CLIENT: Colorado Department of Transportation

Location: Denver, co

PROJECT SIZE: 175,000 sf office / 135,000 sf structured parking

Project Role: lead project Designer

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is the state’s largest engineering employer, and right now recruitment and retention are of foremost concern. CDOT needed a facility to attract the best and brightest talent, so they brought our integrated design team to help.

A catalytic civic project in the Sun Valley neighborhood, the CDOT headquarters represents an opportunity for quality civic space. The challenge? CDOTs program was extensive and the budget for improvements was tight. With construction starting in 2016, we would set out to translate the impact of CDOTs community contribution into a visual language that speaks to movement and the complex networks they design and manage.

By concentrating vibrant design in active social spaces and keeping a calm approach in concentration spaces, the interiors can be both engaging and productive—and our dollars can go a long way.  And through an iterative process of testing architectural and site design, program, and cost, our team successfully achieved CDOTs program goals while reserving space for a high-quality public plaza space that engages nearby transit and is the face of the new facility.