Regenerative Conservation began as a study of resilient cities in climate-stricken areas, focusing on the 40-block, 150-acre Arapahoe Square, a neighborhood adjacent to downtown Denver, Colorado.

This project applies a range of tools, including a conservation district, building code amendments, design guidelines, and pre-approved plans, to promote preservation through strategic development.

“This is a remarkably ambitious and well-considered student project that intelligently integrates architecture, building construction, urban design, historic preservation, and public policy applied to a specific site at once challenging in its specifics yet distressingly common to American cities in the third decade of the 21st Century,” explains Phillip Bess, professor emeritus of architecture at Notre Dame. “The proposed Arapahoe Square ‘Conservation District’ is a praiseworthy low-rise / high-density walkable mixed-use neighborhood that both calls for and exemplifies an approach to building and city-making that integrates environmental resilience, economic dynamism and justice, historic preservation, and good urban design.”

Sean Gaouette analyzes 50 buildings in the neighborhood, from the 1880s to the 1940s, that “sustain memory and create place identity.” He analyzes sites where new buildings could be constructed and creates a set of pre-approved infill plans. The proposed district would amend the height allowance for single-stair buildings from three to six stories, following the example of European cities, Seattle, and New York, allowing the city to test the measure in a contained area.

He identifies 30 patterns for new development, some very cool, that would give new development character to build on historic buildings and public space design. “The Pattern Language covers observed, repeated design decisions that create or reinforce the community’s identity, such as the neighborhood’s rotated grid, shaped parapets, polychrome brick, grouped windows, and geometric ornamentation. The pattern language is at the heart of the sense of place,” winner Sean Gaouette explains.

The neighborhood is divided by a six-lane thoroughfare, North Broadway, with proliferous surface lots, small-scale industry, and localized poverty, he notes. The proposed streetscape redesign features small parklets along a lush, linear green street section that stretches nearly a mile. “The plan reallocates right-of-way to pedestrians and biorentention planters, provides parking, and aligns the design speed with the posted speed,” Gaouette says. “Expanding the pedestrian realm eases difficult street crossings, enlarges green areas, and, paired with contextual development, drastically humanizes this corridor.”

Proposed amendments to zoning remove language that contradicts the city’s goal to reflect the architectural and cultural history of Denver, he says. Overall, these changes could bring substantial new housing to the neighborhood—while at the same time making it more livable.

Regenerative Conservation: Centering Preservation Philosophy within Urban Planning Policy, Denver, Colorado: 

• Sean Gaouette, University of Notre Dame, Principal designer
• Paolo Vitti, Faculty advisor

2025 CNU Charter Awards Jury

• Rico Quirindongo (chair), Director, City of Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development
• Majora Carter, CEO of Majora Carter Group in the Bronx, New York City
• Jake Day, Maryland Secretary of Housing and Community Development
• Anne Fairfax, Principal, Fairfax & Sammons in New York, NY, and Palm Beach, FL
• Eric Kronberg, Principal, Kronberg Urbanists + Architects in Atlanta, GA
• Steven Lewis, Principal, ZGF Architects in Greater Los Angeles, CA
• Donna Moodie, Chief Impact Officer, Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle
• Joe Nickol, Principal, Yard & Company in Cincinnati, OH