By Mark Samuelson

Denver Post Real Estate
Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008

Washington Park has everything you could wish for in a new urban lifestyle: Walk a couple of blocks this way to the cafe life on Old South Gaylord, or a couple that way to 16-acre Grasmere Lake, where even on a cold Sunday there’ll be a crowd of joggers, bikers and walkers out, plus kids and golden retrievers.

Right in the middle…two blocks east of the park, two blocks west of Reiver’s restaurant on Gaylord, you can view three ways to put yourself into the Wash Park picture…all of them new designs, with features that neighbors in older houses only dream about.

At Myrtle Hill at Washington Park Place, the tour starts with single-family residences nine distinct homes (tour the model and a couple of others finished), with wide-open entertaining spaces and bedroom suites, and options for basement finishes that are so hard to do right on historic houses. You’ll also get an eyeful of how well these designs complement the stre et Craftsmen, Denver Square and Tudor stylings that fit nicely.

The builder, Colorado Land & Home Company, is known for some of the best custom homes up in Hilltop and Crestmoor.

In Wash Park, Colorado Land has done something few builders could take on…convert a block-wide former elementary school site into three product types: custom homes, brownstones (they start pre-sales today from the $900s) and, in the historic schoolhouse, big lofts…1,300 to 2,600 square feet with two garage spaces each.

…All while working to satisfy concerns of the neighbors, who after years of scrapes and pop-tops want to preserve the feel of Wash Park (the builder had 30 me et ings to arrive at what you’ll see today).

The loft plan (it’s still too early to tour) is particularly creative. It preserves the much of the brick schoolhouse, which had once been called Myrtle Hill School before Mayor Speer transformed the park into a pristine spectacle of water and gardens. Some lofts will have remnants of floors and water fountains…and one gets a masonry schoolroom clock that had “Tick-Tock” chiseled around the face.

The lofts and brownstones are both pre-sales…but the customs are ready now, close enough to the park to stroll over after you finish your tour. Take University south from Cherry Creek to Mississippi and turn west five blocks, past Gaylord’s shops, to S. High Street .