We are currently sketching ideas for building-mounted exterior signs and railing designs. Materials that have provided recent design inspiration include perforated, see-through vinyl used in the form of L-A-R-G-E letters as graphics, and a standard laser-cut architectural metal railing that appears to be an abstract of books sitting on a shelf.

The debate among librarians and the public about the potential changing nature of libraries is ongoing and ever-present in our minds. As the workday comes to a close in wintry Colorado, I look forward to picking up my library book and a blanket and sitting down in my comfy chair by the fire for the evening…

As part of our series of monthly art projects, we broke into teams and brainstormed ideas for improving our space. After coming up with a lot (and I mean, A LOT) of ideas, we gathered together and shared our thoughts, developed concepts and assigned tasks. Once the office redesign teams were assigned their spaces, we honed our concepts and then went shopping to create more functional spaces within the tight budgets we were given.

After numerous trips to Ikea, Home Depot and other stores, it was time to build! One Thursday afternoon in July became our designated “Office Build Day,” and our digs soon resembled a construction zone. We built a second counter space in the kitchen; added a bike rack and storage cubbies for the summer commuters; converted a small meeting room into a four-walled chalkboard for design charrettes; remodeled another small meeting room, adding a touchscreen computer for virtual meetings; turned a small corner into the office “living room,” with photographs from our events and soft seating for casual meetings; and assembled wheeled carts to present our construction administration materials in an orderly fashion rather than heaping them atop unused desks and forgetting about the mini landfills we’d created.

Everyone in the office was able to participate, design, work as a team, and witness the awesome final result… but hey—isn’t that what we do every day?!

Having a slightly delayed grand opening was actually pretty neat because all of us who had been on the design team were able to meet members of the Eagle View community who were so proud of their building and wanted to tell us all about the design. It was so rewarding to realize this project, which had consumed our design team’s working life for several years, had very quickly become a home for this community—and one over which they felt enormous ownership.

Freemasons from throughout the state came to the event to officially set the cornerstone according to masonic traditions. This was the first time most of us BRSers had ever witnessed a full masonic ceremony. No matter what your religion is, I think most architects would find it pretty cool to hear references to the “Great Architect of the Universe.”

The Eagle View Adult Center staff had prepared a full day of programming so that everyone who attended the opening could try out the various activities available in the new center. There was a senior fitness class, pottery painting, and even a spirited line-dancing session in the multipurpose room. All in all, it was great to see the building on which we’d worked so hard animated by such a great community of people.

Now, a few months later, the Eagle View Adult Center has been awarded Colorado Parks and Recreation’s prestigious Columbine Award. We’re pretty sure the building will continue to touch lives for years to come!

...mostly about various competitive challenges that involved the optional (albeit highly encouraged) consumption of adult beverages. Everyone just reassured me that it would be “alotta fun!” This year the trip was to Durango, Colorado, which seemed fitting since there were a few BRS projects in the area and it was relatively close to Denver.

We arrived from the airport to our cabin and immediately chose our respective rooms. I was camping outside. Not due to some hazing process, but to enjoy the last bit of summer weather that was quickly fading away.

• Day 1: Rec Center Tour - Library Tour - Lunch - Rec Center Tour - Dinner
• Day 2: Breakfast - Group Activities (horseback riding, hiking, Mesa Verde tour, etc.) - Dinner - Iron Chef Challenge - Minute to Win It!
• Day 3: Breakfast - Departure

First stop was the Durango Recreation Center, which BRS had designed roughly 10 years ago. Not much seemed out of the ordinary until we heard more specifics from the people originally involved in the project. The door hardware in the pool, the concrete staircase for the waterslide, the pool filtration system, the structure, the gym flooring, the paint—even the angle of the sun in relation to the lap pool surface—had all been thoughtfully considered.

The weather was perfect as we headed back for dinner, and from the cabin you could see a sunset that stretched for miles across the Front Range.

When dinner was over, we split into three groups and discussed our Iron Chef dishes. There seemed to be an unnervingly competitive atmosphere among the teams. We quickly moved on to a discussion about how to enrich the work environment within the firm. Gauging by my first few months as a BRS employee, I assured my colleagues that it already was quite impressive, but that didn’t seem to faze them. We spoke about design, efficiency, morale, and even joked about putting a slot machine in the break room. Then came the highly rumored "Flip Cup" competition and other variations of the drinking game often reserved for college dorm rooms, the details of which become fuzzy...

We took the following day at a leisurely pace. Horseback riding, lunch, brewery tour, and shopping were all relaxing. The evening, however, was a little more action-packed. We split up into our respective groups and the cooking challenge was underway. An hour or two later, the dishes were revealed and nearly overshadowed by Chuck’s alter ego, Charles (a.k.a. The Wig).

All of the dishes were impressive: a dry-ice-laden bowl filled with a bubbling electric blue drink concoction, a meat and cheese train atop a cornbread plateau, trail mix with a spicy kick, a melon and ice cream desert, a strong/sweet/explosive shot rimmed with pop rocks, and the winner… chocolate-covered bacon. The minute-to-win-it games a little later in the evening were pretty trying. But seriously, how can anyone stack three golf balls atop of one other with chocolate-covered bacon on the mind?

The retreat wound down late that evening. As everyone milled about the kitchen with their coffee and said their goodbyes the next morning, that’s when it dawned on me. Great work comes from great people, and if the retreat was any indication, BRS is full of the latter.

This spring, a team consisting of members of our office and a structural engineer/friend from KL&A participated in Canstruction, an event organized by the Society for Design Administration and benefiting Hunger Free Colorado. We were challenged to design and build a sculpture out of canned and packaged foods that embodied the theme, “Hungry for Change.” With just one day to construct our sculpture, we had to carefully plan ahead and estimate the number of soup cans and other assorted food items it would take to build our hippo and his environment. As it turns out, microwavable plastic soup containers arranged in the shape of a hippo are not as structurally sound as one might think…

Along with five other architecture firms, we spent the day constructing our canned-food sculptures in the atrium of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It was fun to see the hundreds of boxes of donated canned food transformed into whimsical creatures, geometric shapes and murals. The creations remained on display for the public to view for a few days and were then dismantled—all the canned goods directly donated to Hunger Free Colorado to serve their mission of eradicating hunger in our state.

The local news even captured a time-lapse video of the BRS team hard at work on our hippo!