Pancratia Hall re-design wins award

Pancratia Hall Lofts on the Loretto Heights campus in Denver recently was awarded a 2025 Mayor’s Design Award in the Affordability – Existing Buildings category. The building, known as Pan Hall in Loretto circles, has been redeveloped by Jim Hartman and Susan Ely of Westside Investment Partners, who purchased the property in 2018. It now includes 74 affordable apartments. Westside Investment Partners shares, “The reuse of Pancratia Hall as affordable housing promotes sustainability and equity and ensures the future of the Loretto Heights campus remains rooted in the campus’ treasured history.” Historic Loretto photos line the walls and remnants of the building’s original use have been incorporated throughout, including original terrazzo flooring, the chapel’s stained glass window, spiral staircases and the gymnasium’s basketball hoops.

Mary Nelle Gage SL, who has been closely involved with the redevelopment project from the start, shared about Loretto Heights’s beginnings, “Pancratia Bonfils SL purchased farmland on Sheridan Hill in southwest Denver in 1888, engaged architect Frank Edbrooke, and the construction began.” The 72-acre site sits at 5,510 feet, 230 feet above Denver, with panoramic views of the city to the east and the Rocky Mountains to the west.

In addition to the 2025 Mayor’s Design Award, in 2023 Pancratia Hall was awarded the Stephen H. Hart Award for historic preservation by the Colorado Historical Society.

To read all of the articles in the summer 2025 issue click here.