The 1144 Fifteenth-tower in Denver, Colorado opened in 2018. Since 30 years, there wasn’t such a high skyscraper in the ‘The Mile High City’.

This $300 million skyscraper, mainly existing out of glass and with its 603 feet (184 meters) in height, will provide future office residents with an iconic view of the city of Denver and the Rocky Mountains.

It will require a slick and clean look at all times. This is where we and American Anchor came into play.

Thanks to this cooperation we were awarded with the contract to design and manufacture a fitting facade access solution for this magnificent tower in Denver, Colorado. Together with American Anchor, a team of constructors, designers and our engineering department, together we came up with a perfect solution that fits the needs of this amazing building.

Requests from customer

Although the design of the building has lots of straight facades, the direct choice of Building Maintenance Unit wasn’t that obvious. The client wished for a solution that could reach all parts of the glass facades. The choice would be between two options: a relatively large fixed unit or a traversing BMU that can move along the roof surface in order to reach various parts of the building.

When choosing for a fixed roof car it would mean the reach on this unit (and the unit itself) had to be enormous. Something that does not benefit the exterior looks of this architectural masterpiece.

Two types of Facadexs solutions

The Roof car

To further meet with the desire of the client, the available amount of roof space and all the facade areas that need to be reached, we designed a traversing telescopic roof car. This BMU-type has the possibility to extend in two directions; horizontally for reaching outside the building’s facade and vertically to elevate the BMU above other installations situated on the roof.

3D impression of the Building Maintenance Unit for 1144-Fifteenth tower.

The Shunt car

Because the 1144 Fifteenth-tower is such a large structure with a limited amount of roof space to install rail tracks, Facadexs had to come up with a system that combines two separate rail tracks that are prepared to be used by one single roof car. This way the traversing unit can easily switch from one track to the other and move along the entire roof surface without having to make difficult (track) corners.

3D impression situation of the shunt car solution.

Features of the BMU

  • Traversing telescopic roof car.

  • Telescopic jib with a max. outreach of 28.5 m (approx. 93 ft).

  • Maximum luffing angle of 20 degrees.

  • Traversing along two separate rail tracks of 57 m (187 ft).

  • Equipped with a Glass Replacement Unit (GRU) with a max. load of 544 kg (1200 lbs).

  • Standard gondola with a Safe Working Load (SWL) of max. 250 kg (552 lbs).

  • Approx. total wire rope length: 195 m (640 ft).