Is there a story behind the crumbly brick walls and creaky wood floors of LoDo’s Rockmount Ranch Wear? What’s the construction at the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance building in Five Points about? How do architects come up with the designs that change the Mile High City skyline? The answers to those mysteries—and many more—will be revealed at this weekend’s Doors Open Denver.

The 20th annual celebration of Denver’s built environment is back, fully in person, following four pandemic-impacted years that reduced the popular event to abbreviated and/or virtual formats. Now helmed by a new leader, Meg Touborg, the Denver Architecture Foundation has revived, re-imagined, and re-energized the 2024 festival with a fresh lineup of walking tours, open sites, films, and lectures. Plus, for the first time, 17 architectural firms will be opening their offices (on Friday, September 27) to show curious visitors what’s on the boards, and a Saturday night gala will welcome ticketed guests to the eye-popping Populus hotel, where they can sip cocktails in the second-floor lounge while the experience director shares the sustainable story behind the design of the nation’s first carbon-positive hotel.

“A city’s architecture is the stage where we live—it’s where we wake up, it’s where we eat, where we shop, where we interact with each other, where we celebrate, where we educate ourselves—it affects and touches almost every aspect of our life,” says Touborg, whose previous roles include serving as the director of development for the CU Denver School of Architecture and Planning.

She hopes this year’s festival appeals to everyday HGTV enthusiasts and architecture geeks alike. “Let’s open the doors to Denver—let’s expose people to different buildings and educate people—but we’re going to do it in different ways, where we can keep talking to each other,” Touborg says. “Through serving up different kinds of programming—tours, lectures, receptions, guides, open sites—each one is a lens to better understand our city.”

Intrigued? Check the event website for a full rundown of all the free and ticketed events scattered throughout the long weekend, but if you’re having trouble deciding, here are seven of Touborg’s favorite stops for Doors Open Denver 2024.

The Mayan Theatre

  • Address: 110 N. Broadway
  • Insider Tour ($20 ticket required): Friday, September 27, and Saturday, September 28; 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

“The Mayan Theatre is so fascinating, no matter how many times I visit,” Touborg says. The 1930 art deco Mayan revival movie palace, beloved by architecture and film buffs alike, was designed by Denver architect Montana Fallis and rescued from demolition in 1984. Embellished with a colorful array of Aztec- and Maya-inspired decorative motifs, including stylized jaguars, plants, and masks, it’s a rare surviving example of pre-Columbian-themed cinema design.

The Denver Firefighters Museum

Denver Firefighters Museum gray stone exterior
Courtesy of Doors Open Denver
  • Address: 1326 Tremont Place
  • Open Site (pay what you wish): Friday, September 27, and Saturday, September 28; 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.; guided tours at 15 minutes after the hour, from 10:15 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., with no tour at 12:15 p.m.

Designed by Glen W. Huntington in dignified neoclassical style, the two-story firehouse (also known as Fire Station No. 1) was completed in 1909, with horse stalls and storage for horse-drawn fire wagons plus a hayloft and dormitory. Over the years, its design changed in response to the transition in firefighting machinery, and the station served the city for 66 years before being decommissioned. Today, the historical building is a museum displaying firefighting artifacts and exhibits that hosts family-friendly events and educational programs throughout the year.

Civitas Office

  • Address: 1200 Bannock St.
  • On the Boards (free): Friday, September 27; 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

This innovative landscape architecture and urban design firm, whose work is devoted to creating a lasting impact on health, equity, and sustainability, turns 40 this year. Visitors can stop by the Golden Triangle office and view a series of exhibits tracing Civitas’ past, present, and future projects, including Denver’s new six-neighborhood loop: the 5.280-mile 5280 Trail.

Clyfford Still Museum

An aerial view of the Clyfford Still Museum
Courtesy of Doors Open Denver
  • Address: 1250 Bannock St.
  • Open Site (free): Saturday, September 28; 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
  • Insider Tour ($20 ticket required): Saturday, September 28; 1:00 to 2:00 p.m.

Completed in 2011, the 28,000-square-foot, cast-in-place concrete structure houses over 3,000 works by Clyfford Still, an artist known for his powerful abstract expressionism. The museum’s exhibition galleries were designed with careful attention to the role played by natural light. “Notice not just the remarkable collection, but the stunning Brutalist building custom-designed to house Still’s collection,” Touborg says.

Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library

  • Address: 2401 Welton St.
  • Open Site (free): Friday, September 27, and Saturday, September 28; 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Built in 2003, the three-story Victorian Italianate commercial style building stands beside Sonny Lawson Park in Five Points. The multipurpose structure comprises a standard library branch, a museum, and a research library focused on the African American experience in Colorado and the West, and it also functions as a community center. Two 15-foot-tall sculpted bronze reliefs over porcelain mosaics by artist Thomas Jay Warren, entitled “The African American Spirit of the West,” grace the building’s Welton Street exterior.

RedLine Contemporary Art Center

The interior of Redline's art gallery
Courtesy of Doors Open Denver
  • Address: 2350 Arapahoe St.
  • Open Site (free): Friday, September 27, and Saturday, September 28; tours start on the hour at 10:00 a.m., with the last tour at 3:00 p.m.

“I am really curious how this former vacuum cleaner parts warehouse was transformed by Semple Brown into such a center for the arts and for community-building,” Touborg says. Today, the renovated and repurposed 20,000-square-foot structure is home to an exhibition space, artist studios, a community education area, and a welcoming reception space created within the warehouse’s former loading dock.

Colfax Avenue

  • Insider Tour ($20 ticket required): Friday, September 27, and Saturday, September 28; 11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.; 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m.

Did you know that Colfax is the country’s longest commercial street? Once known as the “Golden Road” during Colorado’s Gold Rush, it formerly hosted brothels and saloons, but today it’s home to a lively mix of shops, eateries, and live music venues. “Colfax is a treasure trove of Denver’s past and present (good and bad), and we wanted to spotlight its uniqueness and variety even as its revitalization is underway,” Touborg says. Take a time-traveling look at one of the Mile High City’s most important thoroughfares on a walking tour with Historic Denver.