In 1995, Denver shuttered the Stapleton International Airport. For about two decades, its old air traffic control tower stood vacant while new homes, restaurants and businesses grew up around it into what is now one of the largest urban redevelopment sites in the country.

Granite Place at Village Center is on the leading edge of a new breed of office towers in Denver’s southeast suburban market. Due for core-and-shell completion in March and occupancy by summer, the 10-story, 300,000-square-foot Class AA office tower broke ground early last year, and features a slick “corporate living room” on the ground level and a 1,000-space parking structure.

Rising high at 2166 15th Street in Denver is The Confluence, an ultra-luxury, 34-story, 288-unit apartment community, aptly named because of its unique location at the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River.

A vibrant city is one that founded on community engagement, leadership, intention and investment. Downtown Denver is one example in which these aspects are actively a part of the present and future.

“God is in the details,” a common refrain attributed to Mies van der Rohe, though probably as old as architecture itself provides the starting point for an exploration of design. It touches on the two extremes: “god” (a.k.a., the “big picture”) and the “details,” and, perhaps most interesting, where they meet. This first installment of…

A sign in front of the ever-changing urban infill project at Colorado Boulevard and Interstate 25 reads: “A New Colorado Center: Evolving 2016.” That’s been the case more years than not since Colorado Center’s first stages of redevelopment in the 1980s.

My op-ed piece titled “Denver is a Great City, So Why the Bad Buildings” was published in April 2015 in the Denver Post, followed by more than 3,000 (mostly positive) email responses over the next few months. This led to speaking opportunities with dozens of neighborhood groups and concerned residents, both here, and in cities experiencing similar problems throughout the U.S.

It’s said there are two sides to every story and some have several more than that. Though already many years in the making, the story of Dairy Block has yet to be written and will likely continue to evolve in generations to come.

Those of us who commute to a primary workplace know that it is the single place where you spend the most waking hours each week. With more than 80 percent of employed Americans still working in a workplace (vs. working from home), creating spaces that encourage collaboration, creativity, innovation and productivity remains vital for companies.

Gordon Beckman, acclaimed design director for John Portman & Associates, sits in Union Station pondering the firm’s first project in Denver, LoDo’s Union Tower West.