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 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).

Project Status

The two primary uses on the Alpine-Balsam site will be the new Western City Campus, a project being led by the city, and housing, led by Boulder Housing Partners (BHP). The city and BHP are working collaboratively as co-master developers of the site. The goals of the Area Plan will be realized through development of these two primary uses which will be brought through the city’s regulatory process prior to any construction beginning on the site.

Hospital deconstruction is complete, and we are moving into the next stage. Flood mitigation is also required to be in place prior to any future development. The city has made a submission to obtain a Letter of Map Revision (LOMR) from FEMA which is currently under review.

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Boulder Community Health hospital deconstruction phases

Timeline

Current stage

  • Q1 2024
    • FEMA CLOMR Review and TEC Process
    • City Council check-in toward end of Q1
  • Q2 2024
    • Construction
    • Form Based Code Review and Permit
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2023 to 2025 timeline for Alpine-Balsam site

News and Updates

  • Deconstruction of the hospital was completed in fall 2023 The steel from the hospital was removed and will be reused in several city projects, including the new Fire Station 3, currently under construction.
  • At the completion of the project, a study of the embodied energy preserved on the Alpine-Balsam site will be finalized. 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.
  • ZGF Architects was 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, and other site elements. Staff engagement on the Western City Campus is currently underway while community engagement is planned for the fall of 2023. 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.
  • Anderson Consulting Engineers was hired by the city 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 is expected to be submitted to FEMA for the CLOMR in late 2023. Concurrently, City staff are working with Mile High Flood District on construction contractor procurement so that construction can commence immediately upon receipt of FEMA authorization.

Boulder Community Hospital Deconstruction Aerial Photographs

Community Engagement

Please check back here for community engagement opportunities.

Newsletter

  • Sign-up for the Alpine-Balsam Area Plan and Site e-newsletter to receive project updates below.
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