CREJ - Building Dialogue - September 2016
good adjective/good/to be desired or approved of comparative adjective: better; superlative adjective: best design noun/de zin/ a plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or other object before it is built or made The good, the bad and the ugly. Lately, design in Denver has been a hot-button issue. Ask just about anyone, and the response is likely to be that Denver’s skyline is a beautiful sight. But dig a little deeper, and some folks are not as happy with the infill. In fact, three of our columnists are putting design front and center. Cynthia Kemper goes beyond just architectural design in her Colorado Pulse column to ponder overall beauty, and she even wonders if there may actually be an “excess of ugly.” In Beth Mosenthal’s Creative Content column, she writes about elevating design and taking ownership of our cities through the city’s “Denveright” campaign as well as zoning and planning decisions. Joy Spatz interviews Denver Planning Director Brad Buchanan, who echoes the sentiment that planning has a fundamental role to play in good design – and that citizen input is informing future development as never before. Speaking of design, our features this issue are focused on SkyHouse, the 26-story luxury apartment building in the heart of downtown Denver; architect Robert Outland, who is retiring from MOA Architecture, the firm he co-founded more than 35 years ago with Kiyoshi Murata; and One Belleview Station, the first speculative office building built in southeast Denver in nearly a decade. In our Elements section, contributors discuss building science and how evidence-based design brings value to a project; designing for successful audiovisual experiences; planning for attainable housing; minimizing exterior noise in multifamily projects; building modern corporate spaces; and updating Colorado’s mountain resorts. Some of this issue’s other features include work that is happening in the suburbs, including Belleview Station in the Denver Tech Center as well as the Sloans development underway in West Denver. Take a peek into new projects as well as redevelopments: STEAM on the Platte, The Center at Northridge and Joule. Good design – it’s something we all appreciate. So let’s keep the dialogue going.