The Historic Hynds Building

Many ideas and proposals about how the Hynds Building could help revitalize Cheyenne. One effort, the Hynds Capitol Core Project, precipitated this page. The first floor was once managed by a group called LightsOn for events and activities. We'll keep information about the Hynds Capitol core Project as a remembrance and maybe it will continue to stir ideas about other projects that could

happen in Downtown Cheyenne. The Hynds Capitol Core project was one proposed by BoulderCommunity Media and Outback Investments that planned to develop an ambitious creative economy mixed use, diverse cohousing project in Downtown Cheyenne. The project proposed 65 apartments in the renovated Hynds Building and over the adjacent vacant lot colloquially known as "The Hole". The project later evolved into one for student housing. The project stalled when the Children’s Museum planned to build over the hole. Regardless, the highest and best use project is mixed use. development mixed-use consisting of diverse homes and areas to incubate the new creative economy integrated with offices, civic – classroom – gallery spaces and service retail to serve the greater neighborhood and at the same time protect the public health and safety in a neighborhood that is the location of a huge open pit resulting from a structure destroyed by fire and an historic building built in 1919 that has fallen into disrepair and largely vacant for the past 26 years. Any project should pursue its mission through a multidisciplinary public/private partnership. The collaborative approach would have resulted in a diverse, mixed-use development Housing is the bridge between creative community development and traditional economic development. Finding and retaining affordable living/work space is an age-old problem for artists, and creative businesses. Such artists and businesses gravitate to old warehouses and other industrial buildings. Their very presence in a developing neighborhood often acts as a catalyst, setting in motion the undesirable process of gentrification that drives rents up and forces the artists out. Any project should build a strong sense of community. In collaborative housing residents actively participate in the design and operation of their neighborhoods. The physical design encouraged both social contact and individual space.The apartments would have contained all the features of conventional homes and residents would have had access to extensive common areas. Positive impacts create vibrancy and activity.

1. Participatory process. If residential, neighbors should participate in the design of their community so that it meets their needs. Typical speculative housing communities are driven by a developer’s vision. In such cases, the residents will have less input into the design. The physical layout and orientation of the building floor plan encourages a sense of community – for example, when residences are clustered and have their doors opening into a shared space. The apartments face each other across a walkway. What far outweighs any specifics is the intention to create a strong sense of community, with design as one of the facilitators.

2. Neighborhood design. Any project will not only be affected by the community design, but the cohesive nature of the community that creates more vibrancy in the exterior neighborhood when community members decide to enjoy a night out at a restaurant or take in music across the street at the Atlas Theatre.

3. Common facilities. Common facilities should be designed for daily use, are an integral part of the community, and are always supplemental to the private homes. The common spaces typically include a common kitchen, dining area, sitting area, laundry, and also may contain a library, exercise room, meeting and conference room spaces and in some cases a guest room that may be reserved by community members for visitors.

4. Resident management. Residents manage their community, and perform some of the work required to maintain the property. They may participate in the preparation of common meals, community celebrations and meet regularly to solve problems and develop policies for the community.

5. Non-hierarchical structure and decision-making. Leadership roles naturally exist, however no one person (or persons) has authority over others. Governance is generally some form of consensus, and, although many groups have a policy for voting if the group cannot reach consensus after a number of attempts, it is rarely or never necessary to resort to voting.