Project Description
FROM THE ARCHITECTS:
Located along an active freight and passenger rail corridor in a former industrial area of Denver, Zeppelin Station is a transformative building. The program consists of 75,000 square feet of private office space above a 25,000 square foot market hall that serves as a train station for a new light rail transit line. The market hall is a food and drink amenity with international offerings for the building tenants, light rail passengers, and for the rapidly evolving River North (RiNo) neighborhood. The double height first floor was designed to be light and airy, primarily white with vertically operable mesh retail doors and graphic way finding, whereas the mezzanine introduces an entirely different feel. The black concrete floor and black backdrop allows for pops of red light, wheat past graphics and carefully curated furnishings to take center stage. This innovative programing of creating a public identity of ‘train station’ in a private development has invigorated a marginal edge of an area of the city that until a few years ago was minimally inhabited. Zeppelin Station is now a social junction connecting a transportation node to growing residential and commercial redevelopment in the community.
The form and layout of Zeppelin Station was motivated by site conditions. The building is comprised of two primary elements. First, stepped, landscaped terraces facing south are diagonally organized to access views of the city. These terraces create a lush foreground between large office suites and the skyline. The second element is a ‘billboard’ like screen along the rail lines that presents a singular identity across the expanse of rail lines. The screen, made of standard light gauge framing members, unifies the building mass and parking structure. Within this screen, an area of red saw toothed shaped recesses are angled to allow views of the city from individual suites. The screen, terraces and red saw-tooth façade are all set off by black fiber cement panels, which skin the primary building massing. Acoustical considerations due to the roar and clang of idling locomotives and coupling cars required judicious window placement and enhanced wall construction along this east elevation.
Zeppelin Station is on track to receive LEED Silver certification.