Savvy institutions recognize the powerful role their physical environment plays in their marketing efforts and how it drives investment in their facilities. Studies have shown that campus appearance influenced the decision of prospective students between 62% and 80%.

As a designer, my job involves trying to conceptualize the future, because what I am drawing today will complete construction in two years and will impact lives for at least 30 years, usually much longer. Regardless of how much I choose to imagine what the future might need, my actual ability to act on those ideas is limited to the scope of present availability.

Cities are deceptive places. Walk down a sidewalk in a city such as Denver and it feels a lot like a geological formation – a canyon or a steep ravine. And like geological formations, cities change. The photographer John Fielder’s wonderful book “Colorado” demonstrates this vividly. 

Today’s organizations are challenged with creating work environments for employees that stretch over five generations, that attract and retain the best talent and, above all, provide a great experience at work. The debate around workplace environments continues to generate significant attention.

In the early 1980s, a development trend made popular in Chicago and New York, known commonly as the “plaza bonus,” made its way to Denver. This tower-in-a-park philosophy was created in larger cities to encourage developers to provide useable public space at the street level by providing incentives allowing buildings to exceed heights and square footage limits, typically governed by zoning.

They were going to build Attention Homes Apartments, Boulder’s first supportive housing community for homeless 18- to 24-year-olds in downtown Boulder’s historic Whittier neighborhood, right across the street from my office.

Turner Construction Co. recently celebrated the topping out of the new Denver Health Outpatient Medical Center. This marked the completion of the first-ever Sideplate, fully bolted, moment frame, steel connection system in Colorado.

The Uptown neighborhood of Denver is filled with exceptional dining, boutique shopping and exciting nightlife. Living in the highly walkable Uptown neighborhood means that some of the best culture and fun that Denver has to offer is right outside your front door.

Architecture is art and inherently art is rather ambiguous. From the intersection of program, profit and possibility, finding a meaningful point of view that remains both discernable and relevant deep into the future is no small order. David Daniel, a principal with Denver’s Davis Partnership Architects, doesn’t like to do it any other way and feels the process is as important as the purpose. 

The facade of Financial House stands out. It’s the first all-glass building in Cherry Creek North. The eight-story, 70,000-square foot office tower might just be a harbinger of things to come in Denver’s toniest neighborhood.