For a century or so, architecture has reflected Denver’s place in the region, with LoDo’s no-nonsense warehouses a function of the city’s one-time status as a rail hub, while the neoclassical architecture in Civic Center Park and the facing state capitol have long befitted Denver’s place as the seat of government.

    But now, right here, a spectacular edifice trumpets Denver as a major visitor destination and a city with a point of view. The new creation makes the term postmodern seem antiquated. It’s this fascinating façade that makes the Denver Art Museum’s new Hamilton Building the biggest news in the museum world right now.

    An introduction to Denver might begin with a description of the awesome backdrop provided by the front range of the Rocky Mountains, or a passage about the brawny, century-old brick warehouses of LoDo. Or perhaps some lines about Denver’s sports teams, the theater scene and the restaurants, or some other facet of this dynamic city, a city that surprises first-time visitors with its urbanity and the surprises them again upon their return when they discover everything new that has been built since they last came here.

    A walk-through of the DAM’s new centerpiece reveals an unorthodox, vibrantly envisioned interior design in which the gallery walls conform to the exterior façades. Consequently, there are few right angles inside, creating a dynamic space that challenges the museumgoer, not to mention the curators — hanging artworks from walls that are not perpendicular to the floor requires some creative problem solving, and has resulted in some extraordinary results.

    At once an artistic and engineering feat, the DAM’s new building took 36 months to build. Due to the highly idiosyncratic nature of the Hamilton, digital design architects and engineers planned each system, from electrical and plumbing to wall construction, on computer and merged these separate designs before construction began. During the build, 4-D scheduling software enabled the army of subcontractors to see how and when they fit into this sprawling project.

    The designer of Denver’s new icon, Daniel Libeskind, boasts a profile as big as his new creation, having created the Jewish Museum in Berlin and also having contributed to a redesign of the World Trade Center site. When Libeskind signed on to whip up the new DAM building, Denver’s stock in the world of art and architecture shot way up. And the new building has definitely lived up to the hype.

    Libeskind won the commission in June 2000 after an intensive six-month search that narrowed the field from the 18 architectural firms responding to the initial “request for qualifications.” Almost immediately after getting the job, the designer began to plan. “The shape of the DAM came to me as I flew over the city,” Libeskind remembered. “I copied shapes I saw out of my airplane window: the craggy cliffs of the Rockies. I sketched them on the back of my boarding pass.”

    City planners have already shifted gears to consider their next move — they have recently publicized Libeskind’s proposals for a streamlined redesign of Civic Center Park, complete with a 72-foot light and water feature tentatively known simply as “the Icon,” and in so doing they have made their intentions clear. They don’t want to put Denver on the map, as it is already there. They are busy figuring out a way to make the name bolder, to put it all in capital letters.

    All this caps a five-year makeover of the city —this period also saw the birth of the postmodern Convention Center and the rebirth of the retrofitted Performing Arts Complex, not to mention the expansion of the light-rail system linking downtown to points near and far. That’s the way to start off a millennium.

    Denver may be set on fast forward, but the city is also prone to hark back to the past with great eloquence. Preservation measures in and around LoDo ensure that the area retains that old gaslight flavor of a century ago, and even the addition of Coors Field in the 1990s has not mitigated LoDo’s historic appeal—the state-of-the-art baseball venue features a red-brick façade that fits in perfectly with this industrial-age neighborhood.

    Baseball and other simple pleasures are definitely a specialty of the Mile-High City, a place that, in spite of its forward motion, can also induce a state of bliss. There are four pro sports teams, the acclaimed Denver Zoo and Golden Triangle, anchored by the DAM, where galleries and independent theater spaces turn the city into a cutting-edge arts haven. Denver also has out-of-the-way neighborhoods if you want to dispense with the itinerary and just chill. Olds Santa Fe, Uptown and Highland offer everything from crafts to late-night revelry. So it’s not hard ot find a perfect place for some quiet time, even in the shadow of the city’s beefy skyline. You can even forget you’re in the middle of a metro area that boasts a population of 2.5 million.

    But it’s not hard to remember where you are, either. Just look up at the uppermost tip of the Hamilton Building, pointing upward, or onward maybe. When you see that, you know you’re in Denver — and what better place for the Denver Art Museum?