Taking a look from a higher vantage point, you can see most of the facade is complete and the columns on the court houses are not just raw concrete anymore. One noticeable difference is the new glass on the dome and all the scaffolding is removed. On the tower, it’s amazing what glass can do to the overall look of the building.

On the left, this is the project from the steps leading up to the Capitol. Notice how much of a presence this project on this corner and from the view of The Capitol. On the right is the entrance to the court houses with real granite columns with ‘Liberty and justice for all’ inscribed in gold at the top.

As stated before, these buildings have a great street presence. On Broadway (left) you can see both the office tower and the court houses creating a decent size street wall. On 13th Avenue, the office tower creates a canyon with 1290 Broadway right across the street.

Finally, one of my favorite aspects of this project. The 14th Street view-plane. This completes the wall at the end of 14th Street and resembles a much denser Civic Center skyline.

Thanks to Matthew Aschermann of JE Dunn as well as Rob Deevy and Gary Cahill of Dunakilly for accompanying us on this tour.

First, we were given an overview of the technology they were using on this project. The software they use in the office is called Bluebeam. Basically, it’s an advanced PDF reader that is geared towards construction services. Since it is all PDF based, they can print off an 11×17 sheet for the field, as well as take a tablet.

This is a very roomy building. On the lobby level there is an atrium that rises three stories with an open staircase (left). On the right are offices on the outer edge and a meeting area in the center.

The crime lab will come complete with a shooting range and a gun library. This will be used for scenario replication. If there’s a specific gun that needs to be fired or a part is needed to make a gun fire, these will be the two most helpful places.

This will come complete with a conference room, and multiple labs. These labs will consist of DNA replication, chemical labs, forensics, evidence handling, and a lab to replicate lighting, trajectory and photos.

Now to the exterior. The actual masonry, and aluminum cladding are starting to show. (The building will not be green and red) The jagged exterior also adds something completely different to the area and is very out of the ordinary. With all the historic buildings in the area, this building will look very cutting edge and futuristic.

I will leave you with this bonus shot taken from a balcony on the top floor of the building. A great view of our state capitol.

This project is one of the projects funded by the $550 million Better Denver Bond project and contributes to a great urban street wall down 14th Avenue. This project is perusing LEED-Silver certification as well which is a great contribution to building a greener Denver.

Here are two photos of the project from this weekend. The photo on the left shows the Cherokee corner, and on the right the Delaware corner:

Along with the Denver Justice Center’s three buildings nearby, the Denver Crime Lab will continue the development of an urban street wall and better pedestrian environment on this stretch of W. 14th Avenue where mostly parking lots once dominated.

Left: View to the north at the upper end of Downtown. Right: View to the southeast at part of the Capitol Hill district.

Left: View to the northeast at part of the Uptown district. Right: View to the northeast at the State Capitol.

Left: A zoomed-in view to the northwest down the new 14th Street. Right: View to the northwest at the City & County Building, with the Colorado Convention Center, Pepsi Center, and Elitch Gardens beyond.

Left: View to the southwest at part of the library/art museum facilities and Golden Triangle district. Right: View to the south at the ING/Security Life Building across 13th Avenue.

Neat reflection in that last photo, eh?

We’re not quite done. The Ralph Carr isn’t the only new building with a nice view. Here’s a bonus photo of a view from the outdoor terrace at the new History Colorado Center:

Sweet!

The Ralph Carr Judicial Center is already making an impact on the Civic Center skyline, and I like it. The architecture is classic Neoclassical, with marble columns and all. The state courts wanted a building that communicated a stately, civic presence on par with (and visually oriented towards) the State Capitol, and they are getting it. But despite the Ralph Carr’s architectural gravitas, I find its contemporary touches and generous fenestration (for this style) welcome features that give the building an inspiring, approachable quality. And it’s not even finished yet. Kudos to Denver’s Fentress Architects for designing a building that is clearly worthy to take its place at Denver’s hallowed ground, Civic Center. Our thanks to Trammell Crow and Mortenson Construction for the tour.

I like the exterior materials too. A light gray granite wraps the 4-story courthouse wing as well as the lower levels of the 12-story office tower, and pre-cast panels complete the upper floors of the tower. They work well together to give the complex a unified visual appearance, while exposing pedestrians to the high-quality material like granite we expect in important government buildings. Here’s a view (an inner courtyard along Broadway) of the vertical transition from granite to pre-cast panels. The darker-gray window glazing complements both materials. This wasn’t intentional, but I now notice the nice reflection in the window of perhaps Denver’s best light gray granite-clad modern building, Republic Plaza:

The office tower incorporates into both its north and south facades the columnar form, with vertical glass “columns” in between adding a modern gesture.

Before we we went up to the project’s upper floors, we saw a quick preview of Mortenson’s digital planroom technology. More on that in a future post. Then we took a ride in the construction elevator “cage” that climbs up the outside of the building:

From the 12th floor, here’s a nice view of the two courthouse domes: the smaller one in the foreground will be centered above the Colorado Supreme Court courtroom, and the larger one will cover the grand atrium. On the right, a stack of windows are being lifted up by a crane while traffic below on Broadway goes about its business:

From the Supreme Court’s fourth-floor atrium entrance, here’s the symbolic view looking back at the statehouse. Once all the scaffolding and temporary window supports are removed, this will appear as one big window offering one fantastic view of our state’s beautiful gold-domed Capitol.

Finally, while we now have real-life views of this project to observe, I recently ran across some additional renderings of the project I hadn’t seen before. They can be viewed here.

PS. If you don’t know who Ralph Carr is and why he is worthy of having a justice center named after him, please go here.

Thank you once again to the folks at Trammell Crow Company for making this tour possible.

First up, the 12-story office tower. On the left, this is what you would see when going into the back entrance located at 13th Avenue and Broadway. To the right is what you would first walk in to. Yes, there will be a security check point but what is unique about this complex is that you will be inside when you are waiting to get screened separate from both the elements and the lobby.

Looking down the lobby area (left) you have the waiting area for security as well as elevator access just down the hall. Up and away we go to the top floor where they are starting to complete the columns of the office tower. There were spectacular views from the top which we will have a post dedicated to coming up soon.

There is a section of the building connecting the courts to the office tower. Here you will be greeted by a 4-story atrium with a glass roof and solid glass wall. In the picture on the right, the gaps you see in the floor will be for a staircase connecting the floors.

The supreme court is spectacular with a glass dome above where you would stand in front of the justices. You also get a great view of the office tower.

The lobby of the courts will be complete with real stone columns in the front and a two-story entrance with a giant court seal. The court side of the complex also comes complete with judges quarters.

Keep your eyes peeled for more shots of this great project as well as a special look at the never before seen views!

The construction barriers are down, new sidewalks and streetscaping are in place, landscaping has been planted, and the finishing touches are being applied. The main entrance on Broadway is impressive and welcoming. Wide stairs lead up to the front doors, creating a seamless transition from sidewalk to lobby. Zipping past the building in a car at 30 miles an hour, the building’s exterior can read as just plain beige. But inspecting the building up close for the first time, I was pleased at the warmth and the subtle variations of color and texture that meander throughout the beautiful limestone facade.

In Ryan’s Part 1, he included a photo of the lobby and its wood ceiling. The wood used there is beetle-kill pine, an appropriate material to use in a building dedicated to Colorado’s history, and a good local material to use in a building aiming for LEED-Gold certification. The floor of the lobby features a large COLORADO inlaid the terrazzo floor, which itself is rich and warm in color. The almost-golden hue of the interior finishes extends into the stairs as well, with Colorado sandstone walls.

The terrazzo floor continues into the grand atrium where, in the voluminous space above, a cool color palette and a more modernist feel prevails. The four-story glass wall facing 12th Avenue, and skylights above, flood the space in light. The building’s secondary entrance, reserved for large groups like school field trips, leads directly into the grand atrium from 12th Avenue, where a bus drop-off zone is located.

As Ryan mentioned, the top floor facing Broadway features a handsome function space, available for rent. Here, dark bamboo flooring contrasts nicely with the bright light coming in from the west-facing windows. A covered terrace extends this space outdoors, with sweeping views of the mountains and downtown skyline.

Overall, this is a fantastic building and I’m quite impressed. It features many beautiful (and durable) natural materials throughout, and manages to make its interior spaces feel spacious and intimate, modern and warm, at the same time. Congratulations to Tryba Architects for a job well done, and to Hensel Phelps and Trammell Crow for getting the building built on-time and on-budget. I know History Colorado (formerly the Colorado Historical Society) is eager to move into their new home and get it ready for a series of exhibit grand openings over the next year or two.

DenverInfill will be back to History Colorado Center later this year after the huge map of Colorado is installed on the atrium floor!

Finally, I’ll leave you with a time-lapse video, provided by History Colorado, of the building’s construction:

Thank you to Bill Mosher, Fred Schultz, and Tina Lashbrook of Trammell Crow Company as well as David Tryba of Tryba Architects and Rebecca Laurie of  History Colorado for taking us inside this great project.

The entrance to the Broadway side was nearly complete and a lot of landscaping was taking place. There are custom street lamps, lights to project on the building at night and a grand stair case to the entrance, which brings you in to an open lobby as you can see on the bottom right. From the lobby you can choose to go into the museum, the restaurant, or the gift shop.

Once you enter the museum you are brought into an immaculate atrium with a giant screen and what is soon to be a giant map of Colorado on the floor. A unique feature of the map is that one can carry around a ‘time machine’ that will tell you the history of certain regions in Colorado when you stand over them.

Here is just a glimpse of what the staircases in the museum will look like leading to the upper floors and exhibits. This was also a great and rare opportunity to see what an exhibit room looks like before anything is in it.

Also included in the building are offices, a library and plenty of storage.

On the top floor there are also two meeting rooms that you can reserve for your own function. The one on the bottom left, where you can see our tour group, comes complete with an outdoor space. The rooms also come complete with blackout blinds so you can make presentations.

The atrium was a very impressive aspect of the whole project and was very hard to capture in one picture. I’m pleased to share with you a short video that gives you a 360 degree look.

The History Colorado Center will be turned over within the next couple weeks to the state and then to the public Spring 2012.

The steel structure is up for the most part.

The front of it, facing 14th Avenue. The jagged roof adds a neat element to the building.

From the back. This ties in very nicely with the police headquarters.

Another view of the project from 14th Avenue.

On my walk back home, this angle of the new Ralph Carr Judicial Complex caught my eye. The new building creates quite the urban feel when you walk along 13th Avenue.

According to their website, this project is expected to be completed by the end of 2011. This is only a small part of the $550 million Better Denver Bond Program which makes it exciting to see what more there is to come out of it.

The facade is crawling up the office tower quickly and the circular structure is set on the top as well.

The 4-story portion of the building now has the structure up for the rotunda which adds a whole new breath of life in the project.

Here’s looking at the same portion of the project from the ground on the corner of 14th and Lincoln Street.

An overall front view of the project.

On to the Broadway side, you can see the facade on the 4-story portion is almost to the top.

They were installing some of the glass today. It catches the eye a lot more being broken up versus one solid pane of glass.

On to the back side of the office tower, the facade is almost complete and you can now see the name of the complex above the rear entrance.

In my post back in April I took a picture of this project off my balcony. It has grown and changed since then and it fits in very will with its surrounding neighbors.

I see this project every day when I get home and it is quite a treat to see such fast progress. I’m looking forward to seeing what it will look like once the glass starts crawling up. Also if you look very carefully in that last picture you can see that CenturyLink has begun to make their mark on the Denver skyline.