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In the Details
to tell a story or hide a distraction. Architects and
builders spend hours resolving the connection of a
door to a brick wall so that it has enough depth to
create a rich pedestrian experience – hours spent on
something people walk by without even paying at-
tention to, but they notice. The emergency exit door
on the side of a big-box grocery store goes unnoticed
in a very different way than the emergency exit door
next to a revenue-driving retail storefront on Larimer
Square. On the former, the door is jammed in flush with
the brick without even a doorknob, screaming, “Don’t look
at me!” as loudly as the only other mark on the wall, the
graffiti. The latter door is set back from the brick, not just
a bit, but far enough that there are more layers of brick
added, and a light, and trim, and a step, and more. Here,
the color of the door is matched to the trim of the build-
ing, which itself is matched across every piece of exposed
metal on the facade and the door hardware painstakingly
selected to reinforce a story which can only be seen from
across the city. These tiny details, seemingly unimportant,
affect the whole and contribute to the building’s aesthetic
and mood. You may not pay attention, but you notice.
In order to fully appreciate the essence of Denver’s ar-
chitecture, we must approach it like a Chuck Close paint-
ing: the panoramic, the human scale and the microscopic
perspectives. We must allow ourselves to zoom in and out
as we craft each building in this city in a new way, allow-
ing it to share how it fits into Denver’s macro, micro and
human story, how it is artfully designed and constructed,
and how its details contribute to how we feel about the
overall experience. Chuck Close may not appreciate the
comparison of his brushstrokes to the rind of a watermel-
on, but I think he would get it. After all, the art we make
as we build our city is just a canvas, just another beginning
for the next layer of art to unfold. \\
Whereas watermelon
buildings are all about
telling you how they
are put together, carrot
buildings are about
hiding the pieces and
parts to emphasize
the whole.