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Teams unveil ideas for Burlingame

Janet Urquhart
Deb Fenton, left, with Fenton Construction and Meggan Humphrey, with Charles Cunniffe Architects, look over their team's proposal for the Burlingame Ranch housing project Wednesday at the library. Aspen Times photo/Mark Fox.
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Gardens, parks, ranch-style buildings and barnlike community centers are among the ideas that pop up repeatedly among five proposed designs for Aspen’s Burlingame Ranch affordable housing.Five teams that are competing to design and build the controversial project unveiled their ideas Wednesday on the mezzanine level of the Pitkin County Library. Each team has provided a three-dimensional model of its proposal, along with several large presentation boards that depict the layout of the housing, architectural renderings, floor plans, details on construction materials, transit components and more.The public is invited to view the designs and offer input on comment forms. The displays will remain at the library until sometime on Monday, when they will be moved over to City Hall for a marathon session of presentations by the design teams to the City Council on Tuesday. Then, the designs will return to the library for public viewing in advance of the council’s Oct. 25 meeting, when it is expected to select a winner from among the proposals.

The council envisions up to 330 homes at the Burlingame site, located north of the Maroon Creek Club, including roughly 110 in the first phase. However, council members indicated they’d accept fewer units to facilitate a better project. They called for creativity, livability and environmentally friendly design, and hinted that a “ranch vernacular” style would be appropriate.”‘Ranch vernacular’ is such a funny term. I don’t think any of them look alike,” said Michelle Bonfils, city project manager. “They’re all very different interpretations, which is really exciting.”The proposals ranged from a total unit count of 236 on the low end, including lots to be sold to buyers, to 289 on the high end.

The team led by Fenton Construction of Aspen was the only to offer cost projections for the project as part of its display. A net subsidy of $1.79 million is projected for the first phase of 86 homes, including 12 lots. After all three phases are constructed, the estimated subsidy drops to $637,013 for 225 homes and 22 lots.The Fenton design calls the project Harmony Ranch; the others appear to be sticking with Burlingame Ranch.All of the designs propose various building styles around a main loop of the site, along with some interior streets.



Some feature a soccer field or community green; one suggests housing clustered around a number of smaller pocket parks. Day-care centers, recycling centers, community gardens, post office/community centers, a chapel, trails and “live/work” buildings are featured among the proposals. One proposes a community plant nursery; another has an orchard. One has a windmill.The lead developers, in addition to Fenton, are: Bald Mountain Development-Burlingame LLC of Old Snowmass, headed by David Parker and Scott Writer; Amako Parkhill-Ivins Design/Build Team of Golden, Colo.; Shaw-Poss Architecture and Planning-DHM Design of Aspen; and Jonathan Rose Companies LLC of Denver.Janet Urquhart’s e-mail address is janet@aspentimes.com

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