In the 1880s Denver was full of new arrivals, and the developers of the time were ready with a new type of house: the Terrace home. These multi-family buildings strung together two, three, or more small houses in a row, taking advantage of zoning rules that allowed multi-family buildings to cover almost the entire lot.
As the starter home of the day Terraces found buyers quickly, and over the years they’ve remained popular as an affordable way to own a home in one of Denver’s historic neighborhoods. Typically owners of Terraces move on to larger houses as their needs change, but the owners of this Terrace home in Denver’s Whittier neighborhood wanted to explore the options for staying in the neighborhood by expanding their home.
Along with wanting to add primary bedroom suite, the owners wanted to address access to the basement. The existing stairs had more in common with a ladder, and when the water heater had to be replaced the stairs needed to be dismantled temporarily to get the old one out and the new one in.
Despite having to fit within the property lines of the existing unit and height restrictions of the lot, there was room for a new stair tower in the rear connecting the basement, back yard, main level, and a new second story.
With neighbors to the north and south, along with the possibility that the adjacent unit might add their own second story some day, it made sense to make the side walls of the addition opaque with no windows and locate all of the windows to the east and west.
The addition complements the original design while at the same time being clearly of its own time. The walls arc into the roof, with the entire exterior of the addition clad in copper panels that will weather to a dark bronze and green patina.
From the street the addition makes its presence known without overwhelming the existing structure, and allows this piece of Denver’s historic urban fabric to remain a vital part of the city for generations to come.