Urban Historic Preservation Planning and Development

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Jonathan Rose Companies’ Historic Preservation Planning and Development work brings together the economic, social and environmental dimensions of historic preservation to generate solutions that are successful for owners, communities, and cities. 

Key is the firm’s ability to integrate solutions across many scales ranging from the smallest detail to financing and public policy.  The firm has long been a leader of innovative green historic preservation policy and planning practices.


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THE DENVER DRY GOODS BUILDING
MAITRI CENTER AND ISSAN HOUSE
In 1992, the company took on the challenge of Denver’s declining downtown. The most visible symbol of the decline was the empty full block, the Denver Dry Goods department store sat at the city’s 100-year old downtown corner.  Four development teams had failed to develop a viable redevelopment strategy for the building.  Rose’s solution planned and executed the nation’s first large-scale, mixed-use, mixed-income historic preservation project transforming downtown Denver’s empty historic Denver Dry Goods Building into a thriving new center.  Rose’s development program enhanced the building’s historic character in ways that reflected the future of the city.  The basement, ground and second floors were converted into modern big box retail stores, drawing shoppers back to the downtown.   The third floor was converted into offices and the fourth, fifth and sixth into both affordable rental lofts and for-sale market rate condos.  This was the first project in the nation to combine historic preservation with green building strategies.  Winning the American Institute of Architect’s first green award for historic preservation, the project thrived by restoring connections to the pedestrian and transit life in the city and its vibrant mix of uses.  Rose and the Denver Urban Renewal Authority shared its successful economic, social and environmental model with a larger planning and development planning community and within three years, 22 other historic preservation projects were developed in the area surrounding the building, transforming downtown Denver. 

The building received that National Trust for Historic Preservation’s honor award and many other awards.

 

 

 In 1996, the firm developed the first green affordable housing historic rehabilitation project in the country to house low-income people with AIDS. Converting an old monastery into a mix of uses including a health care center, offices and housing, the Maitri Isaan House provided the first model of non-toxic healthy residences for immune deficient people in an historic structure.
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BURNHAM BUILDING
HIGHLANDS' GARDEN VILLAGE
In 1998, the firm advanced strategies for the affordable greening of historic properties with the Burnham Building, which became an early model for Enterprise Community Partners’ national green communities program (www.greencommunitiesonline.org).

 

 In 2000, the firm expanded these activities to the neighborhood scale, creating the first mixed-used, mixed-income green historic preservation neighborhood in Denver, Colorado converting the old Elitch Amusement Park into Highlands’ Garden Village.  Today, Highlands’ Garden Village boasts the highest home appreciation price in Denver, and many of the stores in its village center are number one performers for their owners.  Highlands’ Garden Village has been widely featured as a model for urban historic preservation on PBS Television, Wall Street Journal, New York Times and others.

 
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THE JOSEPH VANCE AND STERLING BUILDINGS


In 2006, the firm redeveloped the historic Vance Building in Seattle, Washington, creating an office and retail model for the greening of historic buildings. Through the green historic repositioning of the building, the firm increased the Vance Building’s net operating income by 60% and raised its occupancy from 70% to 95%. The Vance restoration has been featured as a chapter in the Urban Land Institute’s book, Retrofitting Office Buildings to be Green and Energy Efficient.

 In 2009, the firm’s participation with The National Trust for Historic Preservation created the first national guidelines for green historic preservation.

In 2010, the firm proposed a national green affordable housing financing strategy for existing buildings. After its successful passage by Congress, the firm developed the first model of the green affordable historic preservation program on 135th Street in Harlem. This project has been celebrated by the White House and has hosted many international visitors who have studied its best practices.