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Old Meets New: Archway Opens 154 Affordable Apartments At Mosaic Community Campus

By Cara DeGette
Editor, GPHN

Three years after Johnson & Wales students turned off the lights in their dormitories for the last time, the newest residents of the historical campus in southeast Park Hill are moving in to now-renovated apartments.

Archway Communities, whose mission is to provide access to affordable housing, food security and supportive social services, has converted four of the former dorms on campus into 1, 2 and 3-bedroom apartments. 

“Two of the buildings … were part of the original architecture of Colorado Women’s College, and the historical aspects are gorgeous,” says Georgeanne Barrett, Archway director of communications and philanthropy. 

“We have not changed the facades at all, and we have not changed any of the historical elements inside the buildings at all. So some of the units have beautiful stained glass windows, wooden archways and amazing brick walls, and it’s really cool.”

In all, the community will house 154 families. People were scheduled to begin moving in by the end of August.  

The apartments are designed for  people whose incomes are between 30 and 60 percent below the Area Median Income (AMI). In Denver, that translates on the low end (30 percent) from a single person earning $27,390, to a family of five earning $42,270. On the high end (60 percent) are individuals earning $54,780, or a family of five earning $84,540.

The new apartments are coming online as Denver is in the midst of a severe affordable housing crunch. 

For potential new tenants, Barrett says, the organization prioritized reaching out to people already living or staying close by in Park Hill, East Colfax and other nearby neighborhoods. All of the apartments slated for people living between 30-50 percent have been rented; the remaining available apartments are in the 60 percent AMI range, she said. 

Tenants include many people who are working minimum-wage and low-wage jobs, and who are just getting by. On the higher end of the scale, they may include teachers, postal workers, and others who struggle to pay the high cost of Denver’s market rate housing . Some have been living with family or friends, and possibly shelters — or aren’t earning enough to continue to pay market rate prices. Archway, Barrett says, has not received any pushback or complaints from people living in the surrounding neighborhood — which is not always the case when an affordable project moves in. 

“Denver’s rising housing costs is something that people are really aware about,” she says. “I feel like people realize and understand. Teachers shouldn’t have to commute hours and hours to get to where they work.”

The Archway apartments are one segment of the Urban Land Conservancy’s vision for what is now called the Mosaic Community Campus. The 25-acre campus originally opened as the Colorado Women’s College and was later home to the University of Denver Law School. Johnson & Wales, a Rhode Island-based private college, opened its Denver campus in 2000 and closed in 2021, citing declining enrollment and the need to consolidate. 

In addition to Archway, the campus is now home to St. Elizabeth’s School, the Denver School of the Arts and the Kitchen Network, a shared kitchen that incubates specialty food businesses. 

Two other dormitories — Triangolo Hall and Gaebe Hall — were purchased in 2021 by the Denver Housing Authority, also slated for affordable housing. However those two buildings — on the south side of campus — have since sat empty. A plan, unveiled last year, to use those dorms for temporary housing for Venezuelan newcomers, has since been tabled, according to Urban Land Conservancy Chief Operating Officer Aaron Martinez. 

The four dorms that Archway Communities purchased are on the north side of campus — closest to Montview Boulevard and Quebec Street. Archway spent two years renovating the buildings, with the assistance of low-income housing credits and historic tax credits.

“Part of the original partnership with Archway and the Urban Land Conservancy was to maintain the history and culture and character of the campus,” says Barrett. “That definitely was important to us, but also from a preservation aspect it made it more cost effective and economic as an organization to be able to do an adaptive reuse of the inside and not have to touch the outside. 

“So it was both for practical and historic reasons that we didn’t really want to touch the exterior.”

However, Archway did opt to change the names of their four buildings — all of them to reflect an official Colorado symbol. Here’s the breakdown:

• Founders Hall will now be Bighorn (as in Bighorn sheep, the state animal)

• Presidents Hall is now Lark (named after the state bird, the Lark Bunting)

• Johnson Hall has been renamed Yule (named after the state rock, Yule marble)

• Wales Hall is now Spruce (in honor of the state tree, the Blue Spruce)

In addition to a property manager, Archway provides on-site coordinators to help residents navigate everything from food needs to accessing public benefits. A community garden will be planted in what used to be the volleyball court; the former campus bookstore will be the new community meeting space. 

Archway is planning a grand opening and community party on campus on Thursday, Oct. 24, with building tours beginning at 3 p.m. Everyone is welcome.