Site Visit No. 7: Downtown Denver with Kevin Hirth
Ashley and Erik visit Downtown Denver with Kevin Hirth, Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning, and director of KEVIN HIRTH co.
July 1, 2018
DOWNTOWN DENVER WITH KEVIN HIRTH
Kevin Hirth is the Director of Kevin Hirth Company and Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning. Kevin holds a Master's of Architecture with distinction from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelor's of Science in Architecture from the University of Virginia. Upon graduation, Kevin was granted the singular honor of receiving both the Harvard Faculty Design Award and AIA Henry Adams Medal. In 2017 he was awarded the League Prize by the Architectural League of New York.
On today’s Site Visit, we are going to discuss our recent tour of downtown Denver. Some highlights of the tour included Phillip Johnson’s Wells Fargo Center and Roche Dinkeloo’s Denver Performing Arts Complex. These buildings, which were an extension of a larger master planning initiative led by Pei, Cobb, Freed & Partners, play an important role in contextualizing the city within the dramatic landscape of Colorado. Completed in 1983, the Wells Fargo Center is currently the third tallest tower in Denver and among several of Johnson’s famous towers located throughout the US. The Denver Performing Arts Complex, which was completed in 1979, is a massive performing arts center with ten performance spaces and home to a handful of Colorado’s music and theater companies. These buildings, along with the architectural character of the city, have inspired much of Kevin’s work, his interest in history, urbanism, representation and materiality.
