some visual access to the outside from the counter 

For more images, check out our renderings on Flickr

Exterior Studies

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North elevation med

The most recent development over the holiday has progressed rather slowly...there is a lot of snow in the mountains, and even more here in Denver at the moment! Lots of work still to do on the exterior. Right now it’s pretty much a blank slate...

From three schemes to one

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We’ve hashed through numerous ideas for a concept on the house, and here are the main three: 

  1. Focus on main living space (kitchen, dining, living) at the rear of the house (west facing)
  2. Split rear living space by a central courtyard
  3. Move main living spaces to front of lot at street to provide activity and embracing of urban setting - this is ultimately what we’ve selected for the basis of the design approach.

Massing Studies

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Determining the overall size of the house is a challenge on such a narrow site.  We’ve talked about everything from a narrow tube like open plan to a central courtyard layout that takes advantage of as much morning winter sun as possible.  The adjacent bungalows are fairly low compared to Victorians along other nearby streets, so respecting their scale only adds to the challenge.