Co-developed by Leyuan Li and the Denver Mayor’s Office of Community Outreach
September 24–30, 2026
1400 Curtis Street, Denver, CO 80204
1400 Curtis Street, Denver, CO 80204
1661 Market St., Denver, CO 80202
Common Ground Community Design Festival reception
Thursday, September 24, 2026
5–7pm, Denver Performing Arts Complex
1400 Curtis Street, Denver, CO 80204
The opening of the Common Ground Community Design Festival takes place on September 24, 2026, at 5pm, with opening remarks beginning at 5:30pm. The festival features five installations designed and built by Leyuan Li, Danny Wills, Andrea Malta, and undergraduate students at CU Denver in collaboration with five community organizations: Colorado Nepalese Community, Greater Denver CARES Mentoring Movement, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, Empower Media Exchange, and Lavender Hill Cultural District. During the one-week festival, these installations serve as sites for a series of workshops, tours, and performances, temporarily transforming a portion of the Denver Performing Arts Complex into a playful stage for dialogue and interaction. Following the festival, the installations will be relocated to the neighborhoods of their partner organizations, where they will continue to serve as sites for public imagination. The event is free and open to the public.
"Parts of Common" Civic Forum
Friday, September 25, 2026
3–5pm, Denver Performing Arts Complex
1400 Curtis Street, Denver, CO 80204
The civic forum brings together three nationally recognized leaders in community-centered design, including Joseph Altshuler, Akima Brackeen, and Wendell Joseph, who has contributed to transformative civic initiatives such as Exhibit Columbus, the Chicago Sukkah Design Festival, and Envision Resilience. Following brief presentations by the speakers, the panelists are joined by local design professionals and community leaders for a moderated conversation on the role of community-centered design in fostering more equitable and resilient cities. The discussion is moderated by Danny Wills, Assistant Professor of Architecture at CU Denver. The event is free and open to the public.
"Concéntrico: Urban Innovation Laboratory" keynote presentation by Javier Peña Ibáñez
Monday, September 28, 2026
4–5pm, Market Station
1661 Market St., Denver, CO 80202
Peña Ibáñez presents a lecture exploring how architecture, design, and culture can serve as catalysts for more inclusive, resilient, and imaginative cities. Drawing on the work of Concéntrico—an internationally recognized platform based in Logroño, Spain—the lecture examines how temporary interventions, public installations, exhibitions, and collaborative research transform streets, plazas, and everyday urban spaces into laboratories for civic experimentation. Through projects developed with designers, artists, architects, municipalities, and local communities, the lecture highlights how small-scale interventions can generate lasting conversations about public life. By sharing the processes behind Concéntrico’s internationally acclaimed initiatives, Peña Ibáñez offers insights into innovative models of urban engagement and cultural production that challenge conventional approaches to city-making. The lecture invites students, designers, and the broader public to rethink public space as a dynamic platform for creativity, collaboration, and social innovation. The event is free and open to the public.
About Denver Community Design Festival
The Denver Community Design Festival is a new collaborative civic design initiative launched by the Denver Mayor’s Office, the CU Denver College of Architecture and Planning, the Lavender Hill Cultural District, and the Denver Architecture Foundation. The inaugural edition features five architectural installations alongside a series of free public programs from September 24 to 27, 2026, as part of Doors Open Denver.
Organizing Team: Leyuan Li, Elaine Minjy Limmer, Zach Kotel, and Meg Touborg
Design Team: Leyuan Li, Danny Wills, and Andrea Malta
Graphic Design: Zach Kotel
Graphic Assistant: Elina Chen
Student Team: Santiago Aguilera Cepeda, Camden Cramer, Esra Hima, Kevin Harris, Matthew Dowling, Alyssa Aguilar-Monroe, Alaina Harris, Allison Heflin, Lance Holland, Andrew Kauffman, Ava Rutherford, Erin Wilson, Zachary Beck, Emmett Booth, Lorelai Brunner, Zeliya Cain, Mel Campie, Allison Chu, David Hornik, Van Pham, Jose Ramirez-Aguirre, Fernando Uvina Perez, and Audrey Wenzl
Community Partners: Colorado Nepalese Community, Greater Denver CARES Mentoring Movement, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, Empower Media Exchange, Lavender Hill Cultural District
Special Thanks: CU Timmerhaus Fund and CU Denver College of Architecture and Planning leadership, including David Rifkind, Leo Darnell, Kat Vlahos, and Dora Epstein Jones
