The Big Wood 4 Cinema Theater Project
If you are one of the biggest developers of family cinema centers - you know about the 'numbers' it takes to make your business ventures a success.  With all the challenges and competition from other areas of entertainment - the proliferation of satellite entertainment - you either design and build winning projects - or you let competition eat-away at your market.

This developer and their principal 'point person' Marshall Smith have selected T. W. Beck Architects for the design and project management of most of their U.S. and Canadian theater, multiplex and family entertainment centers.  One such example is the BIG WOOD '4' Cinema located in Hailey, Idaho.  T. W. Beck acted as principal architect.

This nearly five hundred seat, four-auditorium complex comprised many square feet of floor space.  The outside was designed to complement the area: timber beams and timber braces were used, along with attractive wood siding.  Old-time movie star mural panels were designed on the outside yielding a rustic, but inviting old-west theme.  Inside is anything but rustic!  Stadium seating in the auditoriums invites people to comfortable movie-experiences.  Rest rooms are spacious and modern.  A large concession area and pendant light helps raise revenues and encourages return visits by patrons.

"We Want a New Marina Facility"

Designed by T.W. Beck Architects, P.C. for the Estes Valley Recreation and Park District, this facility is located on Lake Estes.  The project included a convenience store, maintenance and service facilities, as well as administrative offices.  Log trusses and columns were utilized to enhance the aesthetics of the store.  The building was oriented to take advantage of wonderful mountain views as well as conceal the shop entry door.  A dark green metal roof and colored block walls were chosen to reduce future maintenance.

The Marina was completed as a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, who own the land, and the Estes Valley Recreation District.

The 3,095 square foot Marina building was completed in May of 2000, on schedule and within budget.

The Estes Park Historical Museum, located at 200 Fourth Street, features collections and exhibits that depict and preserve area history as far back as its first inhabitants – the Native American tribes of the Ute, Shoshone and Comanche.  The Museum’s interpretive programs and events help educate local residents and visitors about the area’s fascinating story.  As the Museum’s collections and programs have grown over the years so has the building.  But its growth has been in awkward spurts – four additions to the initial building left it with little curb appeal.  Yet in 2003 it needed to grow again. 

A specific need that had been identified was a space that could accommodate Museum programs which, because they were regularly attracting more than seventy attendees, had to be held away from the Museum – at the Library, Town Hall or other locations.  The firm of T.W. Beck Architects was chosen to take on the challenge of developing a comprehensive plan that would not only provide functionally efficient, additional space but integrate the multiple previous expansions into a cohesive and attractive structural design. 

T.W. Beck Architects, a local firm specializing in mountain architecture, not only presented a competitive design/build bid but had demonstrated its capabilities in previous work for the Town of Estes Park with the successful remodel of the Senior Center.  Thomas Beck, an Estes Park architect of twenty-three years, partnered with Westover Construction to begin the addition in October 2003.  Construction was completed on schedule -- in June 2004.  In July more than 600 people attended the Museum’s grand re-opening events. 

The project more than doubled the existing space of 2,450 square feet to 5,870.  A highlight of the addition is the new, 1135 square-foot, multipurpose room which is used for Museum programs and presentations, meetings of the Museum board of directors, and is available to community groups for meetings and events.  It features a vaulted ceiling with strong, exposed, Parallam wood trusses – a green building product made of wood fibers.  It is not only more economical than using large, timber beams but environmentally friendly in that its production does not require cutting mature trees.  The high ceilings along with plentiful windows, that frame views of Lake Estes, provide lots of “day lighting” to reduce energy use, supplemented with shelf and track lighting.  The new meeting space includes a convenient kitchen area.   

The addition includes new men’s and women’s restrooms that are accessible to handicapped individuals.  A roomy, new Museum Shop is greatly enhanced by a ceiling with varied heights and cheerful, ambient light.  The shop is operated by the volunteer group, Friends of the Museum, and offers books about Estes Valley history, photos and reproductions of local scenery and landmarks, gifts and more.

A new entry conceals the existing building and multiple additions.  The timber frame design incorporates natural elements throughout including tile, wood, natural light and colors drawn from the Rocky Mountain vistas that surround the Estes Valley – which are also prevalent in silk-screened artwork created by local Eagle Rock School art students.  With new stone work, cedar-shingled siding, and a peeled log and stone entry way the Museum’s exterior implements a sustainable design that is now in harmony with its surroundings.  Exterior colors are drawn from the mountain setting while the mountains are mimicked in the multiple-gabled roof.

"Recreation Department’s 9-Hole Clubhouse Transformation"

The Estes Valley’s Recreation District enlisted the expertise of Thomas Beck Architects to update and enhance the multi-use building that serves as the Clubhouse and pro-shop for the local nine-hole golf course, the Rec District’s offices, and a maintenance facility.  The original structure looked anything but recreational.  It was a utilitarian, beige, metal building, reminiscent of a double-wide, with an almost-flat roof and commercial doors and windows.

  

Beck Architects added a pitched roof before topping off the existing metal roof with rich, brown, asphalt composition shingles.  Warm, honey-colored, log siding now covers the metal building.  A log porch with post-and-beam supports and stone wainscot welcomes golfers into the Clubhouse.  Doors and windows are trimmed in wood and painted brown to complement both the roof and siding.  The concrete leading to the clubhouse is now stamped and stained a warm terracotta color to further complement the traditional lodge-like hues of the Clubhouse.

Dannels Fire Station