Get to know the 2022 Best in Small Projects Winner High Altitude Research Lab with DPR’s Joe Opyd
When you hear “small project,” you probably don’t think of a federal facility buried into the granite face of a 14,000-foot mountain, where hurricane-force winds, limited access and federal red tape collide. But the High Altitude Research Lab (HARL) on Colorado’s Pikes Peak proves that in design-build, “small” doesn’t mean simple.
The 4,000-square-foot HARL facility earned DBIA’s 2022 Best in Small Projects award for good reason. This mission-critical laboratory, used for U.S. Army research on high-altitude performance, was as much an exercise in logistics, trust and innovation as it was in construction.
In this episode of the Design-Build Delivers Podcast, we sit down with Joe Opyd, CCM, DBIA, from DPR Construction to explore how this “little” building challenged the norms and showed what’s possible at elevation — literally and figuratively.
Design-Build at 14,000 Feet: How a “Small” Federal Project Redefined Possibility on Pikes Peak
Resources
Want to learn more? Check out these resources mentioned in the episode:
- High Altitude Research Laboratory Project Summary and photos.
- Register for DBIA’s Federal Sector Design-Build Industry Days. Public and private Owners attend free, and UBEs receive discounted registration.
- Explore the DBIA Projects Database to learn more about HARL and other successful design-build projects.
- Ahead of the 2025 Project/Team Award announcement (coming soon), get to know past DBIA Project/Team Award Winners.
- Plan to see this year’s project winners at the 2025 Design-Build Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, Nov. 5-7.
Chapters
00:00 – Intro: A “Small” Project at 14,000 Feet
01:50 – Why Design-Build Was the Right Fit
03:30 – A 13-Year Journey to Yes
06:50 – Designing for the Peak
09:20 – Small Footprint, Big Demands
12:30 – Hidden in Plain Sight
14:30 – Wind, Lightning and Weather Extremes
17:45 – Altitude Sickness and Fitness Testing
20:00 – Lessons from the Lab
24:00 – Why Small Doesn’t Mean Easy
26:45 – Partnering with Government Clients
28:00 – The Lab is Operational – and World-Class
29:15 – Advice for Future Small Project Teams
31:00 – Looking Ahead: Innovation in Small Design-Build Projects
33:25 – Outro: What We Learned on the Mountain
The Design-Build Delivers Podcast is sponsored by U.S. CAD, An ARKANCE Company. Learn more at uscad.com/dbia.
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