HVAC in Congress Park: Bungalow vs Foursquare

HVAC in Congress Park can be built on a real, citable comparison instead of a generic old-homes claim. Platted in the late 1880s as Capitol Heights, nearly 80 percent of buildings here date from 1900-1929, and 83 percent of those were originally single-unit homes. A Historic Denver survey counted 968 bungalows, 51.3 percent of single-unit homes, and 329 foursquares, plus Victorians, Tudors, Craftsman homes, brick duplexes and townhomes, Art Deco apartment buildings and some mid-century buildings. The northwest area has older Queen Anne and Victorian homes, and the southeast transitions to Craftsman Denver Squares and more modest bungalows. The bungalow-versus-foursquare distinction is the HVAC-relevant one: a one-to-one-and-a-half-story bungalow with a low roof and broad porch heats and cools very differently from a boxy two-story foursquare with a hipped roof, whose upper floor overheats in summer while the bungalow's single level is easier to serve with one system. Many homes are now duplexes or have lock-off basement units. The East Seventh Avenue Historic District, designated in 1993, runs through the southern edge along the 7th Avenue Parkway, and visible exterior changes there generally need Landmark Preservation design review.