Denver Civic Center Next 100

Structural and Façade Engineering for Denver’s Historic Greek Theater 

Thornton Tomasetti is providing structural and façade engineering, façade access, and design consulting for the Civic Center Next 100 project at Denver’s Civic Center Park. The project revitalizes the Greek Theater to support contemporary performances while preserving its historic character and improving the visitor experience. The redesign also improves access and movement through the park and honors the Gang of 19 protesters, whose activism helped make Denver an important part of disability-access history.

Canopy Design Balances Historic Preservation, Performance, and Buildability 

A central challenge was developing a canopy that could support modern theater equipment and improve sun and rain protection without visually competing with the Greek Theater’s historic stone architecture. Early concepts did not strike the right balance; some felt too much like additions to the historic structure. The design team explored more than a dozen iterations before choosing a strategy that reimagines the existing theater as a gateway to a new stage to the north and flips the seating bowl. This approach creates a more respectful separation from the historic structure, improves bowl accessibility and park circulation, and makes room for a bold new canopy. 

The resulting canopy is a slender steel gridshell that arches over the stage and touches down at only four points, maximizing the stage area and allowing people to move freely beneath it. Its surface is based on a torus, whose double curvature helps stiffen the shell. Larger primary steel pipes create the main load-bearing frame, while smaller secondary pipes infill the grid, providing more frequent attachment points for the pretensioned fabric membrane and suspended theater equipment. Select custom cast-steel nodes accommodate the gradual taper of primary pipe diameters and, at four key locations, incorporate grooves for conduit routing.

CORE Modeling and Façade Consulting Shape an Integrated Solution 

We helped turn the architectural concept into a buildable, coordinated design. CORE Modeling worked with Studio Gang to define and optimize the canopy geometry, rationalizing the steel members into planar, singly curved arcs that simplified fabrication with minimal visual impact. The team also refined the structure by tapering pipe diameters toward the canopy apex and coordinating custom cast-steel connections to create smoother transitions between members. 

Our façade engineers studied multiple cladding options and helped shift the design from glass infill to a tensioned fabric system better suited to the canopy’s form and function. The façade scope included performance criteria, connector detailing, panelization strategies, material recommendations, and façade access requirements. Because the structure and enclosure are closely linked, our structural and façade teams coordinated tensioning forces, steel deflections, drainage, rigging support, and concealed conduit routing as one integrated solution.

Accessibility, Flexibility, & Year-Round Use at Civic Center Park 

The redesign improves accessibility, circulation, sightlines, shade, and rain protection for visitors. It also gives performers and operators a stage better suited to contemporary theater systems and flexible event use, including the ability to operate with the seating bowl or open outward toward the Promenade during larger park events. Just as importantly, the project keeps the park’s southern entrance open year-round and strengthens the connection between the historic theater and the broader public landscape.