GE Johnson Construction Co. of Colorado Springs topped out the Westin Riverfront Resort & Spa in Vail in early August. The project, developed by East West Partners and designed by Hornberger & Worstell Inc. of San Francisco, is scheduled for completion in May 2008.

The $127.5-million Westin development is the centerpiece of Riverfront Village, located at the base of Beaver Creek Mountain on a half-mile of riverfront property. The resort contains 25,000 sq ft of retail space and 210 hotel rooms and suites, consisting of one-, two- and- three-bedroom residences.

The Colorado Department of Corrections broke ground in late August on Colorado State Penitentiary II, a new maximum-security prison at the East Canon City Prison Complex in Canon City.

The new facility, called CSPII, is a 948-bed administrative segregation prison, the highest-security facility in the Colorado correctional system. It will be built east of the current Colorado State Penitentiary and south of Centennial Corrections Facility.

CDOC has opted to manage the $100-million design-build project in-house with the assistance of program manager Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. of Denver.

Demolition is under way on the buildings on the south and west sides of the former Gates Rubber Factory site in Denver. Before new infrastructure can be installed, the existing buildings that formerly housed multiple furniture stores, other tenants and manufacturing must be cleared away. Trammell Crow Residential has been selected as the vertical developer for this parcel.

At 27 West Mississippi Ave., the structure formerly known as the Gates Creamery Building is also being demolished. Alpine Demolition, the demolition contractor, is chewing away at the roughly 400,000-sq-ft brick and concrete structure. The building presents a unique challenge because the steel and concrete forklift bridge, which spans Mississippi Avenue and connects the Creamery Building to the former Gates Rubber Factory building to the north, must be removed.

On the west side of the site, the buildings located at the 700 and 900 blocks of Santa Fe Drive and the 700 block of Cherokee Street are also scheduled for demolition. Joseph Freed and Associates has been selected as the vertical developer for the west side parcel.

The Weitz Co. of Denver, in collaboration with developer Daedalus Real Estate Advisors of Phoenix, is pushing for a November completion of One Willow Bridge Road, a premier European-style private residence club in Vail Village. Weitz is the general contractor for the $34-million mixed-use project.

One Willow Bridge Road was one of the first major new projects planned as part of the town of Vail’s $1-billion redevelopment initiative. The project is unique in Vail Village because it features a European look on the exterior and modern interiors from designer Resort Design Associates International of San Francisco and Boulder.
 
One Willow Bridge Road will include state-of-the-art amenities with full or fractional ownership of units and exclusive resort management services from the nearby Sonnenalp Resort.

Denver’s Fentress Architects, in a design-build collaboration with Hensel Phelps Construction Co.’s Northern California District Office in San Jose, and the California architectural firm Steinberg Architects, recently completed two new buildings located on the San Bruno, Calif., campus of Skyline Community College.

 The new 39,000-sq-ft Student Union includes a bookstore, community services center, dining area with support kitchen, meeting rooms, student activities offices and student congregation spaces. The Science Annex, at 29,000 sq ft, accommodates the wet lab needs of the biology and chemistry departments, along with staff and faculty offices.

Design for the overall 68,000-sq-ft project began in October 2004.

Pinkard Construction Co. and 42/40 Architecture, both of Denver, recently completed the $22.4-million ONE Riverfront Park condominium project for East West Partners-Denver.

ONE Riverfront is a cast-in-place structure with post-tensioned slabs and seven street-front, four-level townhomes, including a below-grade parking garage. The mid-rise structure’s exterior consists of exposed architectural concrete, floor-to-ceiling aluminum-clad wood windows with composite metal panels, and Norman brick veneer.

High-end interior finishes include solid quartz stone counter tops, Italian porcelain tile and European cabinetry. Large portions of the residential interior feature exposed concrete ceilings and structural columns.

The U.S. General Services Administration Rocky Mountain Region has awarded a $6.9-million contract to SunEdison for the design and construction of a solar park at the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood. 

The park will consist of photovoltaic arrays located on a six-acre site adjacent to West Sixth Avenue.  Electricity generation should begin in mid-December.

The project is important for Xcel Energy in meeting Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard, which requires that large electric utilities generate 20% of their power through renewable energy sources by 2020.

Denver’s Taylor Kohrs LLC celebrated the topping off of Mountainside Fitness Center, located in Country Club Village in Westminster.

As the general contractor for the project, Taylor Kohrs has provided all of the construction services for the Arizona-based company’s first Colorado location, including site work and construction of the new 54,000-sq-ft facility. The new location includes 40,000 sq ft of fitness space and 14,000 sq ft of office space on the second floor.

The first members-only slope-side mountain lodge opened in mid-August at Teton Village ski and outdoor area in Jackson, Wyo.

The Mountain Lodge is located inside an existing building at Teton Village that was purchased by DPS Sporting Club Development Co. for the private use of Snake River Sporting Club homeowners and members. The lodge provides full concierge-serviced activities, a restaurant and beverage service and quick access to the ski resort’s quad lift. The interior and exterior modifications needed to transform the existing building into a year-round private lodge were completed by Carranza-Habib Architecture of Jackson, Wyo. and Studio SPF of Connecticut.