Every year the Colorado Green Building Guild (CGBG) selects the Green Building of the Year. The CGBG presents awards to those people and projects who contribute to the advancement of the green building industry in Colorado. This particular award is given to the most innovative, well-designed, and beautifully constructed sustainable building located in Colorado, designed and built by a Colorado firm. We are honored to share that our Great Dharma Chan Monastery has won Green Building of the Year for 2022.

About The Great Dharma Monastery

The Great Dharma Chan Monastery is a 25,000 square foot Buddhist Monastery situated on a beautiful 35-acre pastoral parcel of land outside of Boulder Colorado, an ideal setting for meditation practice and Buddhist learning.  The temple and monastery were commissioned by Chung Tai Shan, an international Chan Buddhist order based in Taiwan.  The monastery’s centerpiece is the Dharma building housing a meditation hall, education, and dining center.  Completed in 2022, the resident monastics offer a curriculum of Buddhist studies to introduce participants to the goals of Buddhist teachings.  

Sustainability - Mindfulness and tranquility are at the core of The Great Dharma Chan Monastery’s design and detailing. Situated in a pastoral site in East Boulder, the project’s use of glue-laminated timber beams and exposed cross laminated timber (CLT) roof were selected not only for their aesthetics but also their minimal carbon footprint. The use of CLT mass timber provides a substantially smaller environmental footprint than traditional building materials. Specifically, SSA used cross-laminated timber & long-span glulam beams which in turn avoided 457 metric tons of CO2 emission (equivalent to keeping 411 cars off the road for one year).

Design Concept - Exposed wood beams and CLT deck are meant to evoke a forest canopy under which practitioners of Chan Buddhism can meditate, attend classes, and share meals together. The roof structure of the Great Hall appears to float over a band of clerestory windows supported by hybrid steel and wood columns located on the exterior of the building.  The Great Hall and Dining Halls, clad with unique glazed brick, are located on axis and are connected by a lower volume clad in tongue & grooved western red cedar siding that houses the reception area, offices and back of houses spaces. Outside, the Zen Garden welcomes you with a moongate; a circular opening that acts as a pedestrian passageway that leads from the residences to the meditation wall. This gateway is a traditional architectural element in Chinese gardens through which to welcome or fortune those who pass through. 

The Chung Tai Project Team

• Architect - Sopher Sparn Architects

• General Contractor - Adolfson & Peterson Construction

• Landscape Architect - Marpa Landscape Architecture and Construction

• Civil, Structural, and Environmental Engineering - JVA Structural Engineers

• Lighting Design - Element Architectural Lighting Design

• Engineered Wood Supplier - Laminated Wood Systems

Read more about the Great Dharma Chan Monastery. To learn more about how mass timber is used for green building visit our blog.