The Alpenglow Base Camp is a new hub for Colorado Rocky Mountain School's active and outdoor programs.

The Base Camp comprises a trip planning room, bike shop, trip meal prep and breakdown room, changing room for the soccer team, and extensive storage for ski equipment, bikes, rafts, backpacking gear and other outdoor equipment. 

The building is organized around a central open atrium that is used for staging trips. Hose bibs, air nozzles, and clearance for trucks and buses facilitates preparation and de-issue of equipment.

The most frequently used areas, the trip planning room and bike shop, occupy the sunny south end of the building.

The glazed front walls are subtly angled back from the overhead sawtooth roof to create a porch on the south side and control solar gain. 

The central atrium has even natural light, views of Mount Sopris, and good acoustics that make it a great meeting and hangout space in warmer weather. 

The sawtooth roof is specifically designed for the eventual addition of solar panels.

Looking all the way through the building. Multiple sliding doors allow easy access to storage areas from the central atrium. Follow this link to a virtual tour.

This 610 square foot cottage in old town Carbondale was built as an addition to an existing shingled carport, visible on the right side of this photo.

The cottage shown in relation to the main house on the property, which was built around 1910. Roof forms and rafter detailing was based on the original structure.

The newly painted addition includes a trellis structure which creates a covered entry over the front door.

The tall central portion of the cottage gives it more presence on the street and allows light into and high views out of the main interior room. A tiny stone terrace on the south side of the building is removed from the main house outdoor space and plays the same function as a traditional, street facing porch.

The interior as viewed from the entry. All the artwork in the cottage is by the owners. A bedroom is visible through the far door with a painting by the owners' son. We imagined the small alcove as a desk and device charging station.

The living / dining / kitchen as viewed from the bedroom.

The small window by the front door has a sweet view of distant hills and is the only west-facing window in the cottage, to prevent overheating. High windows and a ceiling fan will ventilate the space in the summer time. In this photo, the pocket door to the bedroom is closed. 

The kitchen is a combination of IKEA cabinets and ETSY components assembled by the Owners. With full sized appliances and a narrow ledge above the counter for spices, it accommodates real cooking for either full time occupants or short term rentals.

Another kitchen view.

The bathroom--in fact the entire cottage--is ADA accessible. The shower floor is continuous with the rest of the bathroom tile. The ledge is for shampoo and soaps and also protects plumbing located on an outside wall. 

The bedroom is in part of the old carport. 

The main reading room looks out towards the Roaring Fork River

The light-filled reading room

Front entrance to the library from parking

The distinctive copper community room marks the front corner of the Library

The aspen-paneled community room

Fireplace in the main reading room

A public hallway connects the street and parking entrances and allows the community room to be used after hours. 

The Weese House front walk meanders through native grasses

The front entry

The living room features rugs designed by the owner

The kitchen, dining and living rooms share one airy studio-style space

The tower clerestory brings light into the new accessible entry, which was previously not as easy to find or use.

A new light-filled and accessible entrance was a priority as the old library was completely renovated

New Castle Branch Library from northeast. Brick detailing unifies the design of the facades and builds off the historic downtown context

New Castle Branch Library street facade. Elements of the original library design are carried forward subtly into the new design.

The original library space was reconfigured to efficiently accommodate the stacks and checkout desk

The reading room in a new addition to the west provides a cozy escape overlooking Main Street

Part of the children's section

The southwest corner with reading room window

A side-lit sign marks the library's presence on the sidewalk

This mixed-use project is an example of walkable, contextual smart growth

The carefully designed storefronts cater to the pedestrian scale

The river side of the project uses wood shingles and a more informal feel to engage with the landscape

Looking east up Midland Avenue, Riverwalk extends and engages with Basalt's downtown core

A rear walkway along the river provides access to offices and apartments

As part of A4’s long-term relationship with the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, we were hired to renovate the school’s Solar Dorm, an early 70s teacher-student experiment in solar-oriented design.

Many of its experimental design features worked better in theory than in practice and were further degraded by later renovations and poor maintenance. With a very limited budget, A4 introduced more appropriate overhangs to reduce overheating and focused on making the building envelope more energy efficient, aesthetic, and practical.

The new design features of the renovation were focused on the dorm’s common room. A clerestory, front porch, and window seat aid in creating a pleasant communal student hangout.

The porch faces onto and engages the school’s main academic quad. Pargiter Library, an A4 adaptive reuse of the old Science Building is visible across the quad.

The highlights of an extremely limited interior renovation budget were a new high ceiling and clerestory for the common room as well as a cozier built-in window seat.

The original building, while excitingly experimental, was in fact too successful at creating solar gain and constantly overheated to the extent that, as visible in this ‘before’ photo, skylights were painted over and large areas of glazing that once filled the niches of the façade had to be downsized. These maintenance decisions were done on the cheap and resulted in an unattractive and not fully optimized building.

This ‘after’ photo shows a building that fits in more harmoniously with its surroundings, retains the useful elements of the original building, and emphasizes the communal aspects of the school’s residential life program.

A patio spills out from the southeast end of the kitchen

Room and light for geraniums in the kitchen

Thick walls and steel windows create a satisfying juxtaposition

The west end of the house opens out into the sage

The front entry

The main interior hallway and living room

The two wings of the north dorm branch off the common room to create the suggestion of a courtyard

The north dorm addresses the soccer field to the east

Informal quad formed between the new Colorado Rocky Mountain School dormitories

Students hang out and play the piano in the north dorm's common room

Colorado Rocky Mountain School Dormitories from the southwest

Attached faculty residence porch

South dorm attached faculty residence viewed from the south

The east facade of the south dorm forms a streetscape of sorts along the main campus road

Doors to each room are set back, breaking up the hall with columns of light and providing space for individual pinboards in each alcove and sizable room closets

The Avalanche House project involved moving and carefully resurrecting a century-old ranch house and barn

The house and barn reflected in the pond

The kitchen

Looking east towards the front porch and beyond

Railing detail

Built in bench and shingle detail

The living room opens out toward the pond

The yet-to-be-renovated house and barn beginning their 12-mile move from their original location

Stone detailing and a double-height street profile project the bank's respectability and complement the street's transition from suburban strip to urban walkability

Transparency was an important goal in designing the 1st Bank's interior offices

Sunshade and stonework

The front entry 

The main floor of the bank with the tellers' desk on the right

Part of A4's ten-year partnership with CRMS to master plan and renovate its campus, the Welcome Center was an important project in the rethinking of campus building use to better support the program. 

Formerly an unmanageably large and decrepit dormitory, the 'New Boys Dorm,' replaced by A4's Woody Pasture Dormitories, was ideally suited to transition into the school's administration and admissions offices. 

An important update was accessibility. A4 replaced a split-level style entrance with a more welcoming front porch and vestibule that entered directly onto the second floor, where the most public offices can be found.

The admissions office retained its own easily located entrance. 

The lobby and front desk. The project's modest budget was focused on fixing the fundamentals of space and function, but finishes like beetle-kill pine were used in important locations like the main stairway.

The eaves were cut back to open up an under-appreciated view through the building upon entering the lobby.

The lower level with entrance from employee parking.

The renovated hallways have ceiling cutaways to introduce natural light.

Although it has a separate entrance, the admissions office connects directly on the interior to important offices like that of the headmaster.

The front facade

Office interior with the orange wall leading to the front conference room

A4's upstairs workspace from 2004 through 2012

The Weber Music Building at Colorado Rocky Mountain School is a single space dedicated to music rehearsal and recording. 

The vertical wood panels slide across the far window and bench for both sun control and security. Cherry boards alternate with black acoustic batts. 

At the far side of the room is the recording booth on the left, a small vestibule where students leave their backpacks and shoes, and a small closet for instruments that must be locked up. The sliding panels are slid across the window, revealing a white board on the wall behind. 

The diminutive building plays off the historic barn where all school performances take place.

The jazz band rehearsing in the space. 

Detail of the polygal wall, which is not in plane with the glu-lam structure. Part of the reason for this skew is for better acoustic performance inside.

Morning rehearsal. The building is so well insulated, its only heat source is a small gas stove.

Rough sawn cedar of varying widths, heavy timber framing and a rusty metal roof give this structure a barn-like vocabulary, though the forms are Modern in nature. 

Carbondale & Rural Fire Protection District Headquarters front entry

The main atrium of the C&RFPD Headquarters reflects the utilitarian sprit of the organization, but provides a welcoming space featuring the district's historic fire truck

The historic fire truck's space projects out from the west facade

Southeast corner of the building with Mt. Sopris beyond

The west facade is a showcase for the old firetruck, but glazing is otherwise kept to a minimum to protect from afternoon solar gain and highway noise. 

This straw bale house centers around an open south-facing courtyard

The north side of the house has a farmyard feel

The straw-bale construction, combined with careful detailing, contributes both style and sustainability to the project

The thick straw-bale walls provide opportunities for details like this window seat in the master bedroom

A bookshelf nook carved out of the wall

Glenwood Sanitation District Lift Station is situated between Glenwood's historic downtown and its working rail line. The clever interweaving of brick and cinderblock articulates and bridges the station's transitional zone

Glenwood Sanitation District Lift Station east elevation

The lift station is rigorously practical but still finds room for unconventional accents like its green doors

The downtown-facing facade with fine brick craftsmanship

The conversion of Colorado Rocky Mountain School's old science building into its new library involved opening the building up to the surrounding quad

Pre-renovation, the building was disorienting, lightless, and hermetic

A4 opened up the core of the building and let in light by turning its tower into a clerestory 

Projecting window nooks and moveable tables provide a variety of studying locations

The entry was moved to the other side of the building to engage with the highly trafficked path between the main classroom building and the dining hall

The new library has plenty of light and space for stacks, offices, and study areas. Follow this link to a virtual tour.

The previous classrooms lacked windows and the central core was solid rather than open

This small sleeping cabin is just one step above camping

Its canvas panels open up to the surrounding aspen grove

It is a simple and delightful little project

Shelter

A new master bedroom addition to a house that A4 principal Brad Zeigel had worked on previously

The new master bedroom combines clean modernity with warm color

A cozy sitting room connects the wing to the rest of the house

The master bath