2016 North American BIM Awards - Denver Airport

This project is a new hotel and airport commuter train station for access to the airport by train from downtown Denver. The signature feature of this project are the two very large canopies, one free standing over the train platform and the other extending under the hotel itself and cantilevering out on both the north and south side of the hotel. The rolled steel arches over the hotel canopy carry the hotel. The canopy cantilever on the north side is a staggering 41 m (135'-0"), and on the south side 21 m (70'-4"). The anticipated deflection at the tip of the north cantilever is around 10-15 cm (4 to 6 inches). These canopies are constructed using diagrid technology, which like an eggshell transfer the load across the surface of the canopy down to the massive abutments. On the train canopy, each abutment consists of over 100 truckloads of concrete.

The hotel is shaped to roughly resemble an airplane, with a rolled steel roof. The architectural intent, when viewing the hotel and canopies together, is to create the sensation of flight or flying - an appropriate concept for the Denver International Airport. On this project Anatomic worked directly for the Engineer of Record (Miro), using Tekla In-Model Reviewer, and cooperated with the Architect (Gensler) using BIM.