SEPTEMBER 2015 \ BUILDING DIALOGUE \
85
C
Col
A Rubik’s Cube
of complex design
and engineering
feats packages
big building in
small site for
DIA’s new
Westin Hotel
and Transit
Center
W
alking into the gleaming
white American Wood-
men Insurance building
in downtown Denver, one
gets a sense of history and
a strong vibe of creative
energy. The historic building is humming
and vibrant due to the dynamism of its
occupants, Humphries Poli Architects.
As fraternity brothers at the University
of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign in the ear-
ly 1970s, Dennis Humphries and Joe Poli
could never have dreamed of their suc-
cess as partners of their own architecture
firm, which is today one of the most cele-
brated in Colorado.
The two Midwestern boys, Humphries
from South Bend, Indiana, and Poli from
Chicago, went on to obtain master’s de-
grees at UI. Their paths diverged after
graduating, and they went in separate di-
rections, one to work in their chosen field,
one to a faculty position in academia.
Poli took a design position at the glob-
al architecture firm Perkins and Will in
Chicago. There, he cut his teeth on big
multimillion-dollar projects in places like
Dubai, Egypt, and Malaysia.
“It was a great place to spend a few years
thinking really big,” Poli says with a smile.
The youngest associate ever named
at Perkins and Will, Poli won accolades
and subsequently was invited to join the
WORDS:
Jill Ladwig
Humphries and
Poli Make
Impact
on the West
