Greeley-based Hensel Phelps Construction Co. broke ground on the new History Colorado Center, located at 12th Avenue between Broadway and Lincoln in Denver, on Aug. 19. The new center, scheduled for completion sometime in late 2011, will replace the current Colorado History Museum at 1300 Broadway.

The new 200,000-sq-ft History Colorado Center will house a new museum and its education/public programs, the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, the State Historical Fund, The Stephen H. Hart Research Library, and other Colorado Historical Society functions.
Rendering: Tryba Architects
The new 200,000-sq-ft History Colorado Center will house a new museum and its education/public programs, the Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, the State Historical Fund, The Stephen H. Hart Research Library, and other Colorado Historical Society functions.

The Colorado Historical Society and the state Judicial Department occupy two separate buildings on the same city block. In 2005, in light of research from the Urban Land Institute, which concluded that new buildings were necessary and that the Judicial Department building should occupy the entire block, the Colorado Historical Society agreed to find a new site.

Instead of two separate projects, the state approached the projects as one—an approach that saved more than $200 million from the legislatively authorized debt service limitations and will create over 3,200 direct and indirect jobs during the next four years.

Denver’s Tryba Architects is the architect-of-record. TrammellCrow Co. is the project manager.