Gold Hard Hat Award (tie)

Outstanding Religious Facility

Calvary Episcopal Church was first constructed in Golden in 1879 and is the oldest church in Colorado. Through the years, the church has acquired adjacent houses, which were used as offices and classrooms. In 2000, a building program was established, leading to the construction of the Great Hall on the opposite side of the one-acre site.

In the second phase of the building program, the house between the historic church and the Great Hall was to be demolished to make room for a connecting link between the historic building and the new hall.

The historic church was designed in a French Gothic style using native brick with precast arches and detailed features. The Great Hall followed suit, with gothic-style architecture, matching masonry and precast features.

The Phase 2 addition connecting the historic church and the Great Hall now brings the two existing facilities together. The new addition includes a new entry with a lobby incorporating an open fireplace and a library. The addition also provides three large classrooms, administrative offices, support space and numerous breakout spaces for intimate gatherings.

The exterior cloister walkway features repeating gothic arches as the visual connector between the Great Hall and the historic church. The cloister walkway allows protected circulation between buildings, with the 15-ft-high arches providing natural light for the offices and lobby.

Calvary Episcopal Church
Golden

Gold Hard Hat Award (tie)

Outstanding Religious Project

The Mile Hi Church expansion is a green project for a 5,500-member congregation in Lakewood that created the largest dome building in the Denver metro area.

The project required an extraordinary construction and inflation process, resulting in a six-story dome structure of 1,500 seats, with an events-sized stage and future expansion potential.

The process began with a weather-resistant airform being attached to an existing ring-beam footing.  The airform, an inflatable fabric structure made of PVC-coated nylon and polyester fabrics, was inflated with fans to create the final building shape, fully inflatable within three to four hours. Upon inflation, the dome grew to just under 60 ft tall and 232 ft in diameter.  The interior was then sprayed with polyurethane foam, steel rebar was attached and a concrete mixture sprayed over the steel.  The original fabric remains a key part of the structure as the roof membrane.

The sanctuary’s monolithic dome is environmentally friendly and energy efficient, taking fewer natural resources to operate than a comparably sized traditional building. The 3-in.-thick foam insulation eliminates exterior noise while providing excellent acoustics. Recycled structural steel and bamboo wood doors were among the green materials used throughout the expansion. The church has planted more trees than were removed and has recycled asphalt from former the parking lots as filler for the construction site.

The state-of-the-art technological features enable the church to use professional tools such as web casting while also serving as an excellent resource to the performing arts community that also uses the facility. The new audio/visual and lighting packages have improved the facility’s capability to enhance presentations and increase the audience levels for lectures by renowned speakers such as Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer.

Mile Hi Church
Lakewood

Silver Hard Hat Award (tie)

Outstanding Religious Project

Located directly across from historic St. Mary’s Cathedral, the Marian House Soup Kitchen is one of the first structures seen as you enter downtown Colorado Springs. Owned by Catholic Charities, Marian House recognized the need for a new building because it was becoming an increasing challenge to provide enough services from its outdated and undersized facility.

As a gateway to downtown, the first goal was to create a structure that fit the aesthetic of surrounding buildings. The new 15,725-sq-ft facility is designed with a brick façade, a metal roof and architectural features to reflect the design of the neighboring St. Mary’s Cathedral.

From a functional standpoint, the new facility offers a larger dining room, a safer, more efficient kitchen and a larger basement for increased storage. Consideration was also given to long-term operating costs, with the use of two layers of ridged insulation and incorporating a roof with a high-R value for reduced energy costs.

Although demolition of a portion of the existing structure was required to complete the new facility, the team remained sensitive to ongoing operations and to the clientele, many of whom struggle with mental and social disabilities. Constant communication with the staff, volunteers and those served by the Marian House was facilitated with signage, team meetings and ongoing daily communication.

The Marian House Soup Kitchen serves a key role in the Colorado Springs area, and vital to the success of the project was the constant consideration given to those affected and served by the soup kitchen.

Marian House Soup Kitchen
Colorado Springs

Silver Hard Hat Award (tie)

Outstanding Religious Project

Redemptoris Mater Seminary is an 11,000-sq-ft addition to an existing seminary located at the John Paul II center. Himmelman Construction teamed with Larson Architects to complete the second phase of the building, which includes marble finishes, a chapel surrounded by glu-lam beam roof structure and a 100-ft-tall bell tower.

A European architect who also worked on the first phase of the project originally designed the building. Himmelman Construction and Larson Architects worked on the established design together to develop creative solutions to some complex design challenges.

The design of the bell tower required erectors to work more than 100 ft above the ground, requiring expert skills and scrupulous safety measures. Steel Fabricators erected the tower seamlessly and without accidents. In fact, the entire project was completed without a single safety accident.

The formal chapel design called for a two-story structure consisting of glu-lam beams and structural decking. This proved to be a challenge because each member of the octagon structure was supporting the other. In efforts to ensure the highest quality product and to save time, the entire structure was built on the ground and then hoisted into place.

Redemptoris Mater Seminary
Denver

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