The city of Edgewater, Colorado, recently opened a new civic center. The 55,000 square-foot building puts city offices, the police department, a municipal library, and a recreation and fitness center all under one roof. Key to the building's efficiency and sustainability was the utilization of the KarrierPanel barrier wall system from Kingspan Insulated Panels -North America. 

Edgewater’s new civic center started as a dream two decades ago, and thanks in part to tax revenue from cannabis sales, that dream is now a reality. The city’s six cannabis dispensaries were responsible for $3 million in tax money that helped fund the $13 million project. The new building allowed the police department to move out of a former grocery store and upgrade their evidence room, which previously was the size of a walk-in closet.

The design team from RATIO Architects faced two significant challenges with the new civic center: fit several different entities – each with unique needs - into one building with limited space and also fit it all into the budget. The city also wanted a highly-efficient building with a focus on sustainability.

Metal played a key role in accomplishing all those goals.

The design team used a pre-engineered metal building system, which saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. From there, they looked at materials for the exterior skin that could fit the building and deliver a high level of performance.

“That’s where insulated metal panels came into play,” said Dennis Humphries, AIA, principal, Denver Studio Leader at RATIO Architects. “The panels provided us the ability to do a two-story gym, skin the entire enclosure using predominately one material, and allowed us a very energy-efficient and cost-efficient approach.”  

The Edgewater civic center uses the KarrierPanel Barrier Wall System from Kingspan. KarrierPanel is a cost-effective universal wall barrier alternative to traditional multi-component wall systems. The panels serve as a rainscreen and allow designers the flexibility to utilize any number of facades, which connect to the KarrierPanel by Kingspan’s KarrierRail, which securely and safely transmits loads to the structural supports behind the insulated panel.

Beyond Kingspan insulated metal panels, fiber cement panels and fiber cement planks provided different looks and textures. Regardless of the façade materials, the KarrierPanel is there to provide a high level of energy efficiency by eliminating thermal-bridging energy losses associated with standard stud/cavity insulation construction.

“We had to make sure that when we selected materials for the building that we were addressing those sustainable design initiatives,” said Humphries. 

City officials originally opposed the use of metal in the design of the civic center, under the impression it was going to give the building an industrial look. However, insulated metal panels are diverse in nature and can provide different aesthetics to different buildings.

“Once we showed the owners the different colors and textures we were going to use, their concerns immediately went away,” said Humphries. “We were able to show them how sophisticated the panels looked as an exterior skin on the building and they felt very comfortable with that.”

A community center, office and space for local residents to gather, the Edgewater civic center was made to stand the test of time.

“We’re trying to build a building that’s going to have a 50-year half-life,” City Manager HJ Stalf told the local newspaper.