Ware Malcomb, an award-winning international design firm, announced construction has begun on a new multifamily residential project located in Colorado Springs. Ware Malcomb’s Denver and Chicago offices are providing architecture and civil engineering services for the 163-unit project, situated on 7.26 acres at the intersection of Barnes Rd. and Rio Vista St., northeast of the city’s downtown area in the Village Seven neighborhood.
The project is being developed and constructed by The Garrett Companies, a full-service multifamily development, construction, and property management team with projects in 22 states. Ware Malcomb and The Garrett Companies are partnering on several multifamily development projects across the nation.
The garden-style project includes four four-story buildings. The unit mix is 41% one-bedrooms, 41% two-bedrooms and 18% three-bedrooms. Every unit will have a full-sized washer-dryer. Amenities include a resort-style pool and spa with cabanas, fitness center, dog park, clubhouse with lounge, billiards and arcade games, and co-working and private office spaces.
“Like most of the topography in the region surrounding this project, the site has approximately 85 feet of elevation change, which presented both challenges and opportunities,” said Charles Swanson, practice leader, director, multifamily. “Our civil team and architecture group collaborated closely on a design that achieves the client’s desired density, aesthetic appeal, and maximizes views, all while keeping site development costs manageable.”
In the final design for the project, Ware Malcomb took an interdisciplinary approach that avoided the typical “blank slate” method seen in nearby developments, which often rely on expensive retaining walls and flattened sites. Instead, the firm’s civil engineering, design, and site planning teams collaborated closely, exploring multiple site and building configurations to find the best solutions for grading, access points, drive slopes, parking layout, accessible pathways, stormwater management, fire access, and amenity placement.
Inspired by ‘Mountain Lodge’ architecture, the community’s design team set out to achieve a strong presence and character for the leasing office, in part to mitigate its distance from the primary vehicular entrance. Concurrently, the team incorporated a ‘grand porch’ feature in the design to serve both as an architectural focal point from the corner of the two streets and provide residents exceptional views of the surrounding landscape as part of an array of community amenities.
For six consecutive years, Ware Malcomb has been ranked as the #1 Industrial Sector Architecture Firm by Building Design + Construction Magazine. The firm is also ranked among the top 10 Architecture/Engineering firms in Engineering News-Record’s Top 500 Design Firms and the Top 30 Interior Design Firms in Interior Design magazine’s Top 100 Giants.
