CU Denver College of Architecture and Planning

This building was one of three original buildings commissioned along Lawrence Street for the Skyline Urban Renewal in the 1970s. Muchow Associates designed the structure on an irregular block stretching along Cherry Creek and Speer Boulevard. This layout gives the building its distinct, commanding views facing toward the Auraria Campus and the Rocky Mountains. This building and two acres Lawrence Street were part of the Skyline Redevelopment initiative, an aggressive urban renewal project that spanned a massive 27 to 30 blocks (roughly 120 acres) of lower downtown, bounded by Speer Boulevard, 20th Street, Market Street, and Champa Street. William C. Muchow (1922–1991) is widely considered the “grandfather of Denver modernism”. A Denver native, he studied under legendary architect Eliel Saarinen at the Cranbrook Academy of Art before returning home to found Muchow Associates in 1950. Over a four-decade career, his firm completed more than 830 projects, shaping Colorado’s post-WWII skyline with an incredibly versatile mix of Brutalist, Mid-Century Modern, and corporate designs.