Projects - Infrastructures
Civil Engineering: Land Development and Utilities

Forest Lofts
Boulder, Colorado

Forest Lofts, L.L.C.
Boulder, Colorado

The design of the 22,000 s.f. Forest Lofts Office Building is derivative of historic agricultural structures in the area. Materials and geometry vary in the forms of the L-shaped building, suggesting construction took place at different times.

The barn- and silo-type forms posed structural engineering opportunities to provide open spaces with minimal interior obstruction.  LORIS used a steel-framed structure to minimize construction costs and optimize use of space. Concrete floors over steel bar joists formed the second floor in order to provide span efficiency and reduce sound and vibration transmission.

The roof was formed with glulam A-frames to provide a "lofty" space with 12:12 pitch.  The remainder of the roof was timber-framed. Vertical wind brace frames and horizontal wind trusses exposed under the second floor roof resist shear, and provide a unique architectural element.  The building's signature element is the front silo; it houses the elevator and doubles as a shear-resisting element.

The site is designed to provide significant green space all around the building; and wetlands were incorporated into a detention basin at the rear of the building.