To extend the life of a campus landmark, the University of Colorado, Boulder sought to identify deficiencies with the Varsity Pond Bridge and make improvements that ensure its integrity for future generations. After leading a structural inspection and assessment, Otak proposed different levels of rehabilitation and ultimately carried out the option designed to prolong the life of the structure as long as possible.
Pedestrian Structure Rehabilitation to Preserve a Historic Public Asset
Dating back to the late 19th century, the original Varsity Pond Bridge connected the President’s House (now the Koenig Alumni Center) with the oldest part of the Boulder campus. After being updated from a steel structure to a concrete arch with flagstone veneer that matches the campus aesthetic in 1935, the 79-foot, two-span arch bridge has since been a main throughfare for students and popular location for wedding and graduation photos. Improved drainage of the bridge deck would address a significant source of concrete degradation that over time took its toll from rain and melting snow infiltrating the structure. The rehabilitation also included concrete repair for further waterproofing on the underside of the arches, masonry veneer stone repair, masonry repointing and the replacement of the bridge deck flagstones. A full excavation of the bridge would allow the tops of the arches to be inspected for any additional issues. An adjacent dam featuring similar masonry to the bridge forms Varsity Pond itself, which collects drainage that is reused for irrigation. That structure would undergo the same rehabilitation process, preserving this historic area for years to come.
With the goal of making modern residential housing more beautiful, sustainable, and attainable, Quantum Assembly aimed to pair the efficiency of their prefab process with designs to match.
An Attractive, Efficient, and Permittable Design Approach to Modular Home Construction
In offering modular home construction to a wide range of clients, established design standards would be needed to deliver projects at scale. Alignment between the prefabricated manufacturing of units and flexible design configurations emphasizes efficiency in both building materials and installation. The architectural, structural, and visual design for Quantum’s modular homes also account for state-level permitting, leaving only site permits needed for projects.
Located along a steep slope between U.S. Highway 6 and the Eagle River, the Eagle Valley Trail provides a multi-use path connecting the communities of Edwards and Walcott, Colorado. The project required extensive collaboration with regional agencies to address the corridor’s challenging topography. In leading the design, Otak also provided a feasibility study and multiple alignments for consideration, including a creative approach that altered the highway to reduce the need for structures on the trail.
A Multi-Use Design and Creative Structural Approach to Fit a Challenging Mountain Corridor
The final design for Eagle Valley Trail met a number of distinct challenges – including maintaining constructability while reaching a specific width – presented by steep mountainous topography and in limiting impact to the adjacent Eagle River. This was successfully achieved in part by utilizing a cantilever concrete trail, with counterbalanced structural slab, supported on an existing concrete wall. The trail’s original design included a new asphalt multi-use path, a pre-fabricated single-span steel bridge, and structural retaining walls along the banks of the Eagle River. After five fundamental section types were developed and discussed, a two-phase approach to this project allowed the team to collaborate with CDOT and ECO Trails to ultimately approve an alteration of the lane configuration of U.S. Highway 6, reducing the need for retaining walls and a bridge. Hydraulic, environmental, and wildlife studies verified the validity of the recommendation prior to final design.
Completing a 10-mile loop, Meadowlark Trail connects multiple trails in the Boulder County Open Space. The 14,000 linear feet of sustainable, soft-surface trail is part of an overall design that meets ADA requirements, creating a public asset that’s broadly accessible to members of the surrounding communities.
Designing a Sustainable and Accessible Trail Network Connection
Existing on the former route of the Morgul-Bismarck Loop of the Coors International Bicycle Classic from the 1980s, the development of Meadowlark Trail connects Boulder County trails with the town of Superior, Colorado. This new link includes the county’s popular Marshall-Mesa trails, Rock Creek, and Coal Creek trail systems. The use of recycled road materials adds a sustainable element to the eight-foot-wide trail. With a portion of the trail spanning challenging terrain, steep side slopes presented a major design consideration for the soft surface trail. Otak led the design in improving this open space park which also included a bridge crossing and the involvement of community stakeholders.
A combination of three popular bus stops, WE-Cycle stations, Car-to-Go, and its central location in town, Paepcke Park is one of the busiest transit hubs in the City of Aspen. With a focus on safety, accessibility, speed, and reliability, a comprehensive analysis and design for transportation improvements would take shape with the help of the community.
Comprehensive Transportation Analysis for an Updated Transit Design
In close collaboration with the City of Aspen and Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA), a multidisciplinary design team conducted widespread analysis aimed to improve all modes of transit at the Paekpcke Hub. Comprehensive studies covered traffic and parking analysis, bus and pedestrian movement analysis, connectivity analysis, busway and bus stop design, intersection design, as well as roadway and drainage design among others. Informing the design, improvements include dedicated bus lanes, BRT shelters, new lane configurations, improved parking layouts, multiple pedestrian and bicycle safety enhancement features, bicycle parking, additional crosswalks, widened sidewalks, grading and drainage improvements, and numerous green street solutions. A robust public involvement process solicited feedback through a series of surveys to come up with several options for each phase of the project.
Community-supported design guidelines for development projects helps support the growing RiNo Arts District in Denver, Colorado. At the neighborhood’s request, these design guidelines were prepared not be enforced by the city, but by the RiNo Business Improvement District (BID) to ensure the neighborhood continues to control the process and allows for the creativity that is a hallmark of the community.
Encouraging Community Development with Creative Control
To help the BID leverage peer pressure in this process, Otak created a rating system associated with the design guidelines that will celebrate excellent projects. Otak presented the ideas and concepts to key community stakeholders, to the three RiNo boards, and at public meetings. As a result of feedback through this community process, and the anticipated future additional density around the 38th and Blake commuter rail station, RiNo felt that more powerful tools were necessary. To address this, the team led a community process to create a RiNo Design Overlay Zone. This overlay zone will provide stronger protection for key community values and require affordable housing for larger projects. Otak developed these ideas for RiNo, but former City Council President Brooks and Community Planning and Development also intended to use these ideas for the entire station area, including the affected parts of Globeville, Cole, and Elyria-Swansea.
After over 100 years at the heart of downtown Twin Falls, Idaho, Main Avenue would undergo a major reconstruction to make a number of physical improvements while maintaining its historic context. The design delivers a full streetscape and urban design that rebuilds seven blocks of downtown, incorporating existing township plans alongside extensive community engagement.
As the first major project of downtown Twin Falls since the early 1970’s the reconstruction of Main Street addressed a long list of needs from accessibility and pedestrian safety, to adding vibrancy through color and better sightlines around businesses with redesigned landscape features. Elements included street pavement and traffic flow, sidewalks, furnishings zone treatments, utility connections, public gathering spaces, parking management, furnishings, wayfinding, and branding. The design focused on community utility also added curbless festival street (shared street) segments for special events, a public plaza and concert stage, restroom and storage building as well as an overarching integration of public art and historic interpretation. The successful master plan and preliminary design by Otak was followed by the team moving through final design and engineering for the signature downtown Twin Falls project.
Spurred by the restoration of Niver Creek Tributary M, enhancements to its adjacent open space expands the area’s use for the surrounding community. Otak coordinated closely with Stream Landscape Architecture + Planning to integrate water quality features into the reconfigured the open space entrance, upgrading an existing trail, and adding parking and play areas.
Enhancing Access to a Public Space Alongside a Restored Stream
Greater access to an improved public amenity was the primary goal of enhancements to the Niver Creek Open Space. A new trailhead parking lot included a reconfigured entrance from 88th Avenue, incorporating low-impact design drainage improvements, water quality features, and a shade structure. The design improves ADA accessibility while creating new connections to existing transit stops along the frontage. This work took place alongside a realignment and restoration of the creek. Those efforts addressed channel instability to create a safer environment for the public and enhanced local ecology while maintaining the functionality of existing flood control infrastructure.
Expanding capacity for a busy intersection in a growing area of Colorado, improvements at CO 7 (East Baseline Road) and 119th Street also add multiple pedestrian and transit-focused features. Otak led the construction management of this project which align with a broader vision by the city for improvements throughout the corridor.
Constructing Multimodal Improvements to an Intersection
In the southeastern portion of Boulder County, approximately one mile northeast of downtown Lafayette, this was originally a four-way, signalized intersection with one travel lane in each direction. Along with capacity expansion, additional left turn lanes and right turn deceleration lanes were included. Transit queue jump lanes, bike lanes, and sidewalks on the western side of the intersection were among the multimodal design features. Bus rapid transit (BRT) stops were also built in the northwest and southwest quadrants of the intersection. Additional right-of-way (ROW) was required to complete these improvements as part of larger goals for increased connectivity for the community.
After upstream development caused degradation within the stream corridor, the restoration of a tributary to Niver Creek (Tributary M) addressed an ongoing concern of system stability in order to protect public safety, nearby infrastructure, and local ecology. Leading the design, Otak collaborated closely with the City of Thornton, the Mile High Flood District (MHFD), and Stream Landscape Architecture + Planning in developing a design that would stabilize the area, reconnect the channel to it’s floodplain, and maintain connection to the retention area providing flood control for the community.
Stream Restoration to Preserve Resources and Public Safety
The restoration of Niver Creek Tributary M reestablishes the natural system as a healthy, high-functioning stream while also creating an opportunity to better utilize the area for the community in combination with enhancements to the Niver Creek Open Space. Reconnecting to its floodplain and realigning segments where necessary, the design allows the stream to spread out and slow down during high flows, reducing erosion and supporting a thriving riparian corridor. Meeting a key priority in preserving mature riparian trees perched along eroded banks, the design team quickly adapted an original restoration plan. That update would modify the floodplain grading while also balancing considerations such as backwater effects of a downstream earthen dam, permitting constraints, underlying geology, proposed bank heights, revegetation areas, and estimated construction costs. As part of this restoration process, a range of alternatives with geomorphic, hydraulic, and cost-benefit analysis produced an ultimate restoration project that realigned the channel around critical utility infrastructure, preserved mature vegetation, and reconnected the channel to its historical floodplain. These improvements represent an example of how flood mitigation can leverage its surrounding context to provide nature-based solutions also foster safe, recreational opportunities for the regional community.
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experience, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
