The strip of West Colfax Avenue slicing through the neighborhood that shares its name is urban archeology writ large. Used auto dealerships. Mid-century motels converted to housing. Mexican restaurants. A ramen joint. Little Man Ice Cream Factory. A McDonald’s. Depending on the hour, you can score a slice of pizza, a hot pastrami sandwich, a […]

Settled by Jewish immigrants in the 1880s and home to Denver’s first public housing project, this strip of a neighborhood—one of the poorest in the state—is on the precipice of enormous change. Oddly named Sun Valley given its semi-industrial location and past, this narrow enclave bounded by Federal Boulevard on the West, the Platte River […]

Love midcentury modern (MCM) architecture? Then tour the bumper crop of mid-mods in the west metro Applewood subdivisions. Located between 38th and Colfax Avenues north to south and from Kipling Street on the east up the slopes of South Table Mountain to the west, Applewood is for the prolific orchard founded by Myron Bunger. Because […]

Denver’s Chaffee Park neighborhood enjoys approval from the city council that allows accessory dwelling units (ADUs). Increasing the number of ADUs (aka carriage houses, casitas, granny flats or in-law suites) has the potential to add much-needed and more affordable housing to Denver’s inventory. (Denver City Council allows ADUs in the Sloan’s Lake and the West […]

Whether you came from Nebraska, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, New York or even Wheat Ridge, if you came to Denver in your 20’s, chances are you logged time in a Capitol Hill apartment. (Want to date yourself? Brag about $250 one-bedrooms.) If you never did laundry at Smiley’s Laundromat or horked down a burrito at the Satire […]

A restaurant housed in a former mortuary. A 28-foot-tall-cream-can ice-cream store. A graceful bridge arching from Central to Platte Street. A food hall with seven shipping-containers, restaurants and jaw-dropping city views. What’s not to like? Lower Highland, or the hipper, abbreviated LoHi, is as an uber-trendy destination and jumping-off point between Denver’s downtown core and […]

It would be romantic to think that one of Denver’s most distinctive neighborhoods got its name from a shattered love affair in the Scottish Highlands. But the truth is more prosaic. George W. Olinger, a scion of the Olinger Mortuary family, saw a subdivision in Kansas City he liked with the same name, Bonnie Brae, […]

An artsy neighborhood in Colorado’s coolest cityWith all the major league sports teams, performing arts venues and the state government headquartered in Denver, it’s easy to dismiss Aurora, as well, Aurora. But if you stick to the Denver bubble west of Colorado Boulevard, you’re missing what is arguably Colorado’s coolest city. Shaped like a puzzle […]

A SMALL NEIGHBORHOOD WITH GRAND VIEWSYou’re steps away from a city park, a walk to Tennyson Street and a quick pedal to a college, library, recreation center and dog park. Whether you spell it Grand View or Grandview (there doesn’t seem to be any consensus), this small rectilinear subdivision in the larger Berkeley neighborhood between […]

If you’ve never heard of Athmar Park, you’re not alone. This under-the-radar, gem of a neighborhood rides the banks of the Platte River and buttresses a strip of South Federal Boulevard with some of the city’s best Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants—and used to offer smoking-hot home deals. The deals are largely gone, but the neighborhood […]