The Emily Griffith Technical College project revitalized a downtown Denver high-rise into an innovative campus that includes a public K-5 charter school, a high school and a technical college. The new facility consolidates 1,200 education staff members into one, state-of-the-art educational center.

This project adopted a true design-build approach, involving end users, subcontractors and other stakeholders from the beginning to ensure a smooth incorporation of project solutions. Construction was split up into phased occupancy to meet the needs of staff and students arriving on campus. This approach required extensive coordination to ensure that staff and students were kept safe and experienced as little disruption as possible. Additionally, a late network/server scope change required creative problem-solving, with the PCL team repurposing an unoccupied storage room to meet the Technical College’s networking needs within

Originally built in the 1960s, the high-rise renovation faced challenges such as asbestos and outdated HVAC systems. The new campus also incorporated numerous energy-efficient and environmentally friendly features, including occupancy sensors, daylighting, low-flow toilets, LED lighting, high-efficiency boilers and VRF systems. The expanded front entrance, lobby, and ground-level public spaces create a welcoming atmosphere and facilitate efficiency for the 3,500 daily students, educators and visitors.