Discover the biggest little cabins
photo credit: jesse kuroiwa / peter o'neil / rick sommerfeld / modern in denver
Magazine Article
They come from all over, young adventure seekers drawn to Colorado rural mountain terrain as if by gravity. Each June they load their vehicles with oversized Rubbermaids holding most of their worldly possessions and set out for a summer of non-stop teaching, learning, and leading.
They'll face untold hardships as they guide students and adults through rugged outdoor courses lasting anywhere from eight to 81 days, but the challenge is part of the appeal. For instructors at Colorado Outward Bound School (COBS), the hardships only make it more worthwhile.
Even so, for decades COBS instructors had been housed in sub-par, deteriorating living quarters. An upgrade wouldn’t be good enough. More was needed.
Enter a comically ambitious project from the University of Colorado Denver’s world-renowned Design-Build program: 28 grad students designing and building 14 micro cabins, each with a unique floorplan and specifications, on a site so inaccessible that no cranes or semi-trucks could reach it, on a budget of less than $10,000 per unit, in just 19 weeks.
- from the Spring 2016 issue of Modern in Denver magazine