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Additional Resources
The REI Denver Flagship Store is located at 1416 Platte St, Denver, CO 80202; 303.756.3100; visit the website and read about REI’s Sustainable Operations. See the January 2003 Sustainable Retail Development at REI Denver: Achieving Corporate Citizenship through Business, Government and Community Collaboration by Karen Hyllegard, Jennifer Ogle, Brian Dunbar, Kira Fink and Lauren Volk. See the case study in the November 10, 2010 Design Guidelines and Maintenance Manual for Green Roofs In the Semi-Arid and Arid West© on page 39 by Leila Tolderlund, LEED AP, GRP, University of Colorado Denver in collaboration with Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, City and County of Denver, Environmental Protection Agency Region 8, Urban Drainage and Flood Control District, and Colorado State University, and the case study from Mithun.
The USA’s largest consumer cooperative, Seattle-based REI’s Denver Flagship Store reflects the retailer’s corporate philosophy. Located in the remodeled 1901 Denver Tramway Power Co building, REI turned the 88,000 square foot building into a playground with a 48’ indoor climbing wall (the Pinnacle), a full mountain bike track, and a walk-in freezer to test your cold weather gear – not to mention a massive 1-acre intensive greenroof above the parking garage.
Completed in April, 2000, the REI Flagship Store in Denver “is an outstanding example of adaptive reuse in design and a major contribution to the redevelopment of Denver’s Central Platte Valley. The store is located in the Tramway Building, the former City trolley system power plant that had stood under-utilized for years, verging on being derelict. The landscape design works to promote REI’s corporate image, while contributing to the City of Denver’s urban design goals for redeveloping the Central Platte Valley.
“The entrance to the store is set in an intensive green roof garden above a parking structure and features a 75-foot re-circulated creek. The green roof landscape recalls Colorado’s alpine landscapes and includes a bike test track and a rock climbing feature. The green roof garden also provides the public with access to the South Platte River and serves Greenway trail users and boaters,” (Design Guidelines and Maintenance Manual for Green Roofs In the Semi-Arid and Arid West©, 2010).
The beautiful roof garden has large Aspen and Cottonwood trees and an abundance of different types of plant material set within pathways, boulders, and sculpture for public enjoyment.
The REI Denver Flagship Store is listed in the U.S. Department of the Interior’s National Register of Historic Places and won the 2001 AIA COTE Top Ten Green Projects.
