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Lake Granby Pumping Plant

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1951. U.S. 40 at the head of Lake Granby

This giant, boxy concrete and glass brick station is a good example of industrially inspired International Style, complete with a turbine pump fan to serve as an entry sculpture. Besides three stories above ground, the 189-foot-high structure has five floors underground, plunging deep into Lake Granby to pump water up to Shadow Mountain Reservoir for the Colorado–Big Thompson (C-BT) Project. This plant, open daily for tours in the summer, is a $10 million showpiece of the C-BT's Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. Largest of all Colorado water projects, C-BT consists of 12 reservoirs, 100 miles of canals, 34 miles of tunnels, and 6 power plants that took twenty-seven years and $163 million to complete.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Thomas J. Noel
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Data

What's Nearby

Shadow Mountain Lookout
Spider House
Grand Lake Cottage Camp
Grand Lake Yacht Club
Kauffman House Museum

Citation

Thomas J. Noel, "Lake Granby Pumping Plant", [Grand Lake, Colorado], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/CO-01-GA14.

Print Source

Buildings of Colorado, Thomas J. Noel. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997, 453-453.

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