BARBER ARCHITECTURE

Following a design competition and an in-house charette, BA was selected as architect for the Regional Headquarters building. Competition requirements included developing the best floor plate configuration to serve the numerical program, achieving a place where collegiality and team work would not be inhibited by the architecture, and honoring the formal and iconic Air Force Academy buildings.

The solution is a building with an interior central court and series of bridges that allow colleagues to maintain a visual connection with other floors and each other. A "light monitor" at the top of the internal court acts like a classical oculus to bring daylight into the center of the building. The building exterior composition is a precise, uncluttered grid of locally-produced precast concrete and glass openings. To connect the building to the land, local limestone rock formations were used to guide the color of the exterior precast.