Let’s start with a little exercise. I would like you to input “Meow Wolf Denver” on Google Maps (here, I did it for you) and look at where the red pin falls on the map. Do you see it yet, the small, somewhat tear-shaped building tucked inside an interwoven web of highways? That, my friends, is Denver’s newest arts destination—and it sits on a tiny, triangular plot of land at the intersection of three highways. — Fast Company
Meow Wolf, the Sante Fe-based arts and entertainment company that specializes in hosting large-scale immersive experiences, has set up shop in Denver, with a new, uniquely-positioned space that opened to the public in September 2021.
The building, spanning 5 stories and 95,000 square feet, was designed to fill the void between a stretch of I-25 and two off-ramps. Its façade is clad with specialty matte panels to ensure the building doesn’t create a glare for drivers.
Before settling on this location, Meow Wolf had two other potential locations in mind, both located in Denver’s River North Art District. The team decided against these locations because building would have required the displacement of existing organizations in an area that was already experiencing gentrification. Meow Wolf, thus, called upon Denver-based architecture firm Shears Adkins Rockmore (SAR +) and boutique real estate firm Revesco Properties.
The key to utilizing such a constrained space was building the structure like a high-rise with a steel frame construction and a system for managing fires from within since the building can’t be accessed by fire trucks.
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For non-architects, Convergence Station is dizzying and requires more than one trip to grasp the backstory, and "solve" the many puzzles. For architects, it is twice as overwhelming, as you try to simultaneously understand the message and project the building and how it was drawn and specified, truly an adventure.
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