1. Community Engagement

  2. Plan

  3. Design

  4. Implement

Project Overview

The Alpine-Balsam property, formerly the Boulder Community Health (BCH) hospital, was purchased by the City of Boulder in 2015. Plans for redevelopment have taken shape over the past several years. The reimagined site will provide new affordable and market-rate homes in a range of housing types and will be the future location of the Western City Campus to serve city customers and house municipal functions. It will include new indoor and outdoor public spaces, new streets and paths, sustainable solutions for infrastructure and buildings, increased tree canopy, a greenway for flood conveyance, easy-to-use travel options, and managed parking. The vision for the area is guided by the Alpine-Balsam Area Plan (PDF).

Timeline

Current stage

  • Q4 2024
    • Floodway and site infrastructure construction begins
    • Regulatory approvals on Alpine-Balsam development and the Western City Campus
  • 2025
    • Floodway and site infrastructure construction continues
    • Western City Campus Construction begins

Hospital Deconstruction

Deconstruction of the hospital was completed in fall 2023. The steel from the hospital was removed and reused in several city projects, including the new Fire Station 3.

The Brenton Building, Pavilion and parking structure have all been adaptively reused and many materials from the hospital are being directly reused in other building projects or preserved on-site. Overall, 94% of all materials from the deconstruction of the hospital were diverted away from landfills. One the Western City Campus construction is finished, a full analysis of the embodied energy preserved on the site will be completed.

See page 13 of the Winter 2023 Community Newsletter for an article about the sustainable deconstruction of this site.

Boulder Community Hospital Deconstruction Aerial Photographs

Deconstruction Time Lapse

Flood Mitigation

Anderson Consulting Engineers was hired by the city [add date] to design the flood mitigation channel and facilitate the federal FEMA process (known as a Conditional Letter of Map Revision or “CLOMR” and Letter of Map Revision or “LOMR”) to redraw the floodplain map. Stream Landscape Architects was added to the design team in early 2022 to ensure aesthetic and natural elements envisioned in the Area Plan are realized. The design was submitted for a Floodplain Development Review permit in April 2023 and was submitted to FEMA for the CLOMR in late 2023. City staff have worked with Mile High Flood District to obtain a construction contractor so that construction can commence immediately upon receiving regulatory approvals. CEI constructors has been selected as the General Contractor the for the Floodway project.

Western City Campus

ZGF Architects were selected in July 2022 as the design team for the Western City Campus and tasked with proceeding on the design of the Pavilion Building renovation, new civic plaza, parking garage, and other site-wide elements. Since ZGF was selected, extensive work has been done to analyze the city’s needs, determine the required environmental and regulatory requirements, and develop funding strategies. Saunders construction was selected in June 2024 as the General Contractor for the Western City Campus. Work will begin in 2025.

Housing

Led by Boulder Housing Partners. More information and updates to come!

Stay Informed

  • Sign-up for the Western City Campus and Site e-newsletter to receive project updates.
  • Sign-up for the city’s planning e-newsletter to receive city-wide planning updates.