December 16, 2015-January 5, 2016 —
COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— Page 37
Construction, Design & Engineering News
Associated Builders and
Contractors launched Build-
ing America: The Merit Shop
Scorecard, which reviews and
grades state-specific information
significant to the success of the
commercial and industrial con-
struction industry.
ronment where merit shop con-
tractors are well positioned to
succeed and states where stra-
tegic improvements need to be
made in order to create a friend-
ly business climate.
The Merit Shop Scorecard
grades states on project labor
agreement, prevailing wage and
right-to-work policies as well as
their construction job growth
rate, commitment to developing
a well-trained workforce, level
of flexibility in career and techni-
cal education curricula and use
of public-private partnerships.
“The Merit Shop Scorecard
will be a useful tool for law-
makers and industry stakehold-
ers to explain how state policies
affect the ability of contractors
to conduct business and expand
their operations,” said ABC
Director of Labor and Federal
Procurement Ben Brubeck. “The
scorecard highlights high-per-
forming states that have enacted
policies opposing anti-compet-
itive schemes and restrictive,
cost-inflating mandates while
embracing fairness in the work-
place. It also identifies low-per-
forming states that have failed
to foster environments where
businesses can thrive, invest and
create construction jobs in local
communities.”
Colorado’s overall rank was
22. On its report card, Colorado
received an F for not being a
right-to-work state, however, it
received a B for four-year aver-
age job growth rate and an A for
prevailing wage.
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Haselden Construction was
recognized by the National
Association of Health Services
Executives, a nonprofit associa-
tion promoting the advancement
and development of black health
care leaders, for Haselden’s “out-
standing contribution to sup-
port, promote and advance the
NAHSE Greater Denver Chap-
ter.”
Haselden has been partnered
with NAHSE for several years,
nearly since the founding of the
Greater Denver Chapter.
“Our goal is to increase our
membership and raise aware-
ness within the region,” stated
NAHSE Greater Denver Chap-
ter President and St. Anthony
Hospital Chief Administra-
tive Officer Patrick Green. “In
addition to health care workers,
we’d like to extend our network
to those designing and build-
ing the health care community.
Haselden is helping us do this.”
Haselden uses its extensive
health care connections to pro-
mote NAHSE within the AEC
industry. J.J. Rams, Haselden’s
vice president, noted, “It’s a
great organization. We’re thrilled
to be a part of it and honored to
be presented with this award.”
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Haselden’s J.J. Rams, pictured left, and Patrick Green, chief administrative
officer of St. Anthony Hospital
Elion Partners completed a
capital improvement program
for 5889 Greenwood Plaza Blvd.
in Greenwood Village, which
transformed the Class B sub-
urban office property formerly
known as Plaza Colorado into
Scala, a modern, Class A office
environment with upscale ame-
nities.
“Elion Partners, in close col-
laboration with Transwestern
and Waring Associates, devel-
oped a comprehensive design
and rebranding strategy to rein-
troduce Plaza Colorado as Scala,”
said Transwestern Senior Vice
President Peter Thomas. “We
focused our strategy on mod-
ernizing the building and add-
ing amenities that will appeal to
today’s tenants.”
The 90,000-square-foot build-
ing’s modern redesign of the
main lobby features newflooring,
lighting, artwork and directories.
The renovations also include new
elevator cabs and modernization
of the elevators’ mechanical com-
ponents, as well as the addition
of a state-of-the-art fitness cen-
ter and contemporary collabora-
tive space. Transwestern, which
handles the leasing and manage-
ment, and Waring Associates, a
Denver-based architectural firm,
oversaw the capital improve-
ment program.
“We believed there was an
opportunity with Scala to add
value to the building, its ten-
ants and the market,” said Juan
DeAngulo, managing principal
at Elion Partners. “We are excited
to bring our vision for the asset to
fruition.”
The 2,410-sf fitness center com-
prisesawidevarietyof cardioand
weight machines, free-weights,
stretching space and lockers. It
is available for tenant use only
and includesmen’s andwomen’s
changing rooms with showers.
The upgraded speculative suites
on the top floor offer excellent
views of Colorado’s beautiful
landscape and position Scala to
accommodate the requirements
of a wide range of tenants, the
firm added.
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Renovations transformed the Class B suburban office property into a Class A office environment.
Denver Botanic Gardens
selected Davis Partnership
Architects to design a new
50,000-square-foot Center for
Science, Art and Education at
the gardens’ York Street loca-
tion in Denver.
The structure will include
classrooms, an auditorium,
offices, a library, a laboratory
for research and conservation
efforts, a herbarium for pre-
served plant collections, an art
exhibition space and an under-
ground parking structure. The
project also involves a remodel
and retrofit to the Boettcher
Memorial Center that was
completed in 1966.
Nearly 13,000 sf of the build-
ing’s office and classroom inte-
riors will be updated. The proj-
ect is expected to break ground
in early 2017 and to be com-
plete in 2018. Renderings will
be released in early 2016.
“We are excited to be work-
ing with Davis Partnership in
the design of this important
newproject,” stated Brian Vogt,
CEO of Denver Botanic Gar-
dens. “Our selection committee
was extremely impressed with
their design vision and the way
their approach was respectful
of the original architecture on
our campus.”
“Our approach was to deliv-
er a design that was humbly
iconic – respecting the existing
architecture while reinterpret-
ing the botanical references that
influenced the original design,”
added David Daniel, associate
principal at Davis Partnership
Architects.
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increased strengtheningof the con-
crete floors along the structural
column lines. This allowed large
openings in the middle of the
concrete floor’s structural bays
to be saw-cut out and daylight
to penetrate down through the
building’s three levels. This acti-
vated the spaces architecturally,
and increased the well-being of
users on the bottom floor – previ-
ously known as the “dungeon.”
This upgrade of the Student
Center’s floor capacity using
fiber-reinforced polymer (car-
bon, in this case) delivered
multiple benefits. By reinforc-
ing the floors, openings could
be punched vertically through
the structure to harvest daylight
deep into the lower level for
the first time in more than 50
years. This approach also pro-
vided greater flexibility and
expanded uses for the univer-
sity without compromising the
building’s structural integrity.
In addition, student well-being
has increased, and the overall
user experience transformed, as
a result.
FRP strengthening systems
can be used on many materi-
als, including concrete, masonry
and timber. Studio NYL has pro-
posed using these systems on
a variety of renovation projects
for a number of structural rea-
sons, including increasing bend-
ing and shear capacity, confining
column axial loads and enhanc-
ing lateral loads though shear-
wall upgrades, but our primary
reason is to save the embodied
energy already existing in the
building’s structure.
To this end, FRP systems were
used at the original Walsenburg
High School (built in 1911) to
allow the main-level classrooms
concrete floor to be transformed
into the Spanish Peak Library,
which required increased floor
loading for library book stacks.
FRP systems alsowere applied to
the existing concrete shearwalls
on CSU's Lory Theater (Phase 1
of the Student Center) to create
a large window opening where
daylight now penetrates into the
university's new multifunction
theater and banquet space.
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Sustainable
