Building Tours
Attention Rocky Mountain Green Attendees:
Be sure to note the specific tour departure times. All tour groups will meet at the Embassy Suites street level entrance. All tours, except Embassy Suites, require participants to be comfortable walking approximately 1 mile in downtown Denver. The Free Mall Ride will be used to reduce travel time to DaVita, the Alliance Center, and RNL.
Please make your building tour reservations here
The City of Denver is packed with examples of LEED certified buildings, helping make Colorado the number one state in certified square footage per capita. Rocky Mountain Green building tours give you an opportunity to go behind the scenes of a diverse selection of building types:
RNL – Commercial Interiors, Office Space Departs at 10:55 AM on April 12
The Spire – New Construction, Apartment building Departs at 1:30 PM on April 12
DaVita World Headquarters – New Construction Departs at 2:45 PM on April 12
Alliance Center – Existing Building, Multi tenant Departs at 10:20 AM on April 13
Embassy Suites – New Construction, Hospitality Departs at 1 PM on April 13
DaVita World Headquarters – New Construction
“Designed around the theme of Community, the new 14-story DaVita World Headquarters is a unique workplace environment where DaVita “teammates” work in neighborhoods designed to promote the DaVita culture. A major organizing element of the building is the sustainable, life giving connection of earth and sky, and the sustainable connection between DaVita’s cultural expression and all DaVita teammates. Interior seasonal multi-story gardens create a vertical connection through the building. DaVita teammates receive sustaining daylight and maintain a visual and emotional connection with all teammates even though separated by multiple floors. The DaVita village is pursuing LEED Gold Certification as a further commitment to sustainability.
The site of the new DaVita headquarters is located at the northwest edge of the 16th Street mall in the Central Platte Valley District of Downtown Denver. The building tour will highlight the sustainable opportunities and the decisions made from early design stages through the construction process. Since the building will still be under construction, tour attendees will get a behind the scenes look at the construction of a high performance office building as well as a preview of how DaVita will operate in their new home. The tour will also feature an impressive high-rise balcony view of the mountains, downtown, and the current Union Station construction site. ”
Tour Guides:
George Feathers, MOA Architecture
Christine Teichert, SLATERPAULL Architects
Courtney France, France Sustainable Solutions
Alliance Center – Existing Building, Multi tenant
The Alliance Center (built in 1908) provides below-market rent and operational support to 38 nonprofit organizations all focused on some aspect of sustainability policies and practices. The Alliance Center is a hub of collaboration, enabling all of its tenants and partners to be more effective in their missions. As the first historic building in the world to earn two LEED certifications (Existing Buildings Gold and Commercial Interiors Silver) the Alliance Center vividly demonstrates the ease and savings of installing resource efficient features such as low flow toilets, occupancy sensors and renewable materials. Drawing over 1,000 people a year for tours, the Alliance Center inspires adoption of resource efficient measures in businesses and homes. The Alliance Center was conceived to create a gathering place for leaders in sustainability from across the state, provide a showcase of green construction in a rehabilitated historic building, help organizations achieve greater efficiencies by providing stable, healthy, financially favorable, and secure office space, and improve communications and opportunities for collaboration
Tour Guides:
Phillip Saieg, Alliance Center
Chris Woldum, Alliance Center
Jeff Hohensee, Alliance Center
Janna Six, Alliance Center
The Spire – New Construction, Apartment building
Located in downtown Denver, Spire was developed through adherence to the triple bottom line – social, economic and environmental prosperity. Through these sustainable objectives, it provides individuals with modest salaries the opportunity to lower their carbon footprint, while offering high-density urban living with access to a variety of transportation options- parking spaces offered separately from the units, car-share program, LEV discounts, bike lockers and rental cars in the building. Spire is 41 stories and has 496 units in 723,337 SF. The 33-story residential tower rises from an eight-story parking podium (602 spaces) anchored with retail. The project is LEED Certified.
Tour Guides
Christopher Cosby, The Nichols Partnership
Sarah Rege, RNL
RNL – Commercial Interiors, Office Space
RNL’s headquarter office is located in downtown Denver on the 16th Street mall. The office is a 45,000 LEED-CI Gold certified space located in the ENERGY STAR labeled Independence Plaza. Explore the multidisciplinary work studio, hosting architects, landscape architects, urban designers, interior designers and lighting designers. The space is active with worked pinned up and impromptu design discussions around every corner. Learn about the many sustainable interior design strategies that support this creative working environment and that contributed to its LEED Gold certification.
Tour Guides:
Sarah Rege, RNL
Nathan Huyler, RNL
Embassy Suites – New Construction, Hospitality
The Embassy Suites Denver Downtown Convention Center location achieved LEED Silver certification in July 2011. It is the first hotel in the City of Denver and the first within the Embassy Suites brand to have earned this prestigious certification for sustainable building design, construction and operations.
Learn what factors contributed to achieving LEED Silver certification for this hotel. See first-hand how this translates into the hotels daily operation, contribution to the community, employees and stakeholders. Gain an understanding of the ROI that sustainability brings to the hotels owners, management, brand, employees and how they are using this experience to play a leadership role in sustainable efforts within the hospitality community.
Tour Guides:
Ron Richards, Director of Engineering
Robert F. Kisabeth, General Manager
Judy Esterbrook, Director of Sales & Marketing
