Urban Ventures

Aria Cohousing Community featured in AARP Magazine

Aria Cohousing was featured in this month’s AARP Magazine in collaboration with the National Building Museum.  The edition is called Making Room: Housing for a Changing America.  It’s featured the section, Part Two, Creative Solutions.  Aria is a multi-generational cohousing community in east Denver. Studio PBA and developer, Urban Ventures designed this project from an existing convent, Sisters of St. Francis.

Aria Cohousing Community Dedication Event

Denver, CO – This past weekend in the Chaffee Park neighborhood of Denver, the Aria Cohousing community celebrated its Rededication of the motherhouse, an event marking the transformation from former convent to a recently renovated 28-unit cohousing development.  City officials, members of the Urban Ventures development team, Marycrest Convent Sisters of St. Francis, and residents of the cohousing community gathered to officially transition the building from a former convent belonging to the Sisters to the current-day residents.  The ceremony included several speakers and a ribbon joining ceremony in which residents and Sisters joined together to rededicate the home. 

Aria Cohousing is a multifamily concept which actively engages homeowners in a more communal lifestyle. This 28-unit project is a renovation of the former Marycrest Convent, and forms the heart of a 17.5-acre redevelopment on the former convent site in the Chaffee Park neighborhood of northwest Denver. The new Aria neighborhood, when fully completed, will be a mixed-income, mixed use community with an emphasis on sustainability, urban agriculture and cultivating a collaborative neighborhood spirit. Studio PBA was responsible for the renovation of the convent units.  

For more information on this project: http://www.ariadenver.com/

Aria Cohousing Article in Denver Infill

Photo courtesy of DenverInfill.com

Photo courtesy of DenverInfill.com

"As American cities continue an upward trajectory toward reinvestment—one catalyzed by a growing population of people favoring concentration over sprawl—we are faced with the prospect of knowing thy neighbor a little better."  Camron Bridgford, one of Denver Infill's bloggers begins.  He starts by explaining how the benefits and attributes that make the cohousing community style more and more popular.  He then gives a great history of the structure, formally owned by Sisters of the Order of St. Francis.

You can find the entry here: https://denverinfill.com/blog/2017/10/aria-denver-update-2.html

There are still two units available for purchase: http://www.ariadenver.com/living-spaces/co-housing/

Construction Update: Aria Cohousing Community

Construction on Aria Cohousing is coming along in the Chaffee Park neighborhood of Denver, thanks to the warm and mild winter we've been experiencing -- you can see the former Maycrest Convent is starting too look more like more like the final product that will soon house 28 units with a shared community dining areas and meeting space.  This transit oriented development is due to be completed in the next few months.

Groundbreaking: Aria Bluegrass Bash

 
 

This past Saturday we celebrated the groundbreaking of Aria Cohousing, which is undertaking a full adaptive reuse of the convent building formerly occupied by the Sisters of St. Francis (ariacohousing.com).  Aria is located in Chaffee Park between Federal Boulevard and 52nd Street. Two of PBA’s team members, Matt Baron and Lucas Quisenberry, attended with their families and enjoyed an afternoon of live bluegrass music, bouncy castles, balloon animals and gourmet food trucks.

The groundbreaking was hosted by local developer Urban Ventures (urbanventuresllc.com). Also attending were team members from Taylor-Kohrs, the general contractor, current and former council members Rafael Espinoza, Paula Sandoval and Rick Garcia, and Sister Patty of the Sisters of St. Francis.  Many future residents of the Aria community were also there to celebrate.  
This project is expected to be completed in the first quarter 2017.  For more information on this project, check out our website here!

 

The Denver Post: "Aria Cohousing development in NW Denver breaks ground"