Did you see the movie, The Martian? The story is about a stranded visitor and how he used his wits and spirit to survive in harsh environmental conditions on the planet Mars. While the environment "up there" is vastly different than what we have "down here" on Earth, the Pikes Peak Summit is at 14,115 ft. above sea level.  And that's about as close to space as most of us will ever get while standing on solid ground. 

So it makes sense for design and contractor teams to use an innovative approach while working on the new Pikes Peak Summit Complex Project. They won't use a "beam me up Scottie" system to transport materials to the top of that mountain, but they are thoroughly testing to see how those components will perform at high altitude. "We don't want to just get the design right, we want to get it ALL right before materials are specified in the final design." -Alan Reed, GWWO, Inc. of Baltimore, project partner with local RTA Architects.

The harsh environment on top of Pikes Peak requires a very different approach to construction of the new Summit House visitor center. Pete Jefferson, an engineer on the project team from M.E. GROUP says, "We want a proven track record for anything we consider putting up on the summit -- simple and durable. Any vulnerability of materials on the summit will get exploited because of the harsh climate and elevation. Things need to perform. Materials are rated for performance up to 10,000 ft., but then the charts just stop. So we're requesting custom materials from manufacturers."  In addition to customized construction materials, the project team works to manage resources like water and energy with sustainability as a primary goal.

"Many issues work hand-in-hand up there, including how to efficiently transport water to and from the summit, says Jefferson. "The more water we get to the summit, the more we have to haul out. The less water we have to haul up reduces the cost of dealing with that water once it's up on top. You get a double benefit." According to Jefferson, "the less electricity the building requires, the less we need to provide from a backup generator, which can then be smaller in size. The better the building envelope we provide, the less power we need to keep it warm. The less energy we can use for cooking, for example with exhaust fans over a deep fat fryer, the less energy is required for tempering the "make-up" air. If it's 10 degrees outside, you have to also heat that make-up air before it enters the building."

"We're fortunate there is a weather station on the summit. It give us many years of weather information," says Pete Jefferson. "The challenge is that it showed 100 mph wind one minute and 0 mph the next." According to Jefferson, that's very unusual. "The anemometer (a device used to measure wind speed) probably broke or froze to cause that extreme of a change. We have four different growing zones in Colorado. Pikes Peak represents a fifth zone, which is colder than Nome Alaska. It's a whole new climate zone for Colorado."

Public comments have reflected concerns about the amount of glass in the recommended design. People are wondering if it will hold up. "I'd say that the team has been judicious in our use of glass. The whole building has very little glass relative to the building size. The next step? "We're conducting analysis and modeling on performance of the glass to provide the best possible climate inside the building. Our goal: built to last and super efficient," said Jefferson.

Stuart Coppedge of RTA Architects offers another perspective on windows and glass. "We're also working on window glazing to make it as efficient as possible and control glare. The whole point is to have the great views. We want to find a glazing system that provides the energy efficiency we need, durability and glare control, while allowing for the views. We're pretty excited about the options being considered."