SEPTEMBER 2015 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \
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D
enver is growing, in size and in stature.
Since 2000 the city population has grown
by almost 20 percent. The state demographer
predicts a growth of 22 percent for the city
over a period of just 10 years (2010 to 2020), according
to Denver Urbanism (March 2015).
In 1950, only 30 percent of the world’s population
lived in cities. In 2014 it’s 54 percent. By 2050 it is antic-
ipated to be around two-thirds, according to the 2014
United Nations report: World Urbanization Prospects.
Emerging from the recession, we have seen the devel-
opment of a lot of urban, for-rent apartment projects to
address the demand from millennials and their empty
nester (boomer) parents to move to the urban core.
Average unit size for this product has consistently revolved around
the 800- to 900-square-foot mark. Rent prices now are around $2.50 per
square foot and above, which equates to amonthly rent of $2,000 ormore.
While this exceeds monthly mortgage payments for many single-fam-
ily homes, it is difficult for a large number of millennials, who are al-
ready burdened with school loans, to qualify for a home loan; or they
simply don’t want to get tied down to homeownership yet. There is also
Colorado’s ominous and much discussed construction defects law, argu-
ably preventing new for-sale product being introduced into the market
place.
With increased construction costs (up 4.12 percent just from2014 to 2015,
according to Rider Levett Bucknall USA’s Quarterly Construction Report -
1st Quarter 2015), the pressure in the marketplace continues to grow.
What can be done to address this?
Between 1973 and today, the average living space per person has almost
doubled, according to the 2014 U.S. Census Bureau Report, Characteristics
of New Housing.
How were our parents grandparents ever able to survive in such con-
strained living quarters?
The average home size increase is a consistent trend that exists in
all wealthy societies throughout the world, but Asia and Europe lag
the U.S. in square foot per capita. So rather than focus on continu-
ing the trend, innovative designers, architects and developers have
been asking themselves how to improve livability and quality over
quantity.
The automobile industry is starting to see some success in the “luxury
Tobias Strohe
Partner,
JG Johnson
Architects
