With the economy healthy again after the recession and rents on the rise in urban centers, commercial office tenants and developers are considering alternative locations to the traditional central business district. This trend is coupled with the millennial generation growing up and reaching child-rearing years.

If “money talks,” then real estate makes the world go ’round. Much more than a simple business deal, real estate transactions transform communities and create our collective vision of “place.” This vision changes over time in response to advancing technologies, economic factors and market dynamics.

Over the past 18 months, we’ve seen several articles in various publications hinting that the “open space office concept” is a failed or failing experiment.

A common misconception of theater design is that architects are given the opportunity to create a “dramatic space.” In reality, however, good theater architecture creates a supportive enclosure that focuses as much energy as possible toward the performance that will inhabit the space. The challenge is to bend all of the layers of the project toward the goal of serving future performances as completely as possible, and making it look simple. 

We celebrated my son’s birthday recently and, as is tradition in our family on every holiday, he received a Lego set. As we were pouring over the instructions and laying out the pieces, we talked about how Lego blocks are created. We discussed the plastic material used, that there was a different mold for each brick and specialty piece.

The architect on Colorado College’s Tutt Library renovation and addition approached this project in a thoughtful manner. And no wonder: The 1962 library, designed by legendary architect Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, is a stellar example of mid-century Modern architecture.

For more than 50 years, award-winning firm OZ Architecture has shaped, and been shaped by, its home state of Colorado. With 165 employees in offices in Denver and Boulder, OZ provides architecture, master planning, interior design and, more recently, brand experience design to clients and projects across the U.S., and in Africa, Asia and Antarctica.

Virtuous design is responsive, the best of it on many levels. For Riverview at 1700 Platte, a 213,713-square-foot Class A office building being developed by Trammell Crow Co., strategic building massing and a thoughtful internal organization richly enhance contextual connections.

A gleaming, faceted gem has risen in downtown Denver and its arrival has been impossible to miss. As you move around the city, its shape changes, its skin shifts from reflective to translucent, and its unique roofline transforms from mirroring the foothills to the crown of a diamond.

The finance sector continues to transform as it adapts to several major forces, including altering regulations, consumers’ increased use of digital banking and demands for increased cybersecurity. Following the 2008 recession, large financial institutions changed where they focus their investment dollars, namely less in personal lending and more in wealth management and investment banking.