Housing
Viña Senior Apartments
Client
Columbia Ventures
Phase
Design
Location
Elyria-Swansea
Role
Landscape Architect
Supporting Team
Shopworks Architecture - Architect
CRAFT - Civil Engineer
Overview
Globeville and Elyria-Swansea (referred to as GES) is one of Denver’s most richly diverse neighborhoods. Immigrant communities have long made this area their home — Eastern Europeans came in the late 1800s to work in the smelting and meatpacking industries, and when their descendants moved on, a new generation of Latin American immigrants built a resilient and culturally-distinct community unlike any other in Denver.
This 152-unit affordable senior housing development, designed in collaboration with Shopworks Architecture, looks to celebrate the neighborhood’s unique blend of culture and history while restoring a place of connection for a community heavily impacted by displacement and extraction. The architecture references the textures and colors of papel picado (the traditional Mexican folk art of intricate designs cut into colorful tissue paper) as well as the tempering gradient of the metalworking industry. The 6-story building wraps around a raised amenity deck that seeks to offer a sense of natural respite and social connection for residents.
Working closely with Shopworks’ Dignified Design team, Flow developed a program for the amenity deck tailored to the building’s residents and staff. Key elements include raised vegetable gardening, a vertical herb garden, an outdoor kitchen & dining area, an indoor-outdoor fireplace, and a variety of seating and gathering spaces.
The building is also home to a senior community center on the ground level, creating space for greater community connection for residents and their families. With this amenity in mind, the primary entry of the apartments is designed intentionally as a “front porch” to welcome in visitors to the community center and residents of the building with terracotta planter pots, rocking chairs and bench seating. Through intimate opportunities for connection and a continuous thread of nature Vina Senior strives to create a beautiful home that pays respect to the community’s elders and their interconnected histories.
