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.

Years ago, while walking through the Art Institute of Chicago, I saw a piece by Chuck Close at the other end of a long corridor. Perhaps you have seen his work as well, which is famous for its realism – so you know that from such a long distance each piece clearly seems to be a photograph. You may also know, then, that when you walk closer and stand in the same room, the work reveals itself as a painting.

The lexicon of architecture and interior design is specific: smooth and taut, a little slick and flashy, occasionally marked with a touch of irony, and always cloaked in style. At least that’s the way we see it.

The term “maker space” is getting a good deal of attention lately, especially in education environments. In fact, maker spaces have been part of a trend that began over a decade ago. The idea of making things, of course, is not new, but the concept of incorporating physical spaces within learning environments designed to foster greater cross-discipline collaboration and problem solving through creating things has just begun to really take hold.

Approaching downtown Denver from the west, growth, and therefore change, is undeniable. Cranes fill the skyline and as the descent from Millennium Bridge is made, an area devoid of hardly any structures just five years ago is now teeming with activity. In this sea of development, as an architect, it’s fascinating to consider what creates longevity in place-making and drives a compelling human experience.

Populous is a global architecture and design firm with a portfolio including projects like Coors Field, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Pepsi Center, the 2012 Summer Olympic & Paralympic Games in London and the Super Bowl. The firm’s tag line of “Drawing People Together” defines its work in the aviation, convention center and sports markets.

Functioning as a hospital first and a construction site second has become a mastered art form at the 100-year-old Swedish Medical Center in Englewood. An acute care hospital with 368 licensed beds, Swedish cares for more than 200,000 patients with a team of 2,000 employees, 500 volunteers and more than 1,300 physicians.

In December, in an Oakland warehouse called the Ghost Ship, a fire broke out during a live show. The fire spread quickly; 36 people in the warehouse were killed. The interior had been illegally and unsafely modified to house an artist collective, including living units and performance space. After the tragedy, many pointed to the Bay Area’s affordable housing crisis as the driver of unsafe, underground spaces like this one.

It’s a blue sky Colorado day and Jim Johnson, founding partner of Denver’s Johnson Nathan Strohe architecture and design firm, is sitting across the street from the two-hotel project he’s been spearheading in central Boulder. Asked what he’s most proud of with this project, Johnson responds without a second of hesitation, as if he’s been pondering the question for a while.

Life moves pretty fast – if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it. The famous counsel given to Generation X by Farris Buhler in 1986 always seems to take a minute to settle in, but that’s the point. Fifty years from GE Johnson Construction Co.’s 1967 founding, Chief Executive Officer Jim Johnson also finds benefit in reflection.