HOW MULTIFAMILY IS CHANGING

September 27, 2012 | 8:00 am ET Staff Reporter

Apartments are hot in Denver, but the landscape is changing. To find out why, we asked architectural firm KTGY director Nathan Sciarra— whose Legacy 22nd project design went into permit last week.

Nathan, here with daughter Savanna, tells us that units are getting smaller—from an average 850 SF to 700 SF—and developers are stressing walk-up ability, where frontage is closer to the street. He says the design changes in multifamily are being driven by cost awareness—smaller apartments are less expensive to develop—and Gen Y, who like places where they simply live and sleep, leaving the entertainment to the surrounding neighborhood. (Debauchery is best left on the sidewalk.) “This Gen Y demographic is used to a better lifestyle,” he says.

The latest projects in KTGY's pipeline include two apartment complexes in the downtown area: 175-unit Walnut Flats (pictured) at Walnut and 27th, developed by Simpson Housing; and the five-story, 212-unit Legacy 22nd at 21st and Lawrence streets, developed by Legacy Properties. For Legacy 22nd, KTGY is bringing the architecture to the forefront and the parking in the back—what we call the modern day mullet.