Where we build

Every region has conditions that surprise outsiders. Here there are four, and they recur with enough regularity that an out-of-state designer can be identified from the drawings.

Wind

Design wind loads along the Front Range are higher than most of the country, and the gust conditions here are genuinely severe. A canopy, a sign, a parapet or a rooftop screen detailed for somewhere flatter will not stand, and the structural consequences reach further into the building than people expect.

Hail

This is one of the most hail-affected parts of the United States, and that has consequences in both construction and insurance. Roof membrane selection, skylight and glazing choice, rooftop equipment protection and even wall cladding are all decisions that look ordinary on paper and turn into a claim here. An owner with a building to insure should raise this at design rather than discover it at renewal.

Soils

Parts of this region sit on expansive clay, which swells as it takes on water and lifts whatever is above it. The remedies — over-excavation and replacement, moisture conditioning, a structural floor, drilled piers — are all substantial, and which applies is determined by the geotechnical report rather than by anybody’s sense of the street. A slab designed without one is a claim with a delay fuse on it.

Season

The earthwork window here is shorter than the calendar implies. A project that gets its underground in and its pad built before the ground closes carries on through the winter inside a building. One that misses it waits, and it does not wait a month, it waits a season. This single fact is the strongest argument for starting the design conversation earlier than feels necessary.