"The Mayor's Design Awards recognizes and encourages well designed small projects throughout our neighborhoods," adds Denver planning manager Peter J. Park. "Good design happens on its own when enlightened owners recognize the benefit and invest in quality design."

Those recognized include: Marczyk's Fine Foods; Potager; Side Street; Box City, an annual event encouraging children to build a city using their imaginations; and Clayton Lanes, developed by Randy Nichols, which includes the first J.W. Marriott hotel in Denver and the Janus world headquarter office. Additional awards went to: Forest Room 5 in the Highland neighborhood; Museo de las Americas on Santa Fe Drive; Tommy's Thai on East Colfax Avenue; Broadway Central, an urban retail development at 6th Avenue and Broadway; Sushi Den; Oblio's Pizzeria; Buzz Café; the Potted Garden; Aperture, an apartment building with antique cameras and photographs as a theme that was developed by Zvi Rudawsky and Grant Barnhill; and Bang!, a restaurant in the West Highland neighborhood.