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Forestry Service Lobby Features Decorative Concrete Stream Bed and Waterfall

By Sherry Boyd, ConcreteNetwork.com Columnist

Project Detail:

- Headquarters for the Arapahoe and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grasslands District in Ft. Collins, Colorado.

- 43,500 square foot building with visitor center on the ground floor.

- The overall goal for the building was to communicate the goals and responsibilities of the Forestry Service through its design.

Recently, the lobby of the Forestry Service office building in Colorado got a makeover which brought the outdoors in. The project featured artisically stained concrete and a two-story working waterfall. Here is a project summary:

Water, both really and simulated, was used as the central theme of the lobby.
Features an artistically colored stained concrete depiction of a stream bed.
The focal point of the lobby is a dramatic two-story, working, concrete waterfall feature.
Above the waterfall is a stylized mural of Poudre Falls.
Some of the concrete was ground to expose aggregates and create a natural feel, much like a dry river bed.
Sherwin-Williams Preservation Palette colors, an environmentally friendly, low-VOC paint, were used on this project.
A low-VOC, water-based concrete stain, Con-Color from Bomanite was used to develop custom colors that suited the design scheme.
A custom vivid turquoise was used to represent the water and two warm earth colors were used to represent the prairies.
The entire floor was lightly ground to a 120 grit finish which opens the surface prior to staining and allows more complete penetration of the stain below the surface.
The project was sealed with a low-VOC sealer.
Artificial rocks were constructed of glass fiber reinforced concrete that is cast from molds of imprints taken from nature.

Read the complete Forestry Service Lobby project profile.

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