Greeley’s best projects receive city accolades

GREELEY – In recognizing the best of Greeley’s newest public and private commercial building projects for the 2005 and 2006, Community Development Director Becky Safarik called the new buildings the city’s “calling card.”

Together, they “reflect a city’s personality and values and can be an effective tool to help attract new business and residents,” she said.

Four projects – two of which the city owns as part of the voter-approved “Quality of Life” capital investment program – were identified for the awards bestowed in late July.

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“From the reaction and response we’ve had from several of our clients, it means something for them to be recognized in this way,´ said Roger Thorp, principal of Thorp Associates of Estes Park, whose design for the Harvest Modern Country Kitchen restaurants in west Greeley won the top commercial division award.

“Owners of these projects go across all the hot coals in the development process,” Thorp said. “It’s nice to have the city say, at the end of all that, ‘Hey, you did a great job with that.'”

Eaton architect Robb Casseday, in designing offices to house a dental practice for his son, Bryan Casseday, and his orthodontist partner, Dana Gamblin, first chose a west Greeley perch for the building with sweeping mountain views at the Fox Run Business Park.

“They wanted to do something that was really a cut above,” Casseday said. “They wanted a building that stood out, that took advantage of the views. They bought into that park thinking it was the right place to build this.”

For his efforts, Casseday earned the honorable mention for the two-year judging period in the commercial category.

Casseday, who formed Casseday Creative Design three years ago after a career designing industrial buildings for ConAgra Foods, said he was proud to be in the company of longtime friend Thorp.

“Roger’s the guy I’ve been trying to emulate with my company,” Casseday said. “He’s got a lot of award-winning projects.”

Two city-funded projects, both designed by Denver-based sports-design specialists Sink, Combs, Dethlefs Architects PC, won the institutional awards. The top honor went to the Twin Rivers Park & Family Funplex in west Greeley, and the honorable mention to the Greeley Ice Haus sports center in downtown Greeley.