History
Curtis Fentress graduated with honors from North Carolina State University’s College of Design, School of Architecture where he received a Bachelor of Architecture degree. Following graduation, he joined the firm of I.M. Pei and Partners in New York. As a Senior Designer, he was responsible for the master planning of major site development plans. He became a project designer with the New York architectural firm of Kohn Pedersen Fox. During this time, he came to Denver as Project Designer for the Rocky Mountain Headquarters of Amoco in downtown Denver.
In January 1980, Fentress formed C.W. Fentress and Associates with James Henry Bradburn. After a great deal of early success, the collapse of the oil and gas industries in Colorado in the early 1980s ushered in several years of hardship for the firm. Fentress Architects' fortunes rebounded in 1987 when the firm won a design competition for the Colorado Convention Center. The competition pitted Fentress and his partners against several better-financed and more famous opponents, including Phil Anschutz, who had partnered with the firm belonging to Curtis Fentress' former mentor, I.M. Pei. It was only in the 1990s that Fentress Architects rose to international fame by designing the Denver International Airport. The peaked roof of the terminal has become well known to travelers worldwide and ushered in a revolution in more expressionistic airport design. Curator Donald Albrecht credits the design of Denver International Airport with bringing glamor back to the airport typology.
Unfortunately, the unveiling of DIA was marred by a dysfunctional “state-of-the-art” baggage delivery system (the vendor at fault since replaced the system) that dominated the media. Subsequently, DIA has been voted the “Best Airport in North America” and the fourth “Favorite American Architecture” completed in the last fifteen years.
In 2001, Fentress designed the Incheon International Airport in Seoul, Korea, voted “Best Airport Worldwide” four consecutive years by Airport Council International’s Airport Quality Survey program. Airport Council “Best Airport in the World” in 2007 by passengers surveyed for the Official Airlines Guide. The firm designs a range of large scale projects (see listing below) from museums and conventions centers to stadiums and commercial office buildings.
Bradburn retired and, in 2007, the firm’s name was abbreviated from Fentress Bradburn Architects to Fentress Architects. To date, the firm has won 425 design and innovation awards and has a design portfolio of $27 billion. Each year, more than 330 million people worldwide visit a project designed by Fentress Architects.
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