In The News

South Main Live-Work Unit Incubates a New Neighborhood Main Street and Provides a "Missing Middle" Model

When Jed Selby wanted a home within his South Main project that embodied the spirit of the new urbanist neighborhood he was co-developing with his sister Katie Selby and also to reflect his own personality and passion for kayaking, he hired Opticos. The resulting live-work building has all of the charm of the adjacent gold rush town of Buena Vista, but is green and modern in its implementation - it far exceeds the Colorado Built Green Certification requirements. This building also embodies the "missing middle" building types that Opticos focuses their work on.

This building integrates a 1,400 square feet two-bedroom townhouse with second floor rooms opening directly onto the gallery and roof terraces, permitting breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains. The innovation of this building is that it integrates a 900 square foot ground floor flex space that the owner can use to incubate their own small business or rent to another small business to help pay their mortgage (The South Main real estate offices occupy the ground floor). It is Colorado Built Green Certified and is an example of a "missing middle" building type that reinforces a walkable neighborhood and provides urban housing choices at middle densities.

"I really like the composition of the interior spaces and window locations. This is a good example of a building that is just as good on the inside as the outside, which is quite certainly, not easy to achieve."- Jed Selby

The design of the building draws upon the gold rush character of Buena Vista in its simple form, deep punched openings, an ornamental metal cornice, and two story gallery (fabricated by local metal worker Jim Butler) that extends over the sidewalk; while accommodating a modern life style and reflecting modern materials and construction methods.