Sustainability

Bike Commuting from Platt Park

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Click on the image above for a slideshow of Denver Bike Sharing - Bcycle & MapMyRide Maps

Denver Bike Share - Platt Park

In addition to the excellent neighborhood light rail access a few blocks away (Louisiana Pearl Station), a great addition to the area is B-cycle, the Denver Bike Sharing program. There are 50 bike stations throughout the city, and two of these "kiosks" are in the Platt Park neighborhood.  One is located at the light rail stop, and the other in the heart of Old South Pearl St. at the intersection of Florida and S. Pearl.  It's very handy for grabbing a bike to head downtown, Cherry Creek North, or even a quick ride to the grocery store (big baskets on the front of all bikes).  B-cycle has a web site and iPhone app - so if you are trying to find a station, or figure out which station has bikes or empty docks, the web site or app gives you all the info. 

Keep in mind that the system is setup for sharing a bike for a ride between stations, not renting it for the day.  You can get a 24 hour pass or yearly membership and the first 30 minutes is free.  If you keep the bike longer (lock it somewhere vs. returning it to another station), there are fees involved. Check out more details on their web site: 

http://denver.bcycle.com/

Bike Commuting from Platt Park

For commuting on your bike, there is now a bike lane up Emerson Street so you can get to the Cherry Creek bike path more easily.  Once there, you can get to Cherry Creek North or Downtown via the path without having to deal with street level traffic.  From my experience, I’ve been riding to LoDo in nearly the same time it takes to get there during rush hour in a car.  If you want to add a little time and different scenery to your ride back to Platt Park, check out the Platt River option too (second link below).

Check out a couple of the various routes we have mapped out on the cycling web site MapMyRide.com:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/31570940/

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/40963590/

Saving the old: Deconstruction

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Earlier, I spoke about our dilemma regarding saving the old house that exists on the lot.  The size of the new space would completely cannibalize the 700 SF house.  In the end, we decided that the old space could not possibly be well integrated into the new scheme.

We have found a better solution in deconstruction.  Nancy has been discussing options for salvaging whatever in the project is worth the effort to remove it.  Doors, windows, wood floors, and possibly some of the brick appear to be salvageable -- but at a cost!

Local outfits that do this include Resource out of Boulder. This will add to the cost of the demolition, so we need to evaluate this carefully.

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.