2019 Directory

37 Zeppelin Station Dynia Architects Award of Merit Location: Denver, CO Size: 100,000 sq ft Category: Built Located along an active freight and passenger rail corridor in a former industrial area of Denver, Zeppelin Station is a transformative building. The program is 75000SF of private office space above a 25000SF market hall that also serves as a train station for a new light rail transit line. The market is a food and drink amenity with international offerings for the building tenants, light rail passengers, and the rapidly evolving River North (RiNO) neighborhood. This innovative programming of creating a public identity of ‘train station’ within a private development has invigorated a marginal edge of the city that, until a few years ago, was minimally inhabited. Zeppelin Station is now a social junction connecting a transportation node to the growing residential and commercial developments in the community. The form and layout of Zeppelin Station was motivated by site conditions. The building is composed of two primary elements; stepped landscape terraces facing south, and a billboard-like screen along the rail lines. The terraces are diagonally oriented towards prime views of the downtown and creates a lush foreground between large offices suites and the city skyline while the screen, made of standard light-guage framing, unifies the building mass and parking structure. Within this screen, an area of red, saw-toothed recesses are angled to provide views of the city center from individual suites. Acosutic considerations required judicious window-placement and enhanced wall construction to minimize the sound of idling locomotives and the clanging of freight cars. Zeppelin Station holds LEED Silver certification.