Like many of the most prominent architectural firms in the Rocky Mountains today, Roth + Sheppard Architects emerged from Bill Muchow’s historic hotbed of modern design during the economic tumult of the 1980s. In 1983, Herb Roth and Jeff Sheppard established Roth + Sheppard Architects, and in 1989 Sheppard was named Young Architect of the Year. Founded on the philosophy that any size or type of project can benefit from thoughtful design, Roth + Sheppard’s first civic project was the Denver District 4 Police Station, which gave them the opportunity to demonstrate how police work spaces can be humanized by integrating daylight, expressing transparency and supporting greater community interaction. Well before its time, the firm’s progressive work was soon recognized for breaking new ground, attracting the interest of other civic leaders and setting the stage for Roth + Sheppard’s reputation as inventive designers of law enforcement facilities. Today, their work on over 45 justice projects across the United States continues to provide insight and understanding into planning and design strategies that create optimum working environments for justice personnel. Over the last 26 years, Roth + Sheppard’s projects have received 54 American Institute of Architects Awards, and more than 20 People’s Choice and industry publication design awards. AIA Merit and Honor Award winners include Scandinavian Designs Furniture Store (Honor Award), Evans Community Complex (w/ Sink Combs Dethlefs, Honor Award), Tokyo Joe’s Restaurants (Honor Award), Room & Board, DC10, Skye Boutique, Brighton Police and Court Facility, Colorado State Patrol Prototypes, the LAPD Rampart Police Station (w/ Perkins+Will), and the Adams County Communications Center (Honor Award). As the firm has expanded to 16 people, influencing a new generation of architects by continuing Muchow’s tradition of mentoring and teaching has remained a core commitment for the firm. Today, through lecturing, teaching and volunteering their time to schools, colleges and national AIA committees, Roth + Sheppard’s impact reaches far beyond the buildings they shape. Sheppard alone has served on 25 design award juries, seven design review committees and has been the Design Coordinator for the Third Year Environmental Design Program at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He has been a guest lecturer and juror at the University of Colorado, Denver [UCD] and Boulder, Oklahoma State University, Georgia Institute of Technology and has lectured at UCD’s School of Business, Denver’s Culinary Art Institute and the Museum Store Association’s 2010 national conference. Sheppard’s drawings and projects have also been published in the McGraw Hill Press book, Composite Drawing, Techniques for Architectural Presentation, and are part of the Denver Art Museum’s permanent collection. In 2007 the Jury of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects elevated Roth to the College of Fellows noting that his work “is at the forefront of inventive, intelligent programming and design of efficient, inviting public safety facilities.” Roth has presented to the International Association of Chiefs of Police [IACP] and the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies [CALEA] on planning and design of police facilities, and has served on the advisory board for IACP’s Police Facility Planning Guidelines. He currently chairs the AIA Academy of Architecture for Justice Advisory Group. In 1989, Roth + Sheppard landed their first out of state project, the Santa Ana Police Department, which ultimately led to national work and a series of productive partnerships on larger projects with firms like HOK, AECOM and Perkins & Will. In December 2009, while completing the Museum Store at the Denver Art Museum, the firm took on its first international project, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Headquarters in British Columbia. Still growing in a down economy, and relishing its evolving diversity of project types, the firm continues to juggle multiple innovative restaurant, retail and residential projects in addition to a wide variety of civic work.
