The new Freight development in Denver infuses a 29,000-sf, mid-century shipping terminal with the next evolution of TAXI creative work spaces. Flexible and filled with natural light, Freight is designed with unique and customizable spaces to suit the needs of modern businesses. Common spaces and amenities promote collaboration.
The goal of this transformation of a derelict freight terminal was to provide flexible tenant space with amenities such as common social spaces to lure “new economy” businesses to an abandoned industrial zone north of downtown Denver. The Denver warehouse redevelopment project, located between river and rail lines, is the most recent phase of a development that includes new and renovated structures that look to create a new workplace that uses architecture to foster interaction and create a culture of innovation.
The reuse preserves the carcass of the freight terminal, with its deep overhangs and garage bay openings, and inserts new elements to contrast old. Original paint and markings are left intact with new glass overhead doors that allow offices to open to the landscape. An internal skylit “street” and sculptural plywood ribbon wall punctuated with luminous entries provides internal circulation. The main entrance slices through the building, axially connecting the entry experience to the larger site and the urban skyline beyond.
Outside, an existing metal shed projecting north was re-imaged. The new portion of the building along the river took inspiration from the movement of rail and containers, and uses trusses from the traditional administrative component at the head of the terminal that had been razed. A ghosting of the former truck dock pattern extends as adjacent landscape pattern.
Tenant spaces were arranged from a kit of industrial components and materials included reused glass panels from a hockey rink as internal partitions, salvaged bowling alley floors for benches, tables and counters, and industrial shelves in a variety of configurations to conform to a challenging budget. “International Orange” enlivens structural components throughout.
Client: Zeppelin Places
Architect: Stephen Dynia Architects
Site area: 4 acres
Gross Floor area: 29,000 sf
Location: Denver
Photos: Ron Johnson
Related Stories
| Oct 13, 2010
County building aims for the sun, shade
The 187,032-sf East County Hall of Justice in Dublin, Calif., will be oriented to take advantage of daylighting, with exterior sunshades preventing unwanted heat gain and glare. The building is targeting LEED Silver. Strong horizontal massing helps both buildings better match their low-rise and residential neighbors.
| Oct 12, 2010
Holton Career and Resource Center, Durham, N.C.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Special Recognition. Early in the current decade, violence within the community of Northeast Central Durham, N.C., escalated to the point where school safety officers at Holton Junior High School feared for their own safety. The school eventually closed and the property sat vacant for five years.
| Oct 12, 2010
Guardian Building, Detroit, Mich.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Special Recognition. The relocation and consolidation of hundreds of employees from seven departments of Wayne County, Mich., into the historic Guardian Building in downtown Detroit is a refreshing tale of smart government planning and clever financial management that will benefit taxpayers in the economically distressed region for years to come.
| Oct 12, 2010
Richmond CenterStage, Richmond, Va.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Bronze Award. The Richmond CenterStage opened in 1928 in the Virginia capital as a grand movie palace named Loew’s Theatre. It was reinvented in 1983 as a performing arts center known as Carpenter Theatre and hobbled along until 2004, when the crumbling venue was mercifully shuttered.
| Oct 12, 2010
University of Toledo, Memorial Field House
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Memorial Field House, once the lovely Collegiate Gothic (ca. 1933) centerpiece (along with neighboring University Hall) of the University of Toledo campus, took its share of abuse after a new athletic arena made it redundant, in 1976. The ultimate insult occurred when the ROTC used it as a paintball venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Owen Hall, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Officials at Michigan State University’s East Lansing Campus were concerned that Owen Hall, a mid-20th-century residence facility, was no longer attracting much interest from its target audience, graduate and international students.
| Oct 12, 2010
Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Gartner Auditorium was originally designed by Marcel Breuer and completed, in 1971, as part of his Education Wing at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Despite that lofty provenance, the Gartner was never a perfect music venue.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cell and Genome Sciences Building, Farmington, Conn.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Silver Award. Administrators at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington didn’t think much of the 1970s building they planned to turn into the school’s Cell and Genome Sciences Building. It’s not that the former toxicology research facility was in such terrible shape, but the 117,800-sf structure had almost no windows and its interior was dark and chopped up.
| Oct 12, 2010
The Watch Factory, Waltham, Mass.
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards — Gold Award. When the Boston Watch Company opened its factory in 1854 on the banks of the Charles River in Waltham, Mass., the area was far enough away from the dust, dirt, and grime of Boston to safely assemble delicate watch parts.
| Oct 12, 2010
Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument, Cleveland, Ohio
27th Annual Reconstruction Awards—Gold Award. The Cuyahoga County Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Monument was dedicated on the Fourth of July, 1894, to honor the memory of the more than 9,000 Cuyahoga County veterans of the Civil War.
