Unique Bell Tower Proposed to Stradle Cherry Creek at Larimer

Fentress Architects, designers of DIA and the Convention Center in Denver, has unveiled new designs for an architecturally significant and prominent addition to the lower Denver skyline. Kudos to the large open space proportioning of the site, almost %65 private and public open space + %23 creek = 12.2% building footprint. I like the idea presented here with the contrasting building styles, a traditional small office commercial building against the jutting balconies on the residential tower which will be sure to bring out some love and hate. The plaza layout is especially appealing to me with it's creek access and creek-side patio, it's another bright spot to add to the Cherry Creek bike trail downtown.

via Rocky Mountain News and see the slideshow of illustrations

Denver Earthworks Expo This Weekend

EarthWorks Expo is Saturday and Sunday at the Merchandise Mart with some good workshops.

A Public Farm Grows in Queens

PS1's summer Warm Up Series sprouts this Saturday, June 21st with an installation by young architecture firm Work Architecture Company.

"PF1 (Public Farm One) is an urban farm concept that evokes the look of a flying carpet landing in the P.S.1 courtyard. Constructed from large cardboard tubes, its top surface will be a working farm, blooming with a variety of vegetables and plants. The structure will create a textured, colorful, and constantly changing surface in contrast with P.S.1’s angular concrete and gravel courtyard. PF1 will work as an interactive bridge between outside and inside, creating multiple zones of activity including swings, fans, sound effects, innovative seating areas, and a refreshing pool at its center. The installation will be a living structure made from inexpensive and sustainable materials recyclable after its use at P.S.1."

Public Farm 1
Check out My Ninja, Please
and Treehugger has opening night reviews

LaN-IN-FLIGHT Will Depart from Denver July 11th

Book now, deadline is 6/11. Anyone wanna sponsor me?

Boulder locals Monika Wittig and Luis E. Fraguada with James Coleman and Shane Salisbury recently won the DIA/DOCA Emerging Artist Program competition with their entry [Wind]ow Seat. As a result of the commission, the group is setting up a traveling seminar called LaN-IN-FLIGHT which will depart from Denver to LA, then to NYC, Boston then back to Denver from July 9th-18th. The seminar will focus on digital fabrication and the output will be published and presented in August at the LaN's [Wind]ow Seat exhibition. 10 days of traveling to cutting edge design firms and industry leaders including Ball-Nogues Studio, Contour Crafting, SCI-ARC, Commonwealth, REX, and others, looks like a lot of Rhino sessions in airport lounges.

This is a great concept and I'm sure will help inform the final exhibition, but why no seminars or visits in Denver itself?

From their site - "A Live Architecture Network is under the direction of 4 designers who landed in Barcelona to pursue postgraduate studies in Digital Tectonics at IAAC (Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia) and following have taken-off on the path of DIGITAL FABRICATION as a means to forwarding composite processes /collaborations driving architectural development. LaN recognizes the power of digital fabrication, not merely as a toolset of of a high technical caliber, but as the driver of particular groupings of resources–an organization of human, economic, and material assets–varying widely based on project circumstances. LaN’s mode of operation is parametric in nature, and seeks to with re-associate architecture with a flexible, non-authoritative, temporal, & data-rich practice of spatial design."

Photo Credit from LaB ,the Live Architecture Network's Blogsite.

Three Upcoming Sustainable Communities in Denver

All have yet to officially break ground but should be completed in the next 2-4 years. It will be interesting to compare the 3 very different sized projects to see to what degree of sustainability has been achieved.

Geos - Arvada: 25 acres, 300 homes
Opening of Pre-sale Release June 2, 2008.
Geos - Colorado's First GeoSolar Neighborhood : Green Elevations
"Over 300 sunny Colorado days per year and a constant temperature of the Earth at five to seven feet below ground level are the power sources of Geos, the first fossil fuel free community in the United States."

Horizon Uptown (City Centre) - Aurora: 503 acres, 3,800 homes , 1.3 million sq ft retail (1/3 small format, 2/3 large) and 4 million sq ft office (16,000 people)
Lend Lease Project
Green Development Planned for Aurora : Denver Post
"All commercial buildings in the project must meet the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Gold standard. Homes will be built to either Colorado Built Green standards or those established by the U.S. Green Building Council."

Lowry Range - Lowry: 4,000 acres, 13,000 homes, 260 acres commercial and 750 acres open space
Lend Lease Project
Solar Power may come to Lowry Range : Rebchook's Blog
"The Lowry Range, the largest mixed-use development on the drawing board in the Denver area, could become the first, large-scale Colorado community to use solar as a power source."

16th Street Mall - Keep the Granite and the Trees, lose the Teletubbies

"Where else in the United States does this exist?" asked Paul Chapel, a principal with BOKA Powell Architects, in Dallas. "A mile of granite carpet woven by hand. It's a work of art."

"Those beautiful granite pavers, set so that they look like the back of a rattlesnake, are inspired, a hallmark of a mixed transit and pedestrian mall designed by Henry Cobb, a partner of I.M. Pei, whose name was dropped liberally during the presentation."

"Honor the original design and its civic significance to Denver," ...that includes uncluttering the sidewalks; old pictures of the mall show understated planters and other accessories. "Those Teletubby planters and wastebaskets have to go," said Brown of the numerous newly (and brightly) painted planters and wastebaskets.

Lots of discussion of the recent Mall meetings at the DenverInfill Blog: The Future of the 16th Street Mall

via Rocky Mountain News

Photo Credit :: denver.gov

Stumbling on the Web

About a week ago, after reading several blog articles about social bookmarking, I was looking at my Sitemeter referral stats and noticed a StumbleUpon entry, I had seen and read about StumbleUpon but hadn't subscribed to the service, I added one of my pages of recent importance as a favorite and now I've seen an increase in traffic to my blog. I've also been updating elements and the design of this blog and hope to add more social bookmarking links to my posts. So now I just need to recover from my Memorial Day weekend camping/birthday/engagement trip :) and start the posts flowing again.

I've also recently been added to the blogrolls at Best Green Blogs (Editor's Choice), DenverInfill.com, I Can't Keep Up, Everything We Know About Denver, and The Egotist.

Thanks for the support and feedback!

Aurora Plans Sustainable Community With Electric Cars?

"Lend Lease, a development company with its U.S. headquarters in Denver, got zoning approval for the project last week. The company anticipates its conceptual plans for Horizon Uptown will be approved in the next three months.

All commercial buildings in the project must meet the LEED Gold standard. Homes will be built to either Colorado Built Green standards or those established by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Home-management systems will measure consumption of water and energy. A website, also known as a community portal, will allow residents to check consumption, said Greg Ochis, Horizon's project manager.

Lend Lease also has been talking with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory about the possibility of equipping each home at Horizon, as well as its development at the former Lowry Bombing Range, with electric cars."

via Denver Post
previously from Rebchook's Blog

LEED 2009 Open for Public Comment

The version 3.0 release of LEED standards is being released for public comment over the next month, lots of good articles covering the updates at the locations below. Also check out the webinar on Wednesday May 21st.

Real Life LEED
Jetson Green
Green Building Elements
greenbuildingsNYC
Press Release EMediaWire
USGBC's website's LEED 2009 Info

Film and Design Series at Starz FilmCenter

Wednesday, May 21 - 7:00pm - Starz Filmcenter
Film and Design Series : Not the Usual Suspects
Featuring the films Kochuu and Louis I Kahn: An Offering To Architecture
Sponsored by AIA Denver

Colorado Architects Recognized for Green Building at AIA Convention

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized green building projects by Architecture West, LLC, and RB+B Architects, Inc., both of Fort Colllins, as among 46 architecture projects nationwide to achieve Designed to Earn the ENERGY STAR, the government’s mark of superior energy efficiency in building design. The awards were presentation today at the American Institute of Architects Convention (AIA) in Boston. Designs for a Fort Collins office building, and a Loveland bicycle shop were among 46 award-winning projects nationwide."

via EPA Region 8

Denver Justice Center Awarded LEED Silver

The Post Office/Parking Garage located in the new Denver Justice Center complex has received a final SILVER LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, rating from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).

"Denver Public Works and our partners, AR7 Architects and Haselden Construction LLC, prioritized environmental stewardship as an integral part of the design and construction process of the Justice Center Post Office/Parking Garage," said City Engineer Lesley Thomas. "Our ultimate goal is to ensure that all three of the structures on the Justice Center campus are appealing, engaging, functional and sustainable."

via Government Technology
Photo credit: Denver Justice Center