How can multifamily design move beyond the amenity race? In a new feature for Colorado Real Estate Journal, Angela Harris explores how human-centered design, beauty, and a deeper sense of belonging can shape resident experience and create lasting value for multifamily communities
As the multifamily market continues to evolve, the conversation around amenities is changing. Residents still expect beautiful, functional spaces, but the opportunity for developers goes beyond adding another feature to the amenity list. Increasingly, successful multifamily design is about creating environments that meaningfully support the people who live there.
In a recent byline for Colorado Real Estate Journal’s Multifamily Properties Quarterly, TRIO CEO and Principal Angela Harris explores this shift and the role human-centered design can play in creating stronger resident experiences and long-term value.
At TRIO, this thinking is central to our philosophy of Art as Infrastructure™, the belief that beauty is not simply a finishing layer of design. The environments we create can shape emotion, influence behavior, strengthen community, and foster a deeper sense of belonging. Explore how TRIO applies human-centered design to create more intentional, competitive spaces.
Rethinking Multifamily Amenity Design
For years, multifamily communities have differentiated themselves through increasingly robust amenity packages. Fitness centers evolved into wellness destinations. Clubrooms became coworking spaces. Outdoor areas became extensions of the home.
But the more important question is not simply what a community offers. It is how those spaces make residents feel and how they support everyday life.
A coworking space can encourage focus and flexibility. An outdoor courtyard can create opportunities for neighbors to connect. Thoughtful materiality, artwork, natural elements, and spatial planning can transform an everyday amenity into a place residents genuinely want to spend time.
The goal is to move from designing amenities as a collection of features to designing experiences that support healthier, more connected ways of living.
Creating Connection Through Human-Centered Design
Home now serves more roles than ever. It can be a workplace, social environment, place of restoration, and expression of personal identity. Multifamily interior design has an opportunity to respond to each of those needs.
At TRIO, that begins with story before style.
Rather than designing around trends alone, our teams look to the history, culture, landscape, art, and character of a place to create a narrative unique to each community. These influences are paired with human-centered design principles to create environments that feel authentic to their location and meaningful to the people experiencing them.
That approach also extends to the everyday rituals a space supports. From a quiet morning routine to an impromptu conversation with a neighbor, the built environment can create opportunities for restoration, connection, movement, and belonging. Explore TRIO’s perspective on ritual living and designing spaces around the way people live.
This approach can also contribute to longevity. Spaces rooted in authentic storytelling, sensory comfort, natural materials, thoughtful scale, and connection to place have the potential to remain relevant long after individual design trends have passed. For owners and developers, that can support stronger brand identity, market differentiation, and enduring resident appeal.
Art as Infrastructure™ in Multifamily Design
Across TRIO’s multifamily portfolio, this philosophy takes a different form depending on the community.
At The Marlow in Denver, hospitality-inspired amenities are designed to support the transitions between work, social connection, and relaxation. Ten50 draws from Denver’s art, culture, and surrounding landscape to create a narrative grounded in its neighborhood. At Sol Modern in Phoenix, biophilic principles, intentional materiality, and wellness-focused programming create opportunities for both activity and restoration.
The aesthetic expression changes from project to project because the story changes. The objective remains consistent: create places that support the human experience while delivering lasting value for the communities and partners we serve.
Biophilic design is one part of that larger philosophy. Natural light, organic materials, connections to nature, and sensory experiences can contribute to environments that feel more restorative and connected to the people who inhabit them. Read Angela Harris’ perspective on natural design and biophilic living in multifamily housing.
The Future of Multifamily Is About How a Place Feels
As multifamily developers look for meaningful ways to differentiate their communities, design can be more than an aesthetic investment. It can become a strategic tool for creating connection, identity, and experiences residents remember.
The lessons emerging across residential design point in the same direction. Environments are increasingly being evaluated not only by how they look, but by how people feel, behave, and engage within them over time. Explore what multifamily developers can learn from TRIO’s work in model home design.
The next competitive advantage may not come from offering more. It may come from designing more intentionally.
Read Angela’s full article, “Design Is Infrastructure: Prioritizing Humans,” in Colorado Real Estate Journal.
