Projects – RMH Group

An architectural marvel stands at the North Gate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs – the USAFA Hosmer Visitor Center. This 34,000-square-foot facility, nestled within the extensive TrueNorth Commons development, plays a crucial role in the region’s educational and economic landscape.

Innovative Design

The Air Force Thunderbirds architecturally inspire the Hosmer Visitor Center. Its four-winged roof design mirrors the expansive profiles of a Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk, the largest delta-wing aircraft. The design symbolizes the Academy’s four-class progression from the fourth to the first year. A critical requirement for the project was maintaining the sleek image of winged aircraft, ensuring no penetrations through the metal panel roof system. Typically, buildings have vents and mechanical equipment on their roofs, which would disrupt this aerodynamic aesthetic. RMH Group devised a solution where all mechanical systems and vents route through the sides of the building. Louvers and vents strategically allow the mechanical intake and exhaust systems to pass through the building’s less visible back side below the third roof’s trailing edge without compromising the roof’s appearance, preserving the visual integrity of the Delta-wing design.

The Visitor Center will be an iconic architectural marvel, following the footsteps of the Cadet Chapel. One of the most striking features of this building is its 80-foot-tall south-facing atrium, with views of the Academy and Pikes Peak. However, this design posed a challenge: effectively cooling the atrium while mitigating cold drafts experienced during winter. To tackle this challenge, RMH Group designed an innovative radiant-slab cooling system. This system stands out because it can capture radiant energy from solar gain before it can re-radiate to other parts of the building. The radiant space conditioning system circulates chilled water through tubing circuits embedded within the building’s floor. The floor functions as a heat sink, providing efficient cooling to the space and its occupants. Additionally, displacement ventilation and fin-tube radiation sweep the atrium glass. This setup helps control conduction heat from the glass, carries it away before it can enter the space, and prevents cold drafts during the winter. These systems maximize energy efficiency and provide high thermal comfort and heating performance. To enhance the dynamic sense of movement the tiered roof wings create, the luminaries are strategically positioned to accentuate the building’s form without detracting from its aesthetic. The luminaries highlight the design elements and provide a safe and secure atmosphere for visitors.

Community Impact

As part of the City for Champions Initiative, this project is instrumental in uplifting the region’s quality of life and aligns with the Air Force Academy Foundation’s goals and the broader development of TrueNorth Commons, which includes commercial spaces, retail establishments, and the 375-room Hotel Polaris. The Hosmer Visitor Center is anticipated to attract over 1M visitors annually, contributing to a projected boost in the local economy of $4.4M in new annual sales tax revenue. By creating jobs and supporting local businesses, the project fosters community pride and enhances public welfare.

As an educational platform, the Hosmer Visitor Center will include high-tech exhibits and experiential storytelling that illustrate the role of engineering in modern life and military operations. From virtual reality experiences to detailed depictions of cadet life from arrival at the Academy to graduation, the center aims to inspire future generations and enhance public awareness of the Air Force mission.

The Hosmer Visitor Center exemplifies the culmination of engineering excellence through its innovative design, sustainable practices, and significant social and economic contributions. As a transformative social institute, educational platform, and economic catalyst, it showcases the ingenuity and capabilities of The RMH Group and its partners by addressing complex challenges with innovative engineering solutions.

Congratulations to the Entire Project Team:

General Contractor: G.E. Johnson
Architect: Fentress Architects
MEP Engineering: The RMH Group
Civil Engineering & Landscaping Design: Matrix Design Group
Structural Engineering: Martin/Martin
Life Safety: Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.
Exhibit Design: Nasco | Gallagher & Associates

Located in Broomfield, Colorado, the Children’s Hospital Colorado North Expansion project responded to the growing healthcare needs of families in Northern Colorado and Southern Wyoming. The strategy devised by the design-build team was a substantial greenfield expansion of the current 47,000-square-foot multi-specialty clinic, urgent care, and surgery center. This metamorphosed into a 236,000-square-foot pediatric hospital, with over 120,000 square feet dedicated to multi-specialty outpatient care. The facility provides a comprehensive range of services for families including pediatric orthopedics and sports medicine, cancer services, behavioral health services, ophthalmology, neurology, cardiology, ENT, urology, dentistry, and more, all under one roof.

In addition to the new five story medical office building and outpatient clinic, the project also included expanded urgent and emergency care, 24 inpatient beds, a sleep study lab, community educational programs, sterile processing, a pharmacy, a laboratory and new nutrition services for patients and families. To serve this building expansion and future expansions, work included an addition to the central utility plant and corresponding infrastructure services.

The RMH Group provided full-service mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering for the project. This covered designing the specialized heating, ventilation, air conditioning, medical gas, building automation, energy code compliance, plumbing, electrical service, regular and standby power distribution, power provision for mechanical and hospital equipment, lighting, and specification of fire protection and suppression systems.

Integrated Project Delivery: A Collaborative Success

The project team was driven by the singular goal of providing Children’s Hospital a solution that would accommodate their growing needs while remaining fully operational and concluded that the Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) approach would be ideal for the project. The IPD model enabled the team to share both risks and rewards, ensuring a “project first” mindset that drove innovation and teamwork. Working in a shared workspace, the co-located team was instrumental in maintaining open communication and preventing the siloing often seen in traditional construction projects.

Innovative Solutions and Overcoming Challenges

The design-build team leveraged groundbreaking engineering aspects to inject unique innovations into the project. Key among these are wireless lighting controls, which enhance flexibility and control of the lighting system, contributing to energy efficiency and comfort for staff and patients.

The team also incorporated an innovative power generation technology involving on-board paralleling of standby power generators. This relatively new technology, harnessed by only one other hospital in Colorado, replaces the traditional paralleling switch gear. The result is a boost in power supply reliability and significant savings in money and space within the facility.

Beyond these, the team implemented two different substation feeds from the utility provider to ensure a redundant power supply to the facility. This added layer of security guarantees an uninterrupted power supply, guaranteeing the hospital’s ability to provide continuous care, even during a power outage.

RMH prioritized delivering high-quality, energy-efficient MEP systems aligned with the project’s objectives while ensuring financial responsibility for initial and operational expenses. Collaboration between the design-build team and the Children’s Hospital staff led to a facility achieving an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 150, surpassing the future compliance benchmark of 172 EUI set by the State of Colorado’s Building Performance Standards for hospitals by 2030.

The team faced significant challenges, including maintaining hospital operations during construction and addressing unforeseen soil issues. An initial plan for a basement was scrapped due to unfavorable soil conditions, leading to a creative redesign that expanded the ground floor, saving time and costs. The team’s ability to adapt and innovate despite these obstacles was a testament to their expertise and dedication.

A Milestone Achievement for The RMH Group and Partners

Winning the DBIA Design Excellence Award underscores the significance of the Children’s Hospital Colorado North Expansion project as a benchmark in healthcare construction. For The RMH Group and their partners, this award is not only a recognition of their hard work and ingenuity but also a testament to the power of collaboration and the impact of thoughtful, patient-focused design.

As leaders in the industry, The RMH Group and their partners have set a new standard for healthcare projects, paving the way for future innovations and continued excellence in design-build delivery. This award celebrates the design-build team’s achievement and reaffirms their commitment to making a difference through engineering and collaborative efforts.

Design-Build Team Members:

General Contractor: G.H. Phipps Construction Companies
Architect: Treanor
MEP Engineering: The RMH Group
Civil Engineering: Enertia Consulting Group
Structural Engineering: KL&A
Landscaping: Outside Landscape Architects
Technology: Ross & Baruzzini
Medical Equipment: CPI
Sound & Acoustics: Wave Engineering

At the heart of Denver, the Auraria Campus is a beacon of knowledge and opportunity, serving over 40,000 students, faculty, and staff from three institutions—Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and the University of Colorado Denver. An intricate part of Auraria Campus’s mission is providing comfortable and conducive environments for learning and working. The Campus HVAC Replacement project marks a significant step towards this goal while enriching the local community.

The RMH Group (RMH Group) is the prime consultant on the project, providing mechanical and electrical engineering services focused on replacing an aging mechanical infrastructure. This project provides more efficient and reliable service for nine key buildings on campus, covering over 1.25 million square feet. It touches classrooms, laboratories, and offices that form the core of a vibrant academic community. An updated mechanical infrastructure is essential for the continued operation of these buildings. A phased schedule allows the campus to remain operational, reflecting RMH Group’s commitment to minimizing disruption while maximizing impact.

RMH Group considers HVAC upgrades more than just regular maintenance and believes it’s an imperative response to aging equipment and more frequent extreme weather conditions. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, based on data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, heat waves are steadily increasing, occurring more frequently, lasting longer on average, and becoming more intense since the 1960s.¹ This likely does not surprise many of us within the Denver metro area. In July, we saw three consecutive days when temperatures reached or even exceeded 100 degrees. In contrast, January 2024 ranked as the eighth-coldest four-day period since 1951.² With such varying degrees of weather, maintaining thermal comfort is vital, particularly for institutions like the AHEC.

Our project with AHEC aims to provide practical solutions and the thermal comfort of all the students, staff, and faculty on the campus. We are all about creating an environment that is not just conducive to learning but also to fostering knowledge and productivity under the best conditions," shares Natasha Hernandez, RMH Group's vice president and higher education market lead.

Natasha Hernandez, RMH Vice President, Higher Education Market Lead

By upgrading HVAC systems and replacing antiquated infrastructure, RMH Group is not just maintaining the smooth operation of these buildings but also enhancing the environment where our future leaders, innovators, and change-makers can grow and thrive. This commitment stretches beyond client satisfaction and human comfort. The firm is tuning into the pulse of our changing climate and adapting our systems to meet these challenges head-on.

“We believe in creating lasting, sustainable solutions while catering to our client’s immediate needs,” Natasha stated. “This project’s impact will extend far beyond the buildings themselves.”

So, whether it is an antiquated system, extreme heat, or cold, AHEC can count on RMH Group’s expertise and commitment to providing top-notch HVAC solutions for its campus stakeholders and the surrounding communities. With RMH Group’s expertise and commitment to excellence, the firm is confident that this project signifies a leading example of how HVAC upgrades can transform learning environments.