Edward Hawkins (architect)

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Edward B. Hawkins (1902–1991) was an American architect, developer, and builder who worked in Colorado. Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, he designed Usonian-style houses for the Arapahoe Acres development in Englewood and started the nearby Arapahoe Hills project.

Born in Denver in 1902, Hawkins studied civil engineering at Colorado State Agricultural College (now Colorado State University). He worked as a building superintendent for Home Builders of America in Chicago starting in 1924 and did contracting on the side. During the Great Depression, he worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps, and in World War II he was a civilian at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal. He began designing and building houses, producing about 35 modern homes in northeast Denver between 1942 and 1949. He started the Construction Products Company in Lakewood to prefab parts for homes and made aluminum-frame windows.

In 1949 Hawkins began Arapahoe Acres in Englewood, featuring Usonian and International Style homes. He joined a national program to improve affordable, well-built housing and hired architect Eugene Sternberg to help design the neighborhood. He moved his prefab shop closer to the site. The homes emphasized privacy, solar heating, and mountain views, and streets were curved to reduce traffic. They included modern appliances and fireplaces and used copper products. Heating combined radiant floors with forced air.

Life magazine highlighted Arapahoe Acres as one of the best houses under $15,000. After the first model home sold for more than $11,500, Sternberg left the project, and Hawkins designed most of the remaining homes—about 70 in total—mostly in the Usonian style. The development was completed around 1957.

Hawkins later began Arapahoe Hills, completed by partner Clyde Mannon. He and his wife Charlotte were married by 1942. They retired in 1967 to Vista, California, where Hawkins designed his retirement home in a Japanese style. The couple traveled internationally for eight years. He died in 1991; Charlotte died in 1995.