November 4-November 17, 2015 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— Page 29
Construction, Design & Engineering News
City officials, Denver Board
of Education members and
administrators, students and a
contingent of the Shoemaker
family recently celebrated the
official opening of the new Joe
Shoemaker Elementary School.
The school opened to students
in August.
AndersonMasonDale Archi-
tects designed the Denver Pub-
lic Schools facility, which fea-
tures an abundance of natural
light thanks to the numerous
windows as part of the design.
GH Phipps Construction Cos.
was the contractor on the
80,000-square-foot building,
formerly known as Hampden
Heights ECE-5 School, at 3333
S. Havana St.
The elementary school is
designed in a series of pods,
classrooms clustered so that
programs for early childhood
education students and ele-
mentary school-age students
are separated by a gymnasium,
as well as by courtyards for
play and learning.
The school was funded by
Denver voters through the
2012 bond.
The school site includes a
bike path heading downtown
and a section of Cherry Creek,
with an amphitheater con-
structed near a bio-retention
pond that serves 52 acres of
land in the area. Extensive site
work was needed to address
the creek and open space. The
school’s configuration allows
the library and gymnasium to
be used for community events.
The $19.7 million school will
follow an Expeditionary School
program, where learning takes
place outside the classroom
including in the adjacent open
space as well as within. The
building also includes a library,
offices, a music room that backs
up to a performance platform
and cafetorium, and parking
lot. A roof deck will allow stu-
dents to work on a roof garden,
and several learning spaces are
available for flexibility as the
school grows. Future expan-
sion can occur to the south.
“This is an extraordinary
facility built for extraordinary
students,” said DPS Superin-
tendent Tom Boasberg.
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The new Joe Shoemaker Elementary School is designed in a series of
pods.
Metropolitan State University
of Denver officials broke ground
on the school’s new $60 million
Aerospace and Engineering Sci-
ences Building.
GH Phipps Construction
Cos. is the contractor for the
142,000-square-foot building on
the Auraria Campus.
The building will house pro-
grams in the aerospace sciences;
civil, electrical and mechanical
engineering technology; comput-
er information systems; comput-
er science; and industrial design.
Aswell, the buildingwill house
Colorado’s only Institute for
Advanced Manufacturing and a
“flexible” fourth floor that will
feature equipment from various
advanced manufacturers.
The Aerospace building, slated
to be LEED Gold certified, was
designed by AndersonMason-
Dale Architects. Construction is
expected to finish in July 2017.
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Commercial interior design
firm Elsy Studios recently com-
pleted a ground-floor redesign
of Design Workshop’s Denver
office.
The 9,221-square-foot office at
1390 Lawrence St. features indoor
and outdoor focal points that
“create the perfect articulation of
Design Workshop’s culture and
brand,” according to Elsy Studios.
Design Workshop is a land-
scape architecture, urban design
and strategic services firm ser-
vicing clients in North America
and around the world. Its propri-
etary methodology, DW Legacy
Design, focuses heavily on the
idea of balance – a concept Elsy
Studios applied to the design pro-
cess for Design Workshop’s own
offices. Combining organic and
angular elements, Elsy was able
to create a unique character for
Design Workshop’s space.
“Designing for designers is
always the ultimate challenge –
and one Elsy Studios was happy
to undertake,” said Juliana Rini,
project manager at Elsy Stu-
dios. “We worked closely with
the team at Design Workshop to
bring their vision to life, creat-
ing a space that showcases their
unique design process, invites
the outdoors in and immediately
sparks interest on the street level.
It was a creatively demanding
and immensely rewarding project
for our two teams to work on.
We’re so proud of the result.”
With input from the team at
Design Workshop, Elsy Studios
created a design for the space that
incorporated elements one might
find in a park or urban devel-
opment, such as organic screens
and sconces that highlighted the
main hallway like streetlights. A
large collaborative area was cre-
ated front and center, featuring
a quartz countertop and pinup
board, which draws focus to the
design process of current projects.
Brick walls and wood floors were
restored, and a fresh color palette
was selected.
The new location will house
40 employees and allow the
company to expand in line with
demand.
Coda Construction was the
contractor.
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GH Phipps
The 142,000-square-foot building was designed to include a “flexible”
fourth floor that will feature equipment from various advanced manu-
facturers.
AndersonMasonDale Architects
The building will house Colorado’s only Institute for Advanced
Manufacturing.
Design Workshop’s new space includes bringing the outdoors inside, with
elements often seen in a park or urban development.
Taylor Kohrs has started
construction on the demoli-
tion, addition and renovations
for Yeshiva Toras Chaim, an
all-boy private religious school
serving high school-aged stu-
dents.
The 1950s synagogue will
be abated and demolished to
make way for a new student
dormitory at the campus at
1555 Stuart St. in Denver.
The new building, designed
by Hord Coplan Macht,
includes dormitory rooms for
97 students, a staff apartment
and a guest suite. The addition
also provides students with
a student lounge, seminary
study space, bookstore, laun-
dry facilities, shower facilities
and associated rooms for sup-
port services.
Additionally, the existing
administration
building’s
classrooms will be renovated.
The renovation includes new
mechanical systems, new
energy-efficient windows, the
addition of a fire sprinkler sys-
tem and an addressable fire
alarm system.
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The 1950s synagogue will be abated and demolished to make way
for a new student dormitory at the campus at 1555 Stuart St. in
Denver.
