Former College Campus Now a Community Hub for Denver Suburb

What was originally Colorado’s first women’s college is now an expansive 154-unit campus that boosts affordable housing, community support, and educational options in Lakewood—a suburban town just southeast of Denver.

The $70.2 million Mosaic Community Campus’ mainstays are its four residential buildings, previously dormitories built in the 1920s and ’60s. The adaptive reuse of these structures allowed Archway Communities to achieve its vision without typical infill land challenges while preserving a portion of the city’s history.

“Archway leveraged more than $10 million in historic tax credits to help preserve the buildings and adapt them into affordable housing,” says Laura Brudzynski, chief operating officer of Archway Communities. “We have worked with the state of Colorado to preserve that history both inside and outside of the four former dormitories, creating a beautiful and unique style of modern living.”

But Mosaic isn’t just a place for residents to lay their heads. Archway has turned the campus into a comprehensive community hub, too, with a full spectrum of services for tenants. There are weekly no-cost food programs, a kids’ club, employment support, and educational and job training opportunities provided by the Denver School of the Arts, St. Elizabeth’s School, Kitchen Network, and Emily Griffith Technical College.