Construction of the 25,000-sq-ft Aerie restaurant at the top of Colorado’s Copper Mountain required an unconventional approach to building at 11,207 ft.

The Minnesota Zoo’s overhead monorail was decommissioned in 2013, but the rails installed in 1979 remained as a relic of a bygone era of overhead transportation—until BARR Engineering and Snow Kreilich Architects reimagined the route as the Treetop Trail.

A mix of creative problem solving, careful planning and lean management were key in delivering Denver’s newest drinking water treatment plant on time, under budget and without lost time safety incidents, said its project team.

Working on any historic building requires time and patience, says Shawn Basler, co-CEO and executive director of Perkins Eastman. Case in point: It took 11 years to turn a 120-year-old McKim, Mead & White-designed former bank into the Fifth Avenue Hotel.

Building over a D.C. Metro tunnel challenged the Bard High School Early College project team, who transformed a former elementary school into an institution dedicated to increasing higher education access for low-income and underrepresented communities by providing a free college program.