April 20-May 3, 2016
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COLORADO REAL ESTATE JOURNAL
— Page 13B
W
orking with one of
the world’s most
historic luxury
resorts is a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity. Supporting the
resort in its most recent 30-plus-
year evolution is a privilege,
as it affords perspective and
institutional knowledge of a
property constantly evolving to
meet the needs of its discerning
guests.
We have provided engineering
solutions to The Broadmoor
since 1984. At that time, the
five-star property was owned
by El Pomar Foundation, the
charitable organization that took
over ownership in 1939 after the
death of its founder, Spencer
Penrose. In 30 years, we have
provided consulting engineering
services for upgrades, repairs
and expansion of the once-
Penrose-owned properties in
and around Colorado Springs
– from designing retaining walls
above the Will Rogers Shrine of
the Sun to supporting the road
leading to Cloud Camp, a lodge
Penrose built atop Cheyenne
Mountain.
In 2011, Denver-based
Anschutz Corp. purchased The
Broadmoor, investing millions
of dollars in the storied 3,000-
acre resort complex. Over the
past four years, the company
has reimagined the buildings
surrounding Cheyenne Lake at
the hotel’s main campus and
built luxury amenities at three
distinct Broadmoor Wilderness
properties, including a fly-fishing
school on the main property;
Cloud Camp, a wilderness retreat
atop Cheyenne Mountain;
The Ranch at Emerald Valley,
nine cabins located west of the
main hotel campus in the Pike
National Forest; and Fishing
Camp, located on Tarryall River.
Throughout the expansion, we
provided engineering counsel,
conducted geological analysis
for Cloud Camp and managed
structural engineering for The
Ranch at Emerald Valley.
Project Specifics
Recently our team completed
two Broadmoor projects
noteworthy for their contribution
to local tourism and the
engineering challenges the
projects posed. Broadmoor West,
part of the main complex, which
first opened in 1975, reopened
last year. The Broadmoor
Soaring Adventure is a new
attraction featuring 10 zip lines
that range from 250 to 1,800
feet outside Seven Falls, a series
of waterfalls in South Cheyenne
Canyon that Anschutz Corp.
recently acquired and renovated
after they were heavily damaged
from the September 2013 floods.
These endeavors are examples
of familiar techniques applied in
new ways.
Until Anschutz Corp. bought
The Broadmoor and signaled its
interest in remaking Broadmoor
West, the larger resort
building was showing its age.
Created in the contemporary
style of the 1970s, it lacked
character and architectural
distinction. Moreover, it
bore no resemblance to the
main Broadmoor building
constructed in 1918, adding to its
incongruous image.
The Anschutz team committed
to a $57 million renovation to
change the building’s outward
appearance and add three
floors of additional lodging –
but needed to complete two
years’ worth of work between
Thanksgiving and April, when
the Broadmoor would host
the Space Symposium, the
premier U.S. space policy and
program forum. Months of
preplanning by the design team
and the contractor, GE Johnson
Construction Co., preceded the
construction start. Given the age
of the building, the team had
to plan for the unknown and
for Colorado’s weather, as work
couldn’t stop.
To save time, our working
history of the building was a
great advantage. We knew, for
example, that Broadmoor West
was founded on spread footing
foundations on native sand and
gravel soils. Adding floors and
balconies would add additional
loads and potentially cause
dangerous settlement. Luckily,
we had tested at least two dozen
borings around the building over
the past 20 years, which the team
used to complete calculations
on the stability of the existing
foundations and ability to handle
the additional load. Our tests
showed that any additional
settlement to the structure would
be well within tolerable ranges,
saving hundreds of thousands of
dollars in construction costs and
all-important time.
Once the Broadmoor West
project was completed, my
colleague David Glater, a
principal geological engineer
and professional geologist, set his
sights toward the sky, specifically
the Soaring Adventure zip line
project at Seven Falls. While he
had evaluated and designed
solutions for mile-long electrical
transmission lines spanning
southwestern canyons, this
was the first zip line he helped
Bill Hoffmann, PE
Vice president, senior principal engi-
neer, CTL|Thompson,
Colorado Springs
Photos courtesy CTL|Thompson
The Broadmoor West resort building, built in the 1970s, was renovated
to change the building’s outward appearance and add three floors of
additional lodging.
