The 18th & Boulder Townhouse development is situated in Denver’s LoHi neighborhood. Small two-story homes share the same block, adjacent to and in the shadow of five-story structures. This project resides on a corner lot and shares street frontage with two such structures, including an apartment building to the west and a single-family residence to the south. The context presents a special challenge to new development, requiring both a macro and micro scaled design response.

Meridian 105’s design includes three side-by-side private townhouse residences in a single building structure.  Each home is three stories with a fourth story exterior rooftop deck.  The building responds to its larger neighbor to the west with a single formal massing expression along that street front, heavy in its materiality and unbroken geometry.  The façade makes a finer expression in the building material, where brick textures add interest and bridge the design to scale.  As the building

turns the corner its volumes begin to disseminate with smaller one and two story void spaces containing exterior decks.  These exterior spaces draw the residents out, presenting a more active use to that façade.   

One of the early project goals was to enrich the pedestrian experience around the base of the building through the expression of building materials.  Brick veneer, wood siding, and metal screening convey a hand-made quality of work and are acknowledged to be imperfect in their appearance, adding a dimension of unpredictability to each building façade.   Shou Sugi Ban siding applied in a lapped installation offers interest in its heavily shadowed look and textured surface.  The resulting sheen of this treatment transforms through the day with the changing light.  Brick is installed in unconventional bonding patterns and surface orientations.