On the stretch of 38th Avenue near Dudley Street, the Blue House still stands behind the construction fence. Its outline is the same one Wheat Ridge has watched for 124 years. Behind it, on the roughly 100 acres between W. 32nd and W. 38th Avenues, crews have been taking the former Lutheran hospital apart since February 2026.
Three much smaller and much older structures are staying in place. Much of the hospital is being recycled, and some of its concrete will be crushed and laid back down as the base of the new streets. When building starts on the new neighborhood, called Legacy, the rules will keep every new building shorter than the old hospital building.
The oldest layer stays where it stands
The City of Wheat Ridge's Legacy Campus page lists three structures preserved in place: the Blue House, the Chapel and the TB Tent. All three come from the years when the property was a place to recover from tuberculosis, before it became a hospital campus.
The Blue House came first. The Neighborhood Gazette traced its origin to William Dusedan, a German immigrant and civil engineer who built tramway lines for mines. In 1902 he bought ten unimproved acres for $5,350 and built a 16-room home. His family planted an orchard, dug an artesian well and kept livestock, then moved on after about three years. He sold the property for $12,700 to a group of German Lutherans who wanted to start a health farm for people with tuberculosis. Patients were later housed in specialized TB tents just west of the house. After the first hospital was built in 1921, the house became a nurses' dormitory with room for families visiting patients. The Gazette notes that many residents remember the Tea Room & Consignment Shoppe the Lutheran Auxiliary ran there.
The Chapel dates to 1932. The TB Tent is one of the original tuberculosis tents. When the Gazette asked Andrea Burch, president of Intermountain Lutheran Hospital, about saving the campus's history, she said:
"These are cultural touchstones, and they deserve to be integrated into the next iteration of this community."
That quote appeared in the Gazette's July 2025 interview. The protection goes beyond goodwill. The city's zoning for the campus makes the developer show how it will rehabilitate or incorporate the chapel, the Blue House and the tuberculosis tent. The approved Concept Plan lists possible new uses for them, including community use, retail or educational purposes. None has been set.
The hospital is being taken apart for parts
Most of what was built after those three structures is being handled very differently. Master developer E5X chose to deconstruct the hospital buildings piece by piece rather than knock them down in one go, so reusable parts could be pulled out and sorted. E5X president Chris Elliott told the Neighborhood Gazette that the hardest part was not knowing what crews would find. The buildings went up over about 100 years and used many different construction methods.
Not every piece of the hospital is headed for recycling. E5X's Legacy project page says parts of the hospital will remain and be repurposed along with the Chapel and the Blue House. When E5X presented its plan in June 2025, the Denver Gazette reported that Elliott showed a rendering of a neighborhood entryway with towers from the hospital built into it, under a sign reading "Legacy."
The Gazette notes that tearing down a building usually produces about 90% of the waste in a building's whole construction cycle, and that most of it typically goes to a landfill. Against that, here are the volumes E5X reported recycling or reusing through the end of August 2026:
| Material recovered at the Lutheran campus | Reported through August 2026 |
|---|---|
| Concrete and asphalt | 74,000 tons |
| Construction and demolition materials | 30,000 tons |
| Steel and non-ferrous metal such as aluminum | 10,000 tons |
| Share kept out of landfills | 74% |
Copper, concrete, asphalt, metals and brick make up most of what gets recycled. Generators, chillers, switchgear and other electrical and mechanical equipment are being reused. Some material never leaves the site. Concrete from the old buildings will be crushed and used as road base, so pieces of the hospital end up under the streets of the neighborhood that replaces it.
The street layout stays too. The city says the two main roads, known as the "wishbone," will remain largely in place. Anyone who has driven onto the campus for an appointment will recognize the basic shape of the new neighborhood.
Nothing new may stand as tall as the old hospital building
The city puts the existing hospital building at 91 feet. Under the campus zoning, the tallest new buildings may reach 70 feet, or five stories, and that height is allowed only in the interior of the campus and along 38th Avenue. The master plan calls for lower-density building around the edges, next to existing homes.
The zoning also limits what the new buildings can be. Drive-throughs, gas stations, car washes and auto sales are prohibited. Civic uses, some commercial and retail uses, and housing are allowed. Windows, signs and lighting must be designed for people on foot.
Most of the 100 acres will become homes. E5X has estimated about 1,300 residences. In August, Elliott told the Gazette that five builders were under contract for single-family homes, duplexes, townhomes and a large apartment site. MGL Partners is under contract for a planned senior project, Legacy Terrace Apartments, with 50 affordable homes for adults 62 and older. Retail is still at the study stage, and E5X has set no timeline for commercial development.
What opens up to the neighbors
For people who live on the blocks around the campus, the bigger change is access. The hospital was a destination, and the planned neighborhood is meant to be walked through. The Concept Plan requires that 20% of the net development area be publicly accessible open space. That follows the master plan the city adopted in 2021, after Intermountain and the city surveyed more than 1,200 residents. The zoning and Concept Plan lay out the pieces:
- Public open space along Dudley Street.
- A trail along the Rocky Mountain Ditch, with direction to work with the ditch company toward keeping one.
- An extension of 35th Avenue into the campus at Dudley. Cars may not use it, and it must be open to people walking or biking.
- About 2 miles of new or improved sidewalk and 1.5 miles of bicycle facilities at full build-out.
- A civic area meant as a hub for community events, local government services and social gatherings.
- At least 10,000 square feet for neighborhood-serving retail, restaurant or personal-service uses.
The ditch is also where the biggest visible tradeoff is happening. The Rocky Mountain Ditch Company requires some of the larger cottonwoods inside its 20-foot maintenance easement, on either side of the ditch, to come out. Some healthy trees elsewhere will also be removed to make room for homes. The campus's open space and landscape regulations were written for this site because it has so many mature trees. They require removed trees to be replaced at 1-to-1 or 2-to-1, depending on the size of the tree. Unhealthy, diseased or dying trees do not have to be replaced. New plantings will use a mix of species so a single pest or disease cannot sweep through one uniform stand.
The calendar from here
The site is still closed to the public during deconstruction and regrading. Under the city's rules, crews may work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day of the week.
- October 2026: The city reported that all friable asbestos-containing materials had been removed from the portions being demolished. The Colorado Department of Public Health inspects that work before it issues a demolition permit. Crews keep the demolition area wet to hold down dust.
- Next: Site work is moving to grading for roads, sidewalks, bike lanes, drainage and utilities. The city expects no building construction in 2026. It expects residential development applications late this year and into 2027.
- End of 2026 into early 2027: Elliott has said demolition should wrap up by year-end. E5X's project page projects early 2027.
- Spring or summer 2027: Construction of single-family homes, duplexes and townhomes is expected to start at about the same time.
- Late 2027: The first homes are expected, with apartments a few months after.
The city posts plat and site plan applications for the campus on its Projects & Properties map, which it updates weekly. That is where the plans for the open space, the ditch trail and the three preserved buildings will show up as they are submitted.
If you live near the campus and want to talk through what Legacy could mean for your block, from the new walking routes to the timing of construction around your home, Horizon Home Group is glad to sit down with you. Let's connect and build your real estate strategy.
