Saunders Tops Off New DaVita Headquarters in Denver
The project team for DaVita and Saunders Construction held a topping-off ceremony on Nov. 10 for the new headquarters of the kidney care company.
The final steel beam was placed on the north corner of the 256,400-sq-ft, 14-story building in Denver’s Central Platte Valley, just west of LoDo. The ceremony celebrated completion of the highest point of the building, which was designed by MOA Architecture.
The completed tower will accommodate almost 1,000 employees and serve as a training site for the company in a program it calls DaVita University. The new headquarters will incorporate several features that promote the company’s team-oriented culture. Those include: rooftop exterior terraces, three two-story interior garden areas, a top level marketplace, community spaces, large employee training area and a student union. In addition, the top floor and the corners will be devoted as general work spaces, not private offices.
“It’s appropriate to celebrate the end of this phase of the construction process with our great team, as it’s their hard work that has successfully brought us to this point”" said Greg Schmidt, president of Saunders Construction.
As of the topping-off ceremony, the project team has used more than 34 million pounds of concrete on the building and installed 17,370 tons of reinforcing steel. DaVita plans to open the new headquarters in summer 2012.
