General Services Administration, Building 48

From aging structure to modern workplace

Client: General Services Administration
Location: Colorado, United States
Size: 150,970 square feet
Status: Completed; LEED Gold

Once a sprawling munitions plant built in 1941, Building 48 at the Denver Federal Center had seen decades of use before sitting vacant in 2012. Its deep floorplates, industrial scale and aging systems might have seemed like barriers to reinvention, but they also held unique potential. With thoughtful design and modernization, the building has been reimagined to serve the needs of today’s workforce while retaining its unmistakable character.

The transformation brings new life to the building with updated systems — mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire/life safety — alongside site improvements and comprehensive interior upgrades. Open, flexible spaces create opportunities for collaboration and focus, while the building’s industrial bones add a sense of authenticity often missing in modern offices. Importantly, the building sets a new benchmark for how the federal government will approach sustainable building design as the building is on its way to becoming LEED Gold, SITES Silver and both net zero energy and net zero carbon.

Pictured are four of the five original structures that make up Building 48.

A building transformed

Our design-build team envisioned a cutting-edge workplace that brings the building together as a dynamic community, organized into interconnected neighborhoods along a central boomerang-shaped spine. This workplace strategy ensures employees and their teams are supported by diverse spaces including conference rooms, touchdown spaces, collaboration zones, community lounges and more.

Supporting the Department of the Interior’s Interior Business Center (IBC), the building unites hundreds of employees who provide acquisition, financial management and human resource services to federal organizations.
Supporting the Department of the Interior’s Interior Business Center (IBC), the building unites hundreds of employees who provide acquisition, financial management and human resource services to federal organizations.
Supporting the Department of the Interior’s Interior Business Center (IBC), the building unites hundreds of employees who provide acquisition, financial management and human resource services to federal organizations.

A large open-seating atrium called “The Forest” is the main collaboration hub featuring a dynamic central stair, extensive daylighting and other key amenities. Physically, it connects the building to a courtyard with naturalized plantings and rain gardens. Conceptually, it evokes the calm and safety of a forest canopy, where dappled light filters over open meeting areas, fostering both connection and inspiration.

Each of Building 48’s neighborhoods draw inspiration from the scenic wonders of Colorado. Wall colors, graphic treatments and other visual cues help celebrate iconic places like Mesa Verde, the Black Canyon of Gunnison, Red Rocks and Rocky Mountain National Park among others.

The connective design promotes the best assets of the existing warehouse space: brick walls, tall ceilings, and exposed steel/ concrete structures. The contrasting dialogue between the brick and black metal results in an architecture that is both rough and refined. Furthermore, existing floor markings were celebrated, and fire shutters were repurposed throughout the building.

Numerous sustainable design strategies make this building notable:

Energy: The building is a net-zero energy building that utilizes a 200KW roof-mounted solar array to charge an all-electric facility, cost-effective LED lighting along with high-efficiency heating and cooling systems (including electric boilers and air handlers) all designed to LEED Gold.

Operational carbon: Building 48 is net zero carbon. Its building operations will not generate carbon as it is a 100% electric building. There is no natural gas service to the building.

Embodied carbon: Reuse of the existing building structure and masonry skin saves enough carbon to drive an average car 43 million miles or power 3,300 homes for a single year.

Daylighting: Bringing daylighting to the building is a key tenet of the design. The project added 73 new windows that are 8’ x 10' in dimension. The design team also added 85 stunning skylights throughout the building.

Building site: Designed to Sites Silver certification, the landscape features adaptable trees, a pollinator garden and bioswales for water conservation to further connect employees to nature.

Adaptive reuse: This project reactivates a vacant, federally owned structure with historical significance into a modern workplace that now contributes to the Federal Buildings Fund.

Sustainable transit: There are 20 electric vehicle charging stations at Building 48, the largest concentration of EV stations on the DFC. The project has also installed the infrastructure to expand to 60 EV charging stations in the future.