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Aerial view of long low stone wings with planted roofs, landscape walls and a pool terrace set into a wooded hillside at golden hour

Selected Project · Denver, Colorado

GLOBEVILLE LANDING YOUTH CENTER

Every room placed by what it needs.

South Platte River · Youth Center + Guest Rooms · 16,600 SF

A single-storey youth center and guest house on the South Platte River, where every room was placed by testing what it needs: noise or quiet, open views or shelter, public or private.

The building is a chain of rotated wings strung along the river bluff. Long landscape walls run out from the wings into the park, framing courts and paths between them. Arrival and the lobby face the street at the east end. Guest suites, the pool and the patio step toward the water at the west end.

Site
Globeville Landing Park, Denver
Type
Youth center with guest rooms
Program
16,600 SF indoors · 3,000 SF patio · 15,000 SF park
Capacity
41 beds in 2 suites, 8 double and 5 single rooms
Scope
Site analysis, programmatic concept, plans, sections, elevations, visualisation
Glazed guest pavilion behind a reflecting pool, framed by stone walls and olive trees
Pool court and guest pavilion
Spa lounge with rows of daybeds under a long timber ceiling, opening to the pool
Spa lounge opening to the pool

Reading the Site

Globeville Landing sits where the river meets rail lines, a highway interchange and old industry. The analysis maps the site in seven layers to see what the building should open to and what it should turn away from.

A sound timeline recorded across one day, from 5:30 in the morning to 5:30 in the evening, tracks how traffic and rail noise rise and fall. That reading decided where the quiet rooms could go.

  • 01Neighborhood
  • 02Historic
  • 03Industry
  • 04Rail and highway
  • 05Public art
  • 06Soil and waste water
  • 07Green area

Programmatic Concept

Each room was scored against six pairs of opposites. Where a room landed on each scale set its position, its openness and its view.

Activeor passive
Stableor unstable
Openor controlled
Outdooror indoor
Publicor private
Long viewor short view

The rotation study then moved each room through the chain of wings and checked it against the site layers, until the gym, pools, restaurant, library, cinema, lounge, spa and lobby each found a fit.

Site Plan

Illustrated site plan: the building on the wooded river bluff with pool, parking and the arrival path from Arkins Ct

The Plan

Program · target areas

  • 01Lobby + registration3,000 SF
  • 02Double rooms, 8203.5 SF EACH
  • 03Spa + treatment rooms500 SF
  • 04Library500 SF
  • 06Media class, 20 seats480 SF
  • 08Single rooms, 5126 SF EACH
  • 09Gym4,435 SF
  • 10Suites, 2 × 10 guests1,158 SF EACH
  • 11Lounge1,000 SF
  • 12Cinema, 50 seats450 SF
  • 14Restaurant546 SF
  • 18Pool + patio644 + 3,000 SF
Indoor program16,569 SF
Ground floor plan with numbered rooms and key dimensions, 282 by 130 feet overall Zoning plan with each program filled in its own color and a program schedule

Inside

Gym with treadmills and weights along full-height glazing onto olive trees
Gym, glazed to the landscape
Restaurant with a long oak table and woven chairs, opening onto a terrace above the river
Restaurant and river terrace
Lounge of low cushioned seating around an olive tree against a tall rammed-earth wall
Lounge
Spa treatment room with two massage beds facing an open wall to a garden
Spa treatment room
Library lounge with rounded sofas, lit timber shelving and a small tree by the glazing
Library

Sections + Elevations

Sections: a longitudinal section from the river bluff and a transverse section through pool, restaurant, kitchen and gym North, south, west and east elevations with roof, floor and pool levels