Pahl Designing Copper Mountain Building/LOA Architects Wins Stapleton High/Washington Group Picked for Natural Gas Project

The design of the Copper Mountain Consolidated Metropolitan District’s new administration building is styled to fit well with the architectural vocabulary of nearby buildings in the mountain resort community.

Design of Copper Mountain Building Under Way

Pahl Architecture is progressing on the design of the Copper Mountain Consolidated Metropolitan District’s new administration building, a 26,700-sq-ft facility that will provide space for a fire station, water, sanitation, cable television and administrative services.

The building is styled to fit well with the architectural vocabulary of nearby buildings in the mountain resort community. Intrawest and Copper Mountain Inc. are collaborating on the project, designed by Pahl Architecture of Denver. As it moves into final design development, the building’s conceptual cost is an estimated $5.1 million.

The project design, with intensive community input, was approved by the district’s board of directors and the community’s design advisory committee last September. In November, district voters approved new general obligation debt to finance construction in 2008.

Groundbreaking Scheduled This Summer for Aurora Hilton

Adolfson & Peterson Construction was selected to build a Hilton Garden Inn near the Fitzsimons medical campus in Aurora.

LOA Wins Competition to Design Stapleton High

Luis O. Acosta Architects was named Denver Public Schools as the winner of the competition to design a new Stapleton High School. It’s the fourth project the firm has been awarded by DPS. LOA Architects was one of four firms selected by DPS Construction Services to compete last fall in a two-part design competition.

The new high school is expected to be around 230,000 sq ft and will accommodate up to 1,600 students. The proposed 20-acre site is part of a larger regional park located in the Northfield area of the Stapleton redevelopment.

The high school and park will share parking and athletic facilities with the neighborhood. The site plan integrates the buildings into a “prairie campus”—a building that incorporates strong indigenous materials and forms to make the campus unique to the Colorado landscape.

Denver Firm Looks to Raise Sustainable IQs with New Book

Associates III in Denver released a book that its staff hopes will be a catalyst for change in the residential interior design community.

“Sustainable Residential Interiors” was written to give designers a practical guide for accessing reference material and assessing the environmental pros and cons of decisions they make in home specifications, from fixed finishes to furniture.

Washington Group Selected for Colorado Natural Gas Project

Washington Group International of Boise was awarded a cost-reimbursable contract by ExxonMobil for work at a natural gas production facility in the Piceance Basin region of Colorado.

The firm will provide engineering, procurement and construction management services for ExxonMobil’s Piceance Development Project near Rifle. Staff will work on the offsite facilities, including those related to well pads, gathering pipelines, metering stations, separation facilities, interconnects to a gas plant to be installed by others and an administration/maintenance complex.

School Design Initiative Launches This Month

“Schools of the 21st Century,” a multi-platform program, was launched earlier this year by Architectural Record, with the American Architectural Foundation and Edutopia. The initiative was created to meet the growing challenges of K-12 design and construction, expected to total nearly $30 billion annually.

Aardex Will Design and Build Arkansas Medical Facility

Denver-based Aardex LLC was awarded the contract to build a medical office building for the Northeast Arkansas Clinic in Jonesboro, Ark. The three-story, 120,000-sq-ft facility will consolidate many of NEA’s real estate holdings in the region.

Wewatta Plaza Office Condo Announced for LoDo

Colorado-based Resolute Investments unveiled plans in February for Wewatta Plaza Office Condominiums, a 200,000-plus-sq-ft building adjacent to the Union Station development in Lower Downtown Denver.

Located at the corner of 18th and Wewatta streets, Wewatta Plaza will feature 180,742 sq ft of office condos with balconies and penthouse options, 19,551 sq ft of retail and lobby space and 1.9 parking spaces per 1,000 sq ft. Green-building principles, practices and products will be incorporated.

CSI Signs on as Charter Member of ICE Program

Colorado Structures Inc. is one of nine charter members—and the first major general contractor—of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s new, voluntary ICE Mutual Agreement program.

The program begins with a self-assessment of hiring practices to help uncover vulnerabilities to illegal activity related to immigration status. Technical tools to verify social security numbers for W-2 purposes are integrated with best practices to lead to a high level of assurance that Colorado Structures’ employees are legally eligible for employment. 

ICE will provide training and education on proper hiring procedures, fraudulent document detection and anti-discrimination laws. The agency will also share information with employers on the latest illegal schemes used to circumvent legal hiring practices.

Bloodgood Sharp Buster Unveils New Corporate Identity

Bloodgood Sharp Buster Architects and Planners Inc. launched the new year with a new name – BSB Design.

Tower One Relocates to New Denver Offices

Tower One Construction, a 13-year-old Denver-based general contractor, moved its offices in February.