RUSH – TIME VALUED NEWSPAPER Volume 110, Number 172 Friday, May 9, 2008 SMPS Colorado to Host Annual Excellence Awards Luncheon The Society for Marketing Professional Services Colorado will host its annual “Marketing Excellence Awards” luncheon on Wednesday at Kevin Taylor’s at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, 1355 Curtis St., in Denver. SMPS Colorado received 36 award entries represented by Colorado-based companies within the architecture, engi- neering and construction industry as well as advertising and public relations firms. With judging complete, entry cate- gories included advertising, book/monograph, brochure, cor- porate identity, direct mail, feature writing, holiday piece, internal communications, newsletter, special event, special project marketing, target marketing and Web site. Event doors open at 11:00, with the awards presentation at 12:30. Winning entries will be available for viewing after the luncheon. “This highly anticipated annual event is represented by some of the most notable and prestigious firms in Colorado, showcasing the best in marketing communications,” said Marta Baker, president of the SMPS Colorado Chapter. "We look forward to an exciting event and wish all of the partic- ipants the best of luck." Event chapter and vendor sponsors include McGraw-Hill Construction, Capstone, Colorado Real Estate Journal, Monroe & Newell Engineers Inc., Creative Juice, Terry Shapiro Photography and Colorado Printing Co. For information on purchasing event tickets or SMPS Colorado membership, visit www.smpscolorado.org. Downtown Castle Rock Parking Garage Receives ACI Award of Excellence The American Concrete Institute’s Rocky Mountain Chapter has awarded the Parking Structure Award of Excellence to the Downtown Castle Rock Parking Garage. Denver-based Pahl Architecture worked closely with Douglas County and its representatives to design the parking garage. Consultants included Rocky Mountain Prestress, Monroe & Newell Engineers, Martin/Martin, eng3 Group, Norris Design and Carl Walker. The general contractor was Denver's Swinerton Builders. The Downtown Castle Rock Parking Garage features 374 spaces for county vehicles, county staff and Castle Rock public parking. Unique to the project is the building façade along Third Street. Its purpose is to fit in with the character of historic Castle Rock and allow the parking garage not to look like a parking garage. This awards program is intended to recognize unique and creative ways of using concrete. One of the creative uses of concrete throughout the structure was the reproduction of native rhyolite stone; a prominent building material through- out historic Castle Rock. N N e e w w s s Briefs F F i i r r m m s s Breaking New Ground COMMENTARY Off-the-Shelf Technology Creates Zero-Carbon Impact Home By Nancy Partridge If it weren’t for a concrete block retaining wall, a zero-carbon impact res- idence in Boulder could not have been built at all. The Next West House was con- structed on an infill site, scraped clean by the property’s previous owner. The narrow, triangular lot is backed by a working irrigation ditch, which runs deep and strong in the spring. General contractor Bob Hughes said that if they had not started their project by reinforc- ing the walls of the ditch, it would have collapsed and forced the property own- ers to pay the ditch water rights owners to purchase their water from another source—a very expensive and compli- cated process in Colorado. “The first thing Olde English Masonry did was to build a block wall to hold the ditch back so they could build the house,” said Hughes. The solution was a combination of installing 25 shoring blocks and about 44 yds of shotcrete concrete along the ditch bank, and constructing a CMU retaining wall between the ditch and the house. LaFarge made the 2-by-2-by-4 shoring blocks from leftover concrete returned to its plant. The CMU retaining wall was a standard task for Olde English Masonry owner Gary Holt, who has growing specialties in historic and sustainable masonry, but it was what was necessary to get the environmen- tally responsible house started. From there, the real work began. Next West House, at 429 Spruce St. in Boulder, is one of three projects con- structed by Bruce and Cody Oreck for their Zero-Carbon Initiative. Designed by Jim Logan Architects, the Next West project began in March 2007 and is slated for completion in June. The zero-impact house uses “off-the- shelf” technologies that anyone can implement in a residential project— new, upscale, affordable or remodel. When completed in June, it will be the first LEED for Homes platinum-certi- fied house in Colorado, and it will be giving back to the power grid. The LEED-based sustainable construction program for housing was released by the U.S. Green Building Council in January. Architect Intern Sarah Marvez, who served as the project architect under Jim Logan, said they did not start out to design the house to LEED for Homes standards, but eventually picked up the LEED-H Pilot Program guidelines and added incorporated them. “Masonry buildings are truly sustain- able because they are beautiful, have incredibly longer life, require almost zero maintenance and eliminate the need for paint,” said Shahnaz Jaffari, technical assistant for the Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute, who sits on the West Region Council of USGBC and has chaired the Colorado task force on regional credits for LEED. “Masonry is obtained from the most abundant resources, saves energy through thermal mass, and can be recycled, as in the case of this project.” There are 136 possible LEED-H points, with anywhere from 90 to 136 required for platinum certification—this project currently has 110. While the architecture team special- izes in green building projects, it required an additional bit of flexibility to make the design work with reclaimed brick that had come from several differ- ent demolished 1900s buildings. Holt said the architects had originally wanted the structure to match the load- bearing double-wythe rowlock brick building next door, which B. Oreck also purchased and is remodeling. However, with the recycled bricks coming from different buildings and being different colors, types and sizes, with soft, old rounded edges and many chips, it rapidly became apparent with the first test panel that it could not match a struc- ture that was made from one matching batch of bricks. The design originally called for tight, gray mortar joints like those in the house next door, but the test panels revealed a need to use red mortar that could fill the chips in the brick and voids between the different-sized brick. “We had the neighboring brick build- ing with the historic 1/8th-in. joints and wanted to replicate that,” Marvez said. “We couldn’t replicate it. The masons would have had a helluva time.” Stainless steel ties were used to attach the brick veneer to the wood studs. Hughes said the stainless was selected to give the structure additional durabil- ity, although Holt said the 1/8th-in. ties were a bit much in the 1/8th-in. joints and occasionally required the bricks to be ground to get the tie flat. The tight joints were required to keep the air exchange to a minimum. A fan test showed the house has .06 air exchanges per hour, Hughes said. In addition to preserving the heating and cooling in the home, the tight joints also support the LEED-required indoor air quality. The house also sports an air-to- air heat exchange system operated through the bathroom exhaust fans that recovers 85% of the heat from the exhausted air. Ironically, the environmentally responsible structure has a band of cedar shingles above the brick. “Certain things we did were in response to the local Landmark Board,” Hughes said. “This house is in an his- toric district. We had to use the cedar shingles to match other houses in the area, and we had to set the photovoltaic system into the roof rather than on top. You wouldn’t use cedar shingles in green houses unless they were made from the lumber mill scraps of other cedar products.” The copper flashing used throughout the structure is both sustainable and in keeping with the standards of the his- toric district. Inside the home, there’s nothing his- toric about the LED lighting, ground- source heat pump, battery storage and backup system for the photovoltaics, gray water recycling system used to flush the toilets or the crosslinked poly- ethylene tubing hot water system. “The house works with its neighbor- hood really well. The brick is a key part of that,” Marvez said. “The house is his- toric looking but is not a copy of a his- toric building...It’s a really green build- ing, but it does not look like one. We did the best we could to minimize the green appearance.” Nancy Partridge is the communica- tions manager for the Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute in Denver. She can be reached at [email protected]. Today Tomorrow Sunday Monday Tuesday Mike Nelson Meteorologist S Sp po on ns so or re ed d b by y • • B Bu ui i l l d di i n ng g M Ma at te er ri i a al ls s S Si i n nc ce e 1 19 90 08 8 • • 3 30 03 3- -8 82 25 5- -2 22 21 11 1 For the 7-day forecast plus traffic alerts and road delays go to www.thedenverchannel.com. Denver Metro Colorado Springs Alamosa Grand Junction Fort Collins Greeley Pueblo 67/45 57/38 70/46 72/45 67/44 69/41 63/34 70/42 72/41 69/38 69/33 64/24 70/32 72/30 68/30 72/43 69/40 77/48 74/40 69/44 67/42 56/36 72/43 72/43 67/42 70/39 60/33 74/41 75/41 70/39 78/41 71/34 79/42 82/41 76/40 Photo courtesy of Pahl Architecture The facade of the parking structure was designed to fit with the character of historic Castle Rock and allow the parking garage not to look like a parking garage. Photo courtesy of the Rocky Mountain Masonry Institute