Centennial Mayor Cathy Noon, members of the city council and more than 300 residents gathered in the Festival Plaza of Centennial Center Park in late April to celebrate the grand opening of Centennial’s first civic park. Design Concepts of Lafayette, a community and landscape architecture firm specializing in parks, multigenerational play areas and schools, designed the master plan for the park. Photo courtesy of Design Concepts The parks playground complex is sunken, surrounded by walls and trees, and offers parents and other childcare providers good views of the entire playground area. The 11-acre park is located next to the Centennial

Matrix Design Group Inc., a Colorado-based engineering, consulting and planning firm, has acquired the assets of Design Studios West Inc., a Denver-based landscape architecture and planning firm. Design Studios West has merged into Matrix’s operations as part of its planning and design group. As part of the acquisition, Don Brandes, former president of Design Studios West, joins Matrix as vice president and director of landscape architecture and urban design. Brandes also brings to Matrix his senior staff, including Bob Eck, landscape architect and planner; Mark Nemger, planner; and Ian Anderson, landscape architect.The Design Studios West staff will continue to serve

The Associated Builders and Contractors Rocky Mountain Chapter held its annual Safety Awards dinner on May 18. More than 160 ABC members and guests attended the event. The awards recognize ABC member companies that have shown outstanding commitment and dedication to the health and safety of their employees. Photo courtesy of ABC ABCs Platinum STEP winners display their awards at the May 17 celebration. The safety winners included:Most Improved Safety ProgramShaw Construction, DenverOutstanding Safety Program for General Contractors • Less than 150,000 man-hours: (tie), Stanek Constructors Inc., Golden; and Gracon Corp., Loveland• 150,000 – 350,000 man-hours: Roche Constructors Inc., Greeley•

The Associated General Contractors of Colorado honored its members for their safety achievements on May 22 in a ceremony that included the chapter’s annual Construction Safety Excellence Awards. Photo by Mark Shaw Denvers PCL Construction Services Inc. was honored for being the Grand Award winner in AGCs national safety competition in March. Pictured, left to right: AGC/C Executive Director Michael Gifford, 2012 AGC/C Chairman Dave Morrill, PCL Vice President and District Manager Trey Nobles, PCL U.S. Director of Health, Safety and Environment Rich Baldwin and PCL President Al Troppmann. The CSEA program recognizes general and specialty contractors who participated in

The Colorado Chapter of Society for Marketing Professional Services hosted the annual Marketing Excellence Awards on May 17. In addition to highlighting the industry’s best-of-the-best marketing pieces and individuals, this year marks the 30th anniversary for the SMPS Colorado Chapter. Photo by Joel Eden Photography Lisa Jelliffe with the Worth Group won the chapters highest honor, the Leonardo Award, for 2012. The following members were recipients of individual awards.Leonardo Award Recipient: Lisa Jelliffe, Worth Group, DenverThe Leonardo Award is given by SMPS Colorado to honor achievement at the highest level in marketing and business development for the A/E/C industry. Since

Construction-technology provider Trimble broke ground May 14 for its new Rockies campus, a 125,000-sq-ft, four-story building on 15 acres in the Westmoor area of Westminster. The company’s new location will house all of its existing employees, with space to accommodate up to 570 people. Trimble initially opened its Colorado location in October 2000 with 43 employees at the Church Ranch Office Center in Westminster, occupying approximately 29,000 sq ft.Today, Trimble leases approximately 98,000 sq ft in Westminster’s Westmoor Technology Park, with more than 400 employees who primarily focus on marketing, testing and applications engineering in the construction, surveying, agriculture and

The Colorado Dept. of Transportation has officially kicked off the 2012 construction season in the northeast section of the state. Altogether, more than 150 miles of highway will be under construction, with costs totaling more than $110 million in Boulder, Larimer, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld and Yuma counties. 
 “It’s going to be a busy summer in our region of the state,” said CDOT Regional Director Johnny Olson. “We have a wide variety of projects that will be under way, including an interchange reconstruction at the intersection of two major highways, bridge replacements in multiple counties, much-needed resurfacings,

A revolutionary research and teaching facility that opened in late April at the University of Colorado Boulder will allow scientists to tackle biomedical challenges ranging from cancer, heart disease and tissue engineering to the development of new biofuels. Rendering courtesy of CU Boulder An architects rendering shows the Systems Biotechnology Building at the University of Colorado at Boulder facing Colorado Avenue along the east side. Faculty, staff and students working in the new $160-million Jennie Smoly Caruthers Biotechnology Building come from five departments on campus, including chemistry and biochemistry, chemical and biological engineering, computer science, MCD biology and physics. Several

Denver's Regional Transportation District, the Colorado Dept. of Transportation and SEMA Construction Inc. broke ground for the I-225 rail line in early May. The 10.5-mile light rail extension will travel through Aurora and a small section of Denver. The line, part of RTD’s FasTracks program, will include eight stations and connect the existing Southeast Light Rail Line at Nine Mile Station with the planned East Rail Line at the Peoria-Smith Station.Constructing the first segment of the line from Nine Mile to Iliff as part of CDOT’s expansion project allows both RTD and CDOT to efficiently complete the rail line and

The Colorado Dept. of Transportation has officially kicked off the 2012 construction season in northwest and central Colorado. While there are many projects that started last year and were suspended for the winter, there are—and will—be many new projects getting started this summer. 
“We will have a significant number of much-needed projects under way this summer in our region of the state,” said CDOT Region 3 Director David Eller. “Altogether, we will have more than 100 miles of highway under construction in dozens of projects totaling more than $100 million in contracts. We have worked diligently to secure funding for