Republic Plaza Lobby Repositioning Wins ENR Award of Merit
At 56-stories, Republic Plaza stands as the tallest building in Denver, CO and all the Mountain States. The tower underwent renovations to modernize the main lobby, lower concourse, and exterior plaza, repositioning the design of these public areas for a fresh, inviting look that will appeal to current and new tenants.
Boston Valley fabricated 1,056 terra cotta panels for the lobby’s interior feature wall, mounted on our track and clip system by installation contractor The Weitz Co. We also provided design assist services for architect Page Southerland Page to help reconcile their design intent with our capabilities and the material’s limitations.
“The lobby core’s custom sculpted, full-height end wall is composed of more than 800 3D terra cotta forms that repeat in a dynamic pattern, the wall reacting to changes in lighting conditions throughout the day with a variety of shadows and reflections from its highly glazed finish. The owner has patented the color, shape and configuration of the tiles, preventing the system from being installed anywhere else in the world. Due to the unique nature of these wall elements, the project team worked with the subcontractor to refine an installation procedure that ensured efficiency, minimized errors and rework, and that fulfilled the owner’s expectations for quality.”
– ENR Mountain States
Our Pre-Construction Manager reviewed each stage of the architect’s Rhino drawings to provide feedback, and we created full scale foam mockups of the panels so the client could review their custom profile. After several iterations to refine the RAM pressed unit, we were able to achieve the wave-like pattern spec’ed in the design.
Boston Valley’s glaze lab worked extensively with Page Southerland Page to find the right glaze for their design. The architect initially chose a white color, but shifted over time to a deep eggplant purple with a high gloss finish. We submitted our glaze samples to the client on charettes to show exactly how the glaze pools over the curves and edges of a shape.
The Republic Plaza lobby project was granted an Award of Merit in ENR Mountain States’ Best Projects roundup, for its successful interior/tenant improvement efforts.
Header image: The Weitz Co.
Photos: Dan Hennessy, Boston Valley Terra Cotta Sales Representative
References: The Weitz Co. | ENR Mountain States
