Christian Stover Volunteers at 2020 Colorado Building Workshop

Jan 20, 2021

Marx|Okubo Denver Vice President, Christian Stover, joined a storied team of volunteers to lead the 2020 Colorado Building Workshop for the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado Denver. The Colorado Building Workshop is technically a graduate course, but everyone who has ever participated would agree that it is far more. Each year, students partner with industry professionals on a real-life design-build project. The 2020 team designed and built the Auraria Bike Pavilions – two bike storage facilities located at Larimer and Curtis Streets on the Auraria Campus. These secure, badge-accessed pavilions accommodate 50 bikes and have an on-site bike fix-it station.

Volunteering in this program is personal for Christian. She attended CU Denver where she completed her Master of Architecture in the design-build program. She and her professor, Rick Sommerfeld, have stayed in contact since her graduation. Rick has led the Colorado Building Workshop for years and welcomes Christian’s involvement.

Usually, Christian gives a presentation to the program, but with COVID, it was a little different. Early in the semester, she popped in and discussed some of the student’s problems working through detailing at the roof intersections. From there, COVID was too serious for in-person contact, so Christian reviewed student drawings and provided feedback, similar to what they would expect from a typical building enclosure consultant. She also helped direct them to manufacturer's installation instructions as well. Christian viewed the final results from afar but was excited that amongst all the craziness, the program was successful.

To learn more about the Colorado Building Workshop – and watch a fabulous time-lapse video of previous projects – click here: http://coloradobuildingworkshop.cudenvercap.org/