John TorresBy: John Torres

I am excited to share with you that Golden West will receive funds from the City of Boulder’s Affordable Housing Grant in the amount of $375,000 to replace windows and air conditioning in the central tower. Golden West will have to match this grant with $125,000 as the cost of the total project is at least $500,000.

The Golden West Foundation is sponsoring a campaign to raise the $125,000 over this year and next year to help to support this huge project. Plans are underway now to hire an architect and a window consultant to put together the bid documents over the next couple of months. We will actually take one apartment and build a prototype before launching into the full scale project.

The windows in the central tower are 46 years old and are inadequate in terms of blocking out cold air. The windows are outdated and energy inefficient. Every year, especially when we have very low temperatures, we have trouble maintaining adequate heat levels in some our apartments. This project will eliminate that problem and will also add another level of energy efficiency to the building.

Our initial plan was to provide new windows for the south tower as well but we did not receive enough funds to do both buildings. At some point in the future, we will seek another grant for the south tower.

The window replacement project has been a high priority for a number of years and the challenge year after year has been to find funding. The grant from the City now gives us the opportunity we have been looking for to complete an upgrade that is extremely needed for our residents.

Stay tuned for more information as we move forward with our plans. If you would like more information about this, please contact me at (303) 939-0897 or jtorres@gwboulder.org . As always, I want to thank you, our donors, for your support of Golden West.

John Torres
Executive Director