The Reserve at Lone Tree

The Reserve at Lone Tree sits on a 4.8-acre site and adds to the urban context within the greater Ridgegate community. The site connects to both open space and a future regional park and is adjacent to an RTD station, offering convenient mass transit access. A below-grade garage supports the majority of parking spaces, opening up the remainder of the site for outdoor amenities that include a pool deck, food truck plaza, several dining spaces, horticultural areas, a pickle ball court, an outdoor amphitheater, walking paths, and a dog park.

The building massing and siting offer opportunities for a variety of indoor-to-outdoor connections. Independent Living holds the corner of Havana and High Note at nine stories, with a top floor Skylounge offering views of the Colorado front range. Five stories of Assisted Living and Memory Support abut the IL portion through a two-story glassy great room. Amenity spaces along the street across both buildings are showcased and elevate the pedestrian experience.

OZ Architecture needed professional photography on a tight timeline to support an awards competition submission. A key requirement was matching the perspectives of design renderings to demonstrate how closely the final project aligned with the original vision.

Challenges

The project faced a compressed delivery timeline driven by the awards submission deadline. OZ Architecture requested that several images match the exact perspectives shown in their design renderings—a challenge that required matching very wide-angle views that can be difficult to replicate in real-world photography.

The facility was already occupied, requiring careful scheduling to work around residents while capturing spaces in pristine condition. Standard architectural photography obstacles were also present: temporary tree supports, signage, and exterior distractions needed removal, while interiors required addressing visible outlets, missing appliances, and exposed MEP elements.

Solutions

We coordinated closely with facility management to schedule photography sessions that minimized disruption to residents while ensuring access to all key spaces. The onsite interior designer joined us for most of the day and was instrumental in accomplishing the ambitious photography schedule.

For the rendering matches, we carefully studied the original perspectives and used appropriate lens choices and camera positioning to replicate the viewpoints as accurately as possible. The photography scope focused on capturing the architecture and interiors without staged models, respecting resident privacy while allowing the spaces themselves to remain the focus.

Extensive post-production work addressed both exterior and interior challenges. Exteriors received sky replacements where needed, and we removed tree supports and signage. Interior retouching eliminated visible outlets, addressed missing appliances, and concealed exposed MEP elements.

Rendering vs. Reality

A key requirement for this project was matching the perspectives of OZ Architecture’s design renderings. The following comparisons show how closely the completed building aligns with the original design intent, while also highlighting natural differences that emerge between rendering and built reality.

Pool Amenity Space

The indoor pool amenity space was photographed to match the original rendering perspective, showcasing the warmth of the wood-clad walls and the careful integration of natural light through the exterior windows.

Memory Care Activity Room

The Memory Care activity room perspective captures the warm, residential quality of the space with its stone fireplace surround, built-in shelving, and layered ceiling detail, demonstrating how closely the final construction follows the original design intent.

Retouching Process

Occupied senior living facilities present unique photography challenges. Beyond standard exterior cleanup, interior spaces required careful retouching to remove visible outlets, address missing appliances, and conceal exposed MEP elements.

Outcome

The final images successfully matched the rendering perspectives, demonstrating to clients how closely the executed project aligned with OZ Architecture’s original design vision. The photography met the tight awards submission deadline and provided OZ with a comprehensive visual record of the completed facility.

The rendering comparisons showcase both the fidelity of the final construction to the design intent and illustrate how design evolution can create natural differences between rendering and reality—valuable documentation for future client presentations and awards submissions.

Project Info

Location

Lone Tree, Colorado

Architect

OZ Architecture

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