SEPTEMBER 2015 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \
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WORDS:
Clinton Waiz
J
ust beyond the edge of design where the practical need for a single structure is
eclipsed by the desire for something more lies a grander notion about the possi-
bilities of public and private development. Planners and architects use the term
placemaking to encapsulate a development process that values the creation of
community in equal measure with functional usefulness, aesthetic appeal and
commercial profitability. It is at this intersection of necessity and ambition that
a new 48-unit multifamily housing project known as Freight Residences takes shape.
It joins a collection of other versatile-purpose buildings to cap the creation of Taxi, a
unique live-work-play environment in the River North area along the Platte River just
beyond Denver’s central core.
Led by father-and-son team Mickey and Kyle Zeppelin, Zeppelin Development has
applied a visionary approach to the transformation of what was once a seemingly
barren industrial wasteland. Beginning in 2002 with the repurpose of a former Yellow
Cab headquarters and dispatch center as an energetic, flexible-use office environ-
ment, Taxi has been both a catalyst and model for industrial revitalization along
Brighton Boulevard.
“Zeppelin projects have always rejected a merchant-fee approach to development
and instead respond to common human experiences framed within the context
of urban reactivation,” remarked Chris Woldum, Zeppelin’s project manager for
Freight Residences. Marking the eighth phase of the Taxi development’s evolution,
Freight Residences presents a new living experience that veers away from “typ-
ical” rental-rate apartment buildings by targeting an underserved demographic
– young families with urban sensibilities.
“Since Kyle and his family live at the Taxi site, he has a true inside perspective
of what it means to live urban while raising a family. Freight Residences will
provides a rental option designed for its unique sense of place in the urban
fringe, rejecting strictly dense or suburban models of development,” continued
Woldum.
By contrasting Kyle’s experiences on the site with those of other urbanite
family lifestyles, the programmatic basis for Freight Residences is to reduce
the overall sense of unit homogeny common to most apartment buildings.
A key to accomplishing an individualized sense of place was to restrict the
need for primary corridors typical of a “dorm-after-college” type of apart-
ment building. Here only one-bedroom units on Floor Three are accessed
through such a hallway; everyone else has their own front door. Other
great benefits of this design approach are multisided access to daylight
and the opportunity for east-west cross-air circulation within most units.
Freight Residences’ one-, two-, and three-bedroom units are configured
over four-stories as a series of intertwined living spaces fit together by
Freight Residences presents urban
apartment living in a whole new light
