Aardex Building is LEEDer of the Pack
Published Dec 22, 2009
Design and construction firm Aardex LLC has received a second LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for commercial interiors at its Signature Centre at Denver West in Jefferson County.
It is only the second building in the world to receive the dual certification, which follows Platinum certification for the 185,000-square-foot building’s core and shell.
The five-story Signature Centre was built in 2007. The second Platinum certification recognized the building’s water savings, use of recycled materials, energy performance and indoor air quality. Go to www.aardex.com for more on the project.
Promoting Really High Finance
Jefferson County is at the forefront of efforts to integrate space technology and resources into the global economy.
The Colorado School of Mines and a cadre of government and business leaders have banded together with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to form the 8th Continent Project to promote entrepreneurial, space-derived business ventures.
The initiative brings together a variety of components including a “space business” trade association, a business incubator, funding network and research hub to develop an emerging generation of new companies and small entrepreneurial ventures with real profit potential.
For more on the initiative, go to www.8cproject.com.
Good Head for Business
Coors, the fabled brewing company founded in Colorado, has joined forces with one-time rival Miller to form MillerCoors. But Coors remains an integral part of Jefferson County. Its Golden operation, started by Adolph Coors in 1873, is still the largest single-site brewery in the world, with capability of brewing up to 22 million barrels and packaging up to 16 million barrels annually.
The company also is an owner-partner in operating the nation’s largest aluminum can manufacturing plant in Golden and a glass bottle manufacturing plant in Wheat Ridge. In addition, Coors’ legacy in Golden includes CoorsTek, a world leader in precision-machined metals, technical ceramics and engineered plastics that was spun out of Coors in the early 1990s and employs some 1,200 people in the region.
That’s Some Fine Art
The Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design is a small school that lets its students create some big ambitions.
The college offers four-year degree programs in areas such as animation, art education, fine arts, game art, graphic design and illustration. The college received its props at the 2009 Academy Awards. A former professor and alum were among members of the Lola Visual Effects team that worked on the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and helped age and de-age Brad Pitt. The film won an Oscar for best visual effects. Go to www.rmcad.edu for more on the college.
Big Wheels
Wheat Ridge Cyclery is a family-run business started in 1973 by Eugene Kiefel with a $4,800 investment and 750 square feet of retail space. Today, WRC operates out of a 30,000-square-foot facility with 50 employees and sells thousands of cycles and state-of-the-art cycling products each year.
Kiefel’s son, Ron, one of the shop’s employees, is a seven-time Tour de France competitor, the first American to win a stage in the Giro d’Italia and a 1984 Olympic bronze medalist.
One of the company’s employees started the Dirt Divas, a mountainbike-riding club for women of all skill levels in the metro Denver area to experience the joy of mountain biking. For more on Wheat Ridge Cyclery, go to www.ridewrc.com.
Long Live Rock
The Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum in Golden opened in February 2008, the first museum in the United States dedicated to all facets of mountaineering.
The museum, which is open six days a week and by appointment on Mondays, features a theater and numerous exhibits and artifacts that tell the story of mountaineering’s rich history.
The museum is housed inside the American Mountaineering Center, headquarters to leading mountain and climbing organizations such as the American Alpine Club, Colorado Mountain Club and Outward Bound.
Go to www.mountaineeringmuseum.org for more on the museum.
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