Rocky Mountain Arsenal Unveils New Sustainable State-of-the Art Visitor’s Center
Greenwood Village, Colo., — May 31, 2011 — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hosted a ribbon-cutting reception on May 26, 2011 to introduce the new "green" visitor's center at the 5,000-acre Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge that will be an urban showpiece for the American West's wildlife system. GH Phipps Construction Companies and B&M Construction were honored to have worked on the project.
Notable guests and speakers included Ken Salazar, U.S. Secretary of the Interior; Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper; Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality; Greg Siekaniec, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Deputy Chief; Peggy O’Dell, National park Service Deputy Director, Operations; Mark Mahoney, Director of U.S. Army Office of Regional Environmental and Governmental Affairs-West; Paul Natale, Mayor of Commerce City; and Ray Collins, General Manager for Shell Oil Downstream.
GH Phipps and B&M Construction formed a joint venture in the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Mentor Protégé program which enhances the capability of a certified 8(a) small, socially- and economically-disadvantaged and minority-owned businesses to compete successfully for federal government contracts.
“We are proud to have been a part of a project that is so beneficial to the surrounding area and offers so much to the community,” said Kurt Klanderud, President of GH Phipps. “To be able to experience a vast expanse of nature, recreation and education this close to Denver is a testament to the vision attained by the partnership formed among the U.S. Army, Shell Oil Company, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”
The new state-of-the-art Visitor Center is located on a southwestern portion of the refuge designated as the Prairie Gateway Entrance. The Visitor Center offers exhibits about the Arsenal’s history and wildlife, interpretive classroom and an Arsenal museum.
Powered by a wind turbine, solar panels and geothermal heat, the center is the gateway to miles of prairie, woods and wetlands that is home to deer, coyotes and hundreds of bird species. The 14,000-square-foot visitor's center features an observation deck, an aviary, an auditorium and exhibits chronicling arsenal history. Native plants surround the building, and recycled materials were used throughout the building.
The Rocky Mountain Arsenal is a former weapons manufacturing facility for the U.S. military. It produced mustard gas, lewisite, chlorine gas and more than 100,000 tons of incendiary bombs. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Army produced incendiary cluster bombs, nerve gas and rocket propellant at the facility. For three decades, Shell Chemical Company manufactured herbicides and pesticides.
The government designated the Arsenal as a Superfund site in the ‘80s, and the Army has been conducting comprehensive environmental cleanup at the site. Wildlife flourished on the land when the base closed due to limited human activity. With its close proximity to Denver, Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge has become an extraordinary place to experience nature.
About GH Phipps Construction Companies
GH Phipps is an employee-owned full service Construction Manager/General Contractor. Revenues over $280 million make GH Phipps one of Colorado's largest contractors and one of the nation's top 400 contractors since 1985. Corporate headquarters are located in Greenwood Village, Colorado with branch offices in Colorado Springs, Colorado and Fort Collins, Colorado.