Archinect - News

Facade installation underway on MAD Architects’ first North American residential rental tower

2024-03-06T15:38:00-05:00

Construction is progressing at Denver’s One River North, designed by MAD Architects.

The sixteen-story tower broke ground in late 2021 and represents MAD’s first residential rental building in the United States, expected to contain 187 units.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by One River North (@onerivernorth)

The scheme’s defining exterior element is a sharp carved opening midway up the tower, cutting through the upper section of the tower towards the roof. The opening will contain a network of footpaths and planting. A rooftop pool, spa, and garden areas complete the 216-foot-tall structure.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by One River North (@onerivernorth)

“If we regard modern cities as man-made landscapes on the earth, we need to design canyons, woods, creeks, and waterfalls, transforming concrete forests into second nature,” MAD founder Ma Yansong said about the development in 2021.

View this post on Instagram ...

Studio Gang to lead Denver's Civic Center Next 100 Phase 1 implementation

2023-11-01T11:56:00-04:00

Studio Gang has been selected to lead the Phase 1 Implementation of Denver’s Civic Center Next 100 revitalization plan targeted at its Greek Theater and Central Promenade along 14th Avenue.

The firm received a $2.8 million design contract for the project and was chosen based on an approach that was “rooted in a community-centered process [and] respects the historic aspects of the park while bringing innovative architectural design,” according to a press announcement.

The project is being delivered with extensive community and stakeholder engagement. The Concept Design also calls for improvements to the Central Gathering Space and Bannock Street between Colfax Avenue and 14th Avenue. Denver’s Mayor Mike Johnston said it will prepare the space for “the next 100 years.”

“We are looking forward to working closely with the city, the conservancy, and the communities of Denver on the design for Civic Center that extends its democratic legacy and invites everyone to come together around per...

U.S. Air Force Academy releases update on iconic Cadet Chapel refurbishment

2023-08-09T16:21:00-04:00

Earlier this year, the ongoing refurbishment of SOM’s Walter Netsch-designed United States Air Force Academy Cadet Chapel in Colorado reached a significant milestone when contractors for the $220 million project removed the final aluminum fin from its iconic exterior, culminating the renovation’s asbestos removal stage and clearing the way for the final reconstruction to begin.

The painstaking process, which began in 2019 and hit an impasse after two years due to “unforeseen” issues that added nearly $80 million to the project’s original budget of $158 million, is now on track for completion in 2027 and will result in the installation of an aluminum water barrier system the Air Force scrapped during construction in favor of cheaper caulking seals.

“Scraping the sealants off the building damaged the aluminum finish and as time went on and new resealant projects came in, the sealants were no longer adhering to the aluminum very well,” Academy architect Duane Boyle said in an Air Forc...

Featured architecture projects from female-led firms based in the American West

2023-03-01T15:20:00-05:00

As we enter Women's History Month today we begin to highlight some of the work produced by female-led firms, to complement our existing stories and profiles.

Pioneering women in the profession continue to make their mark and shift our industry into a more inclusive direction. When you look at a realized design project, however, it's not always clear who the team of leaders and designers are behind that work. To kick off a celebration of women, Archinect launches a new series featuring built projects led by female-owned and operated firms.

For our first installment, we've started with 13 architecture firms based in the American West that have posted projects to their Archinect Firm Profile. Feeling inspired? Check out the job opportunities at female-lead firms in Archinect Jobs.

B+B House by Design, Bitches
The firm is led by Catherine Johnson and Rebecca Rudolph in Los Angeles, CA

B+B House. Image © Yoshihiro Makino. Learn more about the project here.

Armstrong Ave Residence by Robi...

Aspen's new building codes are some of the strictest in Colorado

2023-01-31T11:14:00-05:00

The new building codes make 49 amendments to the International Building Code...will be the first time Aspen has set energy limits for every building in the city...The new regulations are not about affordable housing...Axelman does not expect the new regs will reduce the rumbling thrum of construction that is the soundtrack to Aspen.

Jason Blevins covers the recent news out Aspen regarding passing of Ordinance NO .01 (Series of 2023), pitched as key to achieving the city’s Climate Action Plan.

Featured architecture jobs in Aspen, Vail, and Denver, Colorado

2022-09-30T11:00:00-04:00

Looking to work in an area filled with vivid landscapes, rivers, and eye-catching architecture like the Aspen Art Museum? Continuing with our architecture job highlights, below are seven architecture firms that are currently hiring architects and designers to join them in their Colorado-based offices.

Archinect Jobs, the industry's leading architecture job board, has over 100+ new employment opportunities featured each week. Check out who's hiring below.

ASPEN | MOUNTAIN HOUSE by RO| Rockett Design. Image © Draper White Photography/Courtesy of RO | ROCKETT DESIGN.

RO | ROCKETT DESIGN seeks an Intermediate Designer/Architect
Location: Aspen, CO

Details: "RO | ROCKETT DESIGN is seeking a qualified Intermediate Designer / Architect with 5-7 years of architectural design and documentation experience, preferably with 2-3 years at a single place of employment. Candidates should have strong project experience in all project phases. Responsibilities will include: Research & Design, Presenta...

Company uses algae to develop masonry blocks with help from SOM, Autodesk, and Microsoft

2022-06-10T08:15:00-04:00

Prometheus Materials, a Colorado-based developer of zero-carbon building materials, has announced the securing of $8 million in funding from investors including Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, The Autodesk Foundation, and the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund.

The funds form part of an effort by Prometheus to develop a zero-carbon alternative to traditional Portland cement by using microalgae. From its facility at Longmont, Colorado, the company hopes to develop commercial-grade masonry blocks as an “affordable, strong, and durable zero-carbon alternative” to concrete blocks.

Prometheus President, CEO, and Co-Founder Loren Burnett. Image: Prometheus Materials

“To prevent catastrophic climate change, we cannot simply replace fossil fuels with renewable forms of energy – we must also decarbonize the way we create building materials,” explained Loren Burnett, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Prometheus Materials.

“By using biological rather than chemical means to create a strong, dur...

Studio Gang begins construction on Populus, the 'first carbon-positive hotel in the U.S.'

2022-04-25T12:10:00-04:00

Construction has begun on the Populus Hotel in Denver, Colorado. Designed by Studio Gang, the 13-story, 265-room hotel is described by the team as “the first carbon-positive hotel in the United States,” and the first Studio Gang project to be built in Colorado.

According to the architects, the scheme’s distinctive façade was informed by the patterns found in Colorado’s native Aspen tree, the Populus Tremuloides. The façade is defined by “lids” extending out over each window, which offer passive shading and channel rainwater away from the windows.

The hotel design was first revealed on Archinect in February 2021 and received mostly skeptical responses from our readers.

Image by Studio Gang

The interior sees windows change in size to reflect their public or private use, with windows up to 30 feet high at the building’s base to frame the lobby and amenity spaces. Within the hotel guest rooms, the window base becomes a seat and desk fixture facing toward views of the city or mountains. ...

Want to become a treehouse designer? There’s a job for that

2022-04-05T13:04:00-04:00

As the industry-leading job board for the architecture industry, Archinect Jobs publishes up to 200 new opportunities every week, covering a wide variety of locations, roles, descriptions, and experience requirements. The broad mixture of opportunities available on Archinect Jobs represents the endless possibilities afforded by an architectural background; a point also evident through our ongoing Working Out Of The Box series.

This variety of possibilities has recently been reinforced by Colorado-based Treecraft Design-Build, who are currently seeking a full-time “Treehouse Designer / Project Manager” to join their team. From their office in Fort Collins, CO, Treecraft Design-Build specialize in the design and construction of highly crafted custom treehouses, playgrounds, and small-scale unique structures, primarily in Colorado. Projects can range from small playhouses to fully livable treehouses.

Previously on Archinect: Microsoft offers treehouses to connect their employees ba...

CU Denver exhibit honors John R. Henderson, Colorado's first licensed Black architect

2022-03-11T17:21:00-05:00

February 17 was a night of many firsts for the College of Architecture and Planning, Dean Nan Ellin said. For the first time in two years, students, faculty, and staff gathered in-person for the grand opening of CAP’s latest exhibition at its second floor gallery in the CU Denver Building. Marking its first in-person gathering since the start of the pandemic, CAP is thrilled to showcase the life and work of John R. Henderson, Colorado’s first licensed Black architect.

The exhibit was curated by College of Architecture and Planning (CAP) Research Assistant Schawn Chi Ming Li and consisted of 300 drawings, audio recordings, and architectural models produced throughout Henderson’s life and career. Henderson, who passed away in 2018, was one of very few Black licensed architects in the U.S. in the late 1950s.

His body of work includes private homes and commercial projects across Denver, with clients and collaborators including Civil Rights figure Carlotta Walls LaNier and local architecture firms James Sudler Associates and Hornbein & White. The exhibition honoring Henderson’s life and work will be on display through March.

James Turrell’s first mountainous Skyspace experience will debut this summer in Colorado

2022-02-17T17:18:00-05:00

The Pikes Peak area’s rugged Front Range vista is about to get a stark new addition this summer in the form of a hikeable installation courtesy of the light artist James Turrell.

Turrell’s latest Skyspace has been given an updated opening date in June as part of the Green Box Arts Festival in the town of Green Mountain Falls ninety minutes south of Denver.

Aimed at attracting visitors interested in “rediscovering the importance of a tranquil unplugged existence,” the annual festival began as a week-long dance residency and has since blossomed into an educational resource with year-round programming for a community actively seeking to bolster cultural tourism with the infusion of a little blue-chip art.

Aerial view of Green Mountain Falls by Buffalo Media Group.

Turrell describes each space as a “specifically proportioned chamber with an aperture in the ceiling open to the sky,” and that Skyspaces “can be autonomous structures or integrated into existing architecture” with apertures t...

Air Force Academy chapel restoration hits a snag as construction issues abound

2021-11-30T12:33:00-05:00

The more than $150 million renovation of the Cadet Chapel at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs is going to take months — or perhaps more than a year, longer than originally expected; contractors are contending with more asbestos than they expected, as well as other unforeseen challenges.

The project began in 2019 and is now expected to be pushed back a yet-to-be-determined amount of time away from its original 2023 completion date owing to an unexpected amount of asbestos in addition to other “unforeseen” challenges. The long-overdue restoration is necessary to fix faulty caulking underneath its signature aluminum panels that was hastily installed in the original 1963 design from SOM’s Walter Netsch Jr., leading to water damage.

The entire structure is now encased in a temporary protective metal building. The caulking has been replaced several times over the years at considerable cost to the Academy.

“We had 32 miles of caulking on this building, which is kind of ridiculous when you start thinking about that,” AFA architect Duane Boyle told Colorado Public Radio. “I think it would compete as one of the most complicated and intensive historic preservation projects of all time.”

Colorado to add “nutrition labels” to show embodied carbon on construction materials

2021-10-20T15:05:00-04:00

Backers of the law say the labels, or “environmental product declarations,” will be another key factor in cutting greenhouse gas emissions in Colorado and worldwide. The clean energy think tank RMI says building emissions make up at least 39% of the global greenhouse total, and that the carbon created in producing the materials for those buildings is at least 25% of that.

via Carbon Leadership Forum

Michael Booth reports on Colorado House Bill 21-1303 aka "Buy Clean Colorado" passed earlier this year, which will require a carbon-use label aka "environmental product declarations" for materials used in public construction projects.

Colorado contractors sue Denver over alleged unconstitutional vaccine mandate

2021-10-06T17:10:00-04:00

Alleging that vaccine mandates for contractors are unconstitutional, the Colorado Contractors Association is suing the city of Denver for requiring workers on public contracts to get inoculated against COVID-19.

The Colorado Contractors Association, along with six other construction associations, believe the mandate violates the U.S. Constitution’s contracts clause because it substantially impairs their existing contract rights with the city. As reported by Construction Dive, the associations expect the city to fine companies up to $5,000 per day if they do not comply. The Colorado Contractors Association (CCA) argues that this is much stricter than President Joe Biden’s executive order that businesses with 100 or more employees must require vaccinations or have employees get regularly tested for COVID-19.

The CCA says its members aren’t anti-vaccine, but the city of Denver hasn’t given contractors enough time to comply because of the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy among construction workers. The CCA attributes this delay to the fact that the construction industry is largely composed of minority workers who are more reluctant to get vaccinated due to mistrust of the government.

...

Transportation technology company Swisspod to build hyperloop testing facility in Colorado

2021-09-15T19:35:00-04:00

Swiss-American transportation technology company Swisspod has announced the development and construction of a new hyperloop testing facility in Pueblo, Colorado. This initiative follows Swisspod’s construction of Europe’s first operational test track in July.

Swisspod has partnered with TTCI, a subsidiary of the Association of American Railroads (AAR), to create the company’s second test facility, which will be located at PuebloPlex, a 15,000-acre business and industry complex 15 miles from Pueblo. TTCI will provide engineering insight, operational and test plan support. As stated in TTCI’s press release, “This partnership advances Swisspod’s global expansion strategy, fueling its fast-paced growth in the key U.S. market, while augmenting significant research and testing capabilities.”

In April, TTCI announced its partnership with the Pueblo Economic Development Corporation (PEDCO) to develop a dedicated engineering and laboratory facility that would include research into hyperloop...

Electriflow taps advancements in soft robotics to create mechanisms that operate without traditional machine parts

2021-07-27T17:38:00-04:00

A team of designers and engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder’s ATLAS Institute have tapped into new advancements in the field of soft robotics to develop paper-thin, moveable mechanisms. The objects, dubbed “Electriflow”, which don’t require motors or other traditional machinery parts to function, have been presented at the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2021 Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) conference.

The researchers’ early creations include origami cranes that can bend their necks, moving flower petals, and fluttering insects.

“Usually, books about butterflies are static,” said CU Boulder graduate student and team lead, Purnendu. “But could you have a butterfly flap its wings within a book? We’ve shown that it’s possible.”

Electriflow took inspiration from previously developed “artificial muscles” by Christopher Keplinger at CU Boulder. His work is now available commercially through a company called Artimus Robotics. Keplinger employed a technology called h...

Studio Gang envisions a tree-inspired mixed-use project to add to Denver's skyline

2021-02-01T17:18:00-05:00

Inspired by the area's natural landscapes and environment, Studio Gang reveals the latest visuals for their most recent mix-used project Populus. Located in Denver, along the city's historic Civic Center Park, the project pulls reference from the aspen tree by using its highly recognizable "eye-shaped" marked bark to design its facade, distinct building color, and vertical scalloped exterior.

Aspen Trees. Image © Sue Reynolds (2012) via Flickr Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Visuals courtesy of Studio Gang

The 13 stories tall building will house forty micro-apartments as well as 250 hotel rooms. Studio Gang collaborated with Denver-based developer Urban Villages. With the aspen tree as its visual muse, it's hard not to see the resemblance. According to the studio, the project's name "Populus" was also pulled from the scientific classification of the aspen tree populus tremuloides.

View more project images below.

Visuals courtesy of Studio Gang

Concept diagram. Visual courtesy of Studio...

Accessibility at the new U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Museum reviewed

2020-10-26T14:44:00-04:00

The museum’s other notable attribute is its high level of accessibility. The architects borrowed inspiration from the Guggenheim Museum, which invites visitors to take an elevator to the top floor and then descend along ramps as they explore galleries. There are no steps up or down, and the goal is to eliminate any differences in the museum experience among people with varying physical abilities.

For the NYT, Ray Mark Rinaldi reviews the DS+R-designed United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum with a special focus on accessibility. "Accommodations are the norm," Rinaldi writes. "Ramps are low-grade and extra wide to fit two wheelchairs at the same time. Sign language interpreters appear in the corner of videos. Cane guards double as benches in the building’s spacious atrium."

Previously on Archinect: Twisting forms and ramped galleries define DS+R's US Olympics and Paralympics Museum in Colorado

The 60,000-square-foot museum complex in Colorado Springs, Colorado opened to the public in July.

Twisting forms and ramped galleries define DS+R's US Olympics and Paralympics Museum in Colorado

2020-07-28T16:31:00-04:00

A design and construction team led by New York City-based architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro has completed work on the United States Olympic and Paralympic Museum (USOPM) in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The 60,000-square-foot museum complex is designed with accessibility at its forefront due to its relationship to the United States Paralympic organization, and is organized as a four-lobed gallery complex that descends from the top floor down via a continuous ramp configuration.

Top: View of the building's entry terrace. Bottom: Overall view of the museum.

Regarding the accessibility elements of the design, the architects write that "from the earliest stages of design, the team consulted a committee of Paralympic athletes and persons with disabilities to ensure that, from entrance to exit, all visitors with or without disabilities could tour the USOPM facility together and share a common path."

The museum is located next to a major park that will be accessible to the site via a fort...

Tiny homes take off in Denver, with one caveat

2019-10-11T14:30:00-04:00

The Denver City Council voted Monday night to approve changes to the city’s zoning code to help welcome temporary tiny home villages hoping to use vacant land to help address homelessness...The city voted to approve the Beloved Community Village. According to the release, it was Denver’s first temporary tiny home village and is a successful pilot of using tiny homes to help vulnerable or marginalized residents aiming to find permanent homes.

"In residential zone districts, these villages must be located on the grounds of a public, civic or institutional use, such as a school, church or community center," Fox reports. The tiny home villages will be able to remain in these locations temporarily for up to four years, it is a creative approach to the problem of homelessness in major cities. Based on the outcome it will be interesting to see if more will follow.

Homesteading in America

2019-07-16T19:40:00-04:00

It’s also not hard to picture oneself as a homesteader. The land is not free but it is cheap—some of the cheapest in the United States. In many respects, a person could live here in this vast, empty space like the pioneers did on the Great Plains—except you’d have a truck instead of a mule, and some solar panels, possibly even a cell-phone signal. And legal weed.

"The San Luis Valley, with its cheap land, was a sort of magnet for these off-gridders," writes Ted Conover in his fascinating long read for Harper's Magazine about homesteaders on the margins of America. "There were a few hundred of them in total. Nationwide there are probably several thousand people living off the grid. No authoritative numbers exist, but off-grid life seems to be growing, often in states with cheap land (Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri), sunshine and cheap land (Nevada, Arizona, Texas), and/or frontier appeal (Alaska, Idaho)."

HSR could come to Colorado's Front Range

2019-06-05T17:33:00-04:00

Grauberger says they've already ruled out light rail because it would be too slow to travel the 173-mile route. "We need higher speeds to be competitive with the interstate system," he says.

Regional governments in Colorado are studying ways for boosting the Front Range Urban Corridor region's interconnectivity. Officials expect the regional population to grow by 1.7 million inhabitants over the next 25 years and are looking to position that future growth to take advantage of forthcoming non-automobile-dependent transportation infrastructure.

Project director Randy Grauberger tells KDVR, "All of those people aren't going to want to be traveling on I-25 at that point, so this will give them options."

A 100-mile corridor between Fort Collins, Denver, and Pueblo, Colorado could see a new high-speed rail line take shape over the next five years, according to officials. Acquiring the appropriate right-of-way is a key concern, as is the price tag. A cost estimate for the proposal has not been released, though Colorado officials will be working through the summer to fine tune their ideas.

Looking for an architecture job in Colorado? Here are 7 great opportunities now open for applications

2019-04-03T13:58:00-04:00

Beyond the beautiful landscapes Colorado has to offer, the state is filled with fantastic architecture. From the Aspen Art Museum to the Denver Public Library the state is a perfect blend of nature and the built environment. Home to amazing sites Colorado has also been ranked as one of the best places to work. For this week's weekly job round-up Archinect is featuring six firms based in Denver, Boulder, and Fort Collins, Colorado looking to expand their team.

Cunningham Group Architecture, Inc. seeks a Project Architect
Location: Denver, CO
Candidates should have ten or more years of experience with a focus on senior living or multifamily high-rise project types for our Urban Living Studio. The ideal candidate will integrate design, technical, and management disciplines, to deliver a fully coordinated set of drawings through a collaborative team-based process.

Tres Birds Workshop seeks...

Bohlin Cywinski Jackson designs new CoorsTek science and engineering center at Colorado School of Mines

2019-01-30T11:33:00-05:00

Widely known for designing many of Apple's iconic retail stores, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson teamed up with Denver-based Anderson Mason Dale Architects to design the CoorsTek Center for Applied Science and Engineering, a new 95,000 square-foot education and research facility that just opened at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado.

The $50 million four-story campus building houses the College of Applied Science and Engineering and Department of Physics, and will support partnerships among the college's three other departments and two interdisciplinary science programs. The new building also marks a milestone in a multi-generational partnership between Mines, the Coors family, and CoorsTek, a leading technical ceramics manufacturer.

Photo: Nic Lehoux.

Photo: Ron Pollard.

The Center's design draws from the site's historic context and the surrounding Front Range landscape. Its metal and glass facade is vertically punctuated by service cores clad in dark masonry...

"The building is truly in service to the people that work there"

2017-11-19T16:57:00-05:00

the building has three sides that are facing active streets...has quite a bit smaller scale than its neighbors...really sets a precedent for the future, for buildings that are carefully modulated to fit into the Boulder scale

Natthan Heffel speaks with David Tryba (of Tryba Architects) about their new design for the Google Boulder Campus. He highlights the firm's collaborative approach to designing a cutting-edge, flexible work environment.

They also talk about the firm's Denver Union Station renovation and larger role, in filling Denver's "empty canvas" over the last two decades, of the cities urban revitalization.

The New York Times picks Denver for Amazon's new headquarters

2017-09-11T15:26:00-04:00

Amazon has set off a scrum among cities that are hoping to land the company’s second headquarters — with the winner getting the prize of a $5 billion investment and 50,000 new jobs over the next two decades. (Denver's) lifestyle and affordability, coupled with the supply of tech talent from nearby universities, has already helped build a thriving start-up scene in Denver and Boulder, 40 minutes away.

The New York Times suggests Denver for Amazon new headquarters as it offers a large and growing labour pool, access to universities, high quality of life and enough space to build eight million square feet of office space. If Amazon was to follow the New York Times advice it could drastically change the face of Denver in the next years.

Elevate your senses at the Church of Cannabis, a renovated 113-year-old Denver church

2017-06-28T15:55:00-04:00

A 113-year old church in Denver, Colorado recently reopened after a renovation [as the] new home and place of worship for the Elevation Ministries of the International Church of Cannabis (ICOC), better known as the Church of Cannabis [...] you must become a member in order to gain access at other times and enjoy the complete experience. Nevertheless, member or not, visiting the church in sober condition is quite the adventure.

Painted with mythological creatures in a hallucinating rainbow of colors, the International Church of Cannabis is a non-profit religious group whose beliefs are founded on “Elevationism”, which welcomes “adults everywhere who are looking to create the best version of themselves by way of the sacred plant” — at least from Thursday-Sunday from 1-3 p.m. during public access.Elevationism”, which welcomes “adults everywhere who are looking to create the best version of themselves by way of the sacred plant” — at least from Thursday-Sunday from 1-3 p.m. during public access.

Christo abandons $15 million U.S.-based river project as protest against "landlord" Trump

2017-01-31T12:46:00-05:00

Christo's proposed silver-fabric-panel draped "Over the River" project has been in the making for about 25 years, after he started hunting for a natural host site in 1992 and then gradually garnered the neccessary official approvals and permits over the following decades for a 42-mile stretch along the Colorado River. However, the artist is abandoning the $15 million dollar project as a protest against President Trump, explaining that “The federal government is our landlord. They own the land. And I can’t do a project that benefits this landlord.” Although it's doubtful that the official landlord would appreciate the nuance and splendor of Christo's work, the people of Colorado would have undoubtedly benefitted economically from tourists.

Colorado governor proposes building affordable housing from marijuana tax revenue, mainly to address issues from marijuana legalization

2016-12-19T15:27:00-05:00

A proposal by Gov. John Hickenlooper to direct marijuana revenue toward building affordable housing and curbing homelessness offers a glimpse into the potential the new revenue can have on public services and projects...To the chagrin of pro-marijuana activists, Hickenlooper believes there is a correlation between homelessness, a need for affordable housing and substance abuse, including impacts from marijuana legalization.

Gov. Hickenlooper requested $18.3 million ($16.3 million from marijuana taxes and $2.0 million from the General Fund) toward affordable housing as part of his FY 2017-18 State budget this past November. The Gazette reports that Hickenlooper and his administration “are hesitant to acknowledge that cannabis dollars can have a positive impact on expanding state programs” and that they are currently “adamant that the dollars should be spent only on issues related to marijuana.”

Why it just isn't possible to build affordable housing in the current U.S. housing market

2016-07-26T13:03:00-04:00

Nudge down the design and development fees, pay the construction workers less, drop the interest rate as low as it will go, spend nothing on maintenance, even assume that someone gave the land for free — and the buildings still aren't feasible. A 50-unit apartment is still millions short. "Even if you try to tweak a lot," Poethig says, "for people of extremely low incomes, there’s just going to be this gap to the cost of development and production of housing."

A very enlightening (and depressing, but with tentative solutions!) interactive from the Urban Institute uses data from Denver, Colorado's housing market to show how building affordable housing just doesn't "pencil out"—meaning, as Emily Badger puts it for the Washington Post, "The costs of building them outstrip what the people who may live in them could afford to pay in rent."

As Badger explains it, this is mostly due to an imbalance between public and private involvement in the affordable housing system. It isn't profitable for developers to make affordable units, because the tenants just can't pay enough, but public subsidies often can't bridge the gap either. She sums it up:

To the extent that government should step in when the private market can't, affordable housing is a prime example. The larger problem, though, is that we hardly devote the kind of public resources to this market failure that it demands.

Denver was chosen because "It doesn't have a white-hot housing market like...