SUSTAINABLE SITE DESIGN

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Burnham Shops repair yard in central Denver shuttered its doors in 2016, ending the run of the largest and oldest railroad repair yard in the state of Colorado. The 70-acre site will go up for sale with the prospect of amazing development potential. Less than five minutes from downtown and connected to the RTD light rail lines at the 10th and Osage Station, the connectivity of the Burnham Railyards will be a primary driver for the development plan. We have developed a sustainable site design that can unlock the potential to develop with intelligence and technology in order to maximize the value of the land for the users and developers while minimizing the impact on the environment.

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BURNHAM RAILROAD MUSEUM

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Conceptually, there are two main goals we are striving for in developing the design for the museum.

 

• SUSTAINABLE DESIGN - To design around the existing structure using cutting-edge, sustainable architecture methods in order to create a "living building" that can provide natural ventilation, day lighting, passive heating and cooling, as well as generate its own electricity. This will greatly reduce the carbon footprint of the museum and by using energy modeling software we can predict a Net-Zero building. In fact, we anticipate producing enough energy to supply most of the surrounding site.

 

• DISRUPTING THE GRID - To draw from the site context and history while creating a user experience that is befitting of a museum. Within the figure ground of the surrounding area there is only one departure from the tartan grid and from an aerial perspective it immediately draws attention. We want to take this language and imprint it directly on our building, disrupting the grid and creating a view that can be seen anywhere on the Burnham site and draw visitors to the museum.

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