The terrazzo floor design for Hill Hall at the Colorado School of Mines was one of several elements integrated into the architecture of this new facility. In collaboration with Denver artist Carolyn Braaksma, David Griggs worked alongside other designers and users of this facility to give the public art a sense of belonginess. Early integration resulted in the art having a ’built-in’ look - specific to its site and appropriate to its context. This architecturally integrated collaboration was designed to reveal the culture and lore of the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering. Specifically, the art expresses the elemental forms and processes of the study of metallurgy while revealing its roots in the ancient field of alchemy.

The design for the floor is one of several related art elements. For example, it echoes the shapes of the shadows that are cast by an adjacent artist-designed rose window. Part of the floor design is a depiction of a "fracture plane", and this feature continues outside on the entrance plaza as a line of quartzite. The majority of the design is inside the building’s main lobby. This room’s terrazzo floor unites the present and the past with abstract imagery of Metallurgical structures as viewed through an optical and electron microscope. The floor design includes many references to metallurgy, including rutile, mica crystals, phase diagrams, pearlite, and brass symbols representing elements from the study of alchemy.

Winner of an award from the National Terrazzo and Mosaic Association, this is an epoxy terrazzo floor with zinc stripping and brass embeds. The floor uses eleven distinct color mixes in numerous areas throughout its span. The installation of terrazzo flooring is typically a time-consuming and laborious process, only made possible with an early integration approach. After numerous redesigns and final approval, areas of the floor design were scaled up on a grid and then drawn by the artists with chalk outlines on the concrete subfloor surface. After the stripping was applied and the embeds attached, the color matrix were poured into segregated areas. Finally the floor was ground to a finely polished surface, revealing its color, sparkle, and dynamic design.

The early integration approach for this floor resulted in a design that was installed during the construction of the building, responsive to the building’s users, and inspired by the activities of the Metallurgy Department.