RTD Colfax Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

Iron Horse Architects is leading the urban design and station design for the Colfax BRT project. The route will connect Denver’s Union Station to I-225 in Aurora with 32 planned stations. The City of Denver has a stated goal that this line be developed as an iconic route that will serve as a template for future city BRT routes and has declared the project as a “once in a generation opportunity”. Additional and important aspirational objectives developed by the City for the project included, creating community pride, increasing community connectivity, improving quality of life, providing excellent accessibility, equality, sustainability design solutions, and expanding ridership for the highly-active corridor.

Because East Colfax is one of Denver’s most well-known corridors and spans across multiple neighborhoods, community input was critical to the success, and approval of this project. As part of the design process, our team provided the city with three alternative base station design options. From there the team used the base designs as a template to expand upon thematic design options, which was dependent on location of the station, and neighborhood input. Various community groups participated in providing input during a series of community outreach workshops, including the disability community. Station designs include special acoustic paneling to ensure those who are hard of hearing are able to hear public announcements for transportation arrival and departures.