John Scarffe, Nederland. The Boulder County Housing Authority hosted a virtual online ribbon cutting for The Tungsten Village, senior affordable housing in Nederland, on September 23, 2020, from noon to 1 p.m. The Housing Authority took community members on an insider’s tour of Nederland’s newest development of permanently affordable homes and introduced the community that made it possible.

Norrie Boyd, Housing Authority interim director, said this event celebrates the collective accomplishment for completing construction of the Tungsten Village. It represents a long-lasting positive change for the community with 26 apartment units and a 24,888-square-feet building with solar perfectly located on the Peak to Peak Highway. 

Boyd said that during the event, participants will hear from Boulder County Commissioners and the Nederland Mayor, whose leadership galvanized the community. “Every member of the community needs a home.”

Boulder County Commissioner Deb Gardner said the vision for this event started in 2018 when Boulder County spent a whole year developing their guiding priorities. Those included affordable living and working on economic inequality and the lack of access to transportation. Boulder County has been a leader on housing, with the goal to triple the number of affordable housing by 2035. “Tungsten Village is a stunning example.”

Commissioner Elise Jones said among the many great things about the building, it includes a sustainable design that will meet the Enterprise Green Community standards for health and energy efficiency, recycling and green initiatives. Area workers can now live in the community, which used a vernacular mountain stye design. When she drove by, she was blown away by how it fits into the area.

Commissioner Matt Jones said this is a great project. It couldn’t be more important in Nederland, and it meets Boulder County’s goal of permanent housing. After the 2013 flood, Nederland residents are struggling to find housing. 

Tungsten Village is important for housing access and is a necessary part of increasing diversity in the community. “Now is the time to prioritize a safe, stable home as a meaningful investment in our shared future,” Matt Jones said.

Boyd said the project meets the broader vision of bringing affordable housing to the mountain communities. They selected Nederland to take advantage of transportation and services near the downtown corridor. 

They chose the name because of the history of mining tungsten, which was a large part of the history of Nederland. Throughout the process, when Boulder County acquired the land, they agreed to protect the natural resources and hired a design and construction team, Coburn Architects, who had a vision for what would fit in town. Equally important was working with the Town, and many community members came out in support of this project. 

Pete Webber, lead architect on the project with Coburn, said the building was so big for a small town, they had to work hard to break the building down in scale to fit the community, and doing so also adds to the living experience. The building was designed to meet requirements of Enterprise Green Communities, which has an energy focus to save heating and cooling bills, which have a great effect on their sustainability in the future. 

Nederland is a cold place in the winter, so they installed high efficiency windows and insulation, which affect the affordability of the project, Webber said. Small towns can be challenged by transportation, but if you are in the center of the town, you are near everything. 

This location allows access to all the things residents need, and it’s right across the street from RTD to Boulder and Eldora. The location of the building is ideal from a transportation point. 

Boyd said construction highlights included a banner snow year, so it was hard to move forward. Coburn Architects also worked with Melinder White on the construction and Town of Nederland staff procured the zoning and construction approvals. 

Darren Hinton, construction executive and senior vice president with Melinder White, said he joined the preconstruction team and helped come up with the design. He asked how they could overcome a remote location, so they decided to build prefabricated wall panels in Golden, and when they got to the site, they just had to the set panels.

At the construction site, they had virtually no waste and could the maintain schedule because they could ship up the panels even if it was snowing. By building the panels in Golden, they reduced the number of nail sites that don’t happen on the site, Hinton said. Nederland is a quiet community, and they didn’t want to disturb residents, so they did most nailing in Golden to reduce the impact on the neighborhood. 

Often, projects throw a curveball, and this one was COVID, Hinton said. Everyone worked together as a team to proceed with the project. 

Construction had been deemed essential during the pandemic, but they had to figure it out how to make sure workers were safe. They came up with a COVID policy, wearing masks and brought in warmed water stations for washing hands. They didn’t lose any time, and they didn’t have any COVID cases reported.

Nederland Mayor Kristopher Larsen said this is exciting to be a part of a celebratory day for Nederland. He can see Tungsten Village from his office, and it has been heartening to see a needed project to come to fruition. 

One of the goals of the Nederland Board of Trustees has been to bring affordable housing to Nederland, and it’s difficult to make a meaningful impact on such a big problem. In this case, the Town had help through partnerships with the Boulder County Commission and Housing Authority and the Peak to Peak Human Services Alliance.

“Affordable housing means so much or we run the risk of hollowing out our community. Having a project like the Tungsten Village is so important for Nederland right now. I want to welcome 26 families, and I can’t wait to meet you and can’t wait to have you in the community.”

(Originally published in the October 1, 2020, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)