“I love that we address hard issues with smart solutions."

At CU Denver, architecture students Olivia Collier and Maslin Mellick saw Colorado's largest tire monofill, "Tire Mountain," not as waste, but as an opportunity.

For their senior capstone in the College of Architecture and Planning, they developed Tire Tiles, a sustainable building material made from recycled rubber through a process called devulcanization. The result? A more environmentally friendly form of rubber that could save millions of tires from ending up in landfills and lower construction costs. 

Their tiles come in two styles: Solid, designed for cold climates to improve thermal, waterproofing, and acoustic performance, and Void, created for warmer regions where breathability and solar shading matter most.

With 290 million tires discarded in the U.S. each year and 80 million sitting in Colorado's own Tire Mountain, the students' design offers a potential new market for recycled materials while cutting the number of layers and costs in traditional wall construction.

Their project, guided by Professor Julee Herdt, earned the Colorado Green Building Guild's Student Project of the Year, recognizing not just their innovation but also their vision for how design and policy can work together to solve environmental challenges. 

Now working as architectural designers, both graduates continue to advocate for smarter, more sustainable uses for waste, proving how CU Denver turns creativity and research into real-world impact for Colorado and beyond.