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/ BUILDING DIALOGUE / SEPTEMBER 2017

/ Two Hilton Hotel Brands Arrive in Boulder /

ABOVE:

Construction nears completion in

Boulder. Courtesy Michelle Meunier

Photography

accommodating the trash and recycling companies here in Boulder. It’s

unique and it gives Kathleen (Bates) the opportunity to keep the back-of-

house functions separated from the front of house – the public realm. It

means there’s really no back door on either of these two buildings.”

The Look and Feel of Boulder

According to Johnson, Mack and Bates, from the beginning they have

been focused on creating hotels that are not only on-brand, but hotels that

will fit in with the urban fabric of Boulder.

“Sage has a great visionary approach to creating these unique, high-qual-

ity hotels,” says Johnson. “It was important that the architecture and design

for each hotel represent the Hilton brand, while also providing an original

experience that felt unique to Boulder.”

To achieve that Boulder aesthetic, inside each hotel Johnson Nathan

Strohe utilized a blend of organic materials such as wood and stone along-

side warm metals like natural copper and bronze. The skin of the hotels

will feature a mix of stucco and red sandstone (a Boulder signature if there

ever was one) quarried from Lyons, just 17 miles up the road.

According to Bates and Johnson, Sage’s flexibility with their design stan-

dards is what allowed for the architecture to take on a “Boulder” look, in-

stead of a cookie-cutter approach.

“These hotels are going to go way beyond the brands,” says Bates. “Each

has a real boutique feel in many ways including the display of local art-

work, mostly works from CU alumni, faculty and students. We will also

be supporting the community by adopting the zero waste initiative that

is very important to the mayor and the city. Sage felt it was important to

support the values that are meaningful to Boulder and show we want to be

a larger part of this great community.”

What You Don’t Hear, Matters

With the location being in one of the noisiest areas in the city, sound-

proofing is just one of the details that Johnson Nathan Strohe, Milender

White and Sage Hospitality have been focused on.

“I can tell you that Sage has put every last detail and focus into selling a

good night’s sleep,” says Mack. “That starts with absolute quiet and the STC

ratings. They have held us to a high standard and we are designing and

achieving that in the field.” (Sound Transmission Class is an integer rating

of how well a building partition attenuates airborne sound.)

White said that a good night’s sleep is critical to not only the business

traveler but to the leisure traveler as well. And with 28th Street and a shop-

ping mall to the east, and shopping centers next door and across the street,

(not to mention one of Boulder’s busiest streets right out front), it was es-

sential to meet the challenge of providing a quiet sleeping environment.

Focused on the Finish

Thirty months into this project, Mack says they have excavated 85,000

cubic yards of soil, poured 21,000 cubic yards of concrete and by the time

things wrap up they will have 1.4 million man hours utilized to create the

hotel.

According to Byron White, President and CEO of Milender White (and

a fellow University of Colorado alum), the project is “tracking six weeks

ahead of the contractual completion date and is coming in under budget.”

Considering the tight site conditions, zero lot line and being on an in-

sanely busy street corner, these accomplishments seem all the more im-

pressive.

Back on the sunny deck across the street from the project site, Johnson

decides to add to his original answer about pride with a nod to design.

“In terms of the actual design of the building, the thing that I’m the most

proud of is the way that the two hotels are going to fit with the campus

and the office building and its connectivity to the neighboring commer-

cial and residential areas. It’s such a big project, but it will really fit into the

urban fabric and the style of architecture. They are going to be beautiful

additions to Boulder.”

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PROJECT TEAM

DEVELOPERS:

Sage Hospitality and

NAI Shames Makovsky

GENERAL CONTRACTOR:

Milender White Construction

ARCHITECT:

Johnson Nathan Strohe