Projects - Structures
Buildings: Other

St John's Episcopal
Church Addition
Boulder, Colorado

Hartronft-Fauri Architects
Louisville, Colorado

The noteworthy church, located at 14th Street and Pine Avenue in Boulder, identified a need for an education wing for its community. LORIS joined the team to solve the complex structural engineering challenges presented by the very restrictive site. The new building addition's finishes match the existing buildings on the site. It is clad with stone veneer on masonry backing walls.

Existing surface parking had to be replaced by positioning a new parking garage under the new building wing. The City of Boulder imposed height restrictions drove each level of structure in the two story building above to be minimized to squeeze the maximum possible floor area onto the site.

LORIS chose a steel framed solution over the concrete parking garage structure due to the requirements of flexibility of the frame above this parking level. As the building's steel framed column arrangement was dissimilar for the education wing and the garage below multiple transfer beams were needed. The main transfers above garage level were achieved utilizing 16" deep steel plate girders with 1" thick flanges. Lateral stability was provided using a combination of the concrete elevator core, masonry shearwalls and steel cross bracing due to the ever-changing structural configuration on each level.

Added complexities were overcome along the transition zone between the existing parish hall and the new education wing. The parish hall's roof rafters had to be hung from the new wing's steel frame to facilitate opening up of the existing parish hall wall to provide added circulation space and a meeting area.