If you’ve traveled through Denver International Airport, you’ve experienced architect Mark Outman’s work. Denver Broncos fans headed into the “At Mile High” stadium have been the beneficiaries of his attention to detail, too. Ditto a visitor or worker taking a moment to appreciate the curve and materials of the modern administration building that complements Sacramento’s Beaux Arts-style City Hall in California.

In 2017, the American Institute of Architects elevated Outman to its College of Fellows, an honor bestowed on only 3% of those working in the field.

“Through his work, he has elevated airport terminals to experiential civic buildings. As the requirements of federal security agencies have led to more secure airport terminals, Outman has pushed the limits to also make them more humane,” the group said in its salute. It was a theme touched on by those who knew and worked with Outman – his nuanced embrace of shared space.

Outman, 64, was killed at his Montclair home Dec. 28 during a burglary. A female relative was shot but survived. Two people have since been charged for the crime. A third was killed by police when he attempted to carjack a vehicle during a pursuit.

As a young man, Outman traveled from his hometown of Denver to Tulane University in New Orleans, where he received a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1980. When he returned home, he worked at a few firms — Peter Dominick and Associates, HOK Architects and Anderson Mason Dale Architects — before heeding the advice of local legend John David “Andy” Anderson about grad school.

Outman headed to Yale University where he earned his Master of Architecture degree in 1986. He stayed in New Haven and began working for César Pelli & Associates. Among the renowned firm’s projects he worked on included the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A number of airports stand out in Outman’s portfolio, among them: Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX; Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea; Raleigh-Durham International Airport; Sacramento International Airport Terminal B; and Denver International Airport.

“Airport architecture is really about creating places, spaces that are memorable,” said Curt Fentress, founder of Fentress Architects, where Outman worked since 1995. Outman’s East Coast stint was a route Fentress recognized.

“When I met Mark it just kind of clicked,” recalled Fentress, who had worked for powerhouse I.M. Pei and Partners in New York for a decade before hanging out his shingle in Denver. “Whenever he came into the firm, we had an opportunity to create something special and unique in Denver but also around the country and around the world,” Fentress said.  

“Mark was a person who was always trying to do excellence in architecture. To do the best possible thing we could do,” he said, adding that “we” is central to how major projects come to fruition, how architects work with each other, with engineers and builders, with clients. “He was a big collaborator, a thoughtful architect, dedicated to craft,” Fentress said. “That pursuit of excellence is the main thing I think of. Mark took his role in the team very seriously. He helped inspire.”

As much as Fentress recognized the civic values that buttressed Outman’s work, he admitted he’d “be hard pressed to talk about his private life. Mark was a very private guy. We didn’t really hear about his private life in the office. He kept — what is it they say? — kept a separation of church and state. He worked hard. He set a good example. He was constantly looking for new ideas, that would set a project apart, that would make it world-class and distinguish the beauty of the building. His work was much more in the details than in the grand scheme of things.”

In a different grand scheme of things — touching and hard to bear — Outman is survived by his daughter, Kelsey, partner Susan Routt, former wife Susan Redow Martinez, brother James and border collie Topper.

In a season in which mourning has been robbed of much of its intimacy and ritual, Outman’s death was doubly cruel. Early February, Fentress employees — current and former — finally gathered virtually for “A Celebration of Mark’s Time with Colleagues at Fentress,” to reminisce, honor, ache. “It was very touching,” says Greg Gidez of the event. 

Gidez was already at the firm when Outman arrived. “I started working at Fentress when I was in college. I was probably going on 20 — and here comes this new guy. He got assigned to me for his first major project, Invesco Field,” recounted Gidez, who is now president of design services at Hensel Phelps Construction Co. “That was a pretty significant ask of a relatively new guy.”

As any Denverite could imagine, there were plenty of competing interests on that mammoth design-build project — as well as schedule and budgeting considerations  — all of which Outman grasped handily, Gidez said. “It was a tough balance between those corporate needs and those civic needs. Mark did a very good job in doing that.”

But it was Gidez’s story of the bricks that revealed the spirit of the architect.

“One of the things at the time I really scratched my head about was his fixation on the brick,” he said. Bricks are a small building module when the project itself is a huge football stadium, so, Gidez had doubts about whether the bricks would have an impact. They do. 

“It wasn’t the brick itself. It was the way that he used the bricks. He articulated the bricks in patterns that really gave it the attention to detail, giving it a very handsome façade at the pedestrian level and at what I’d call the ‘drive-by level,’ ” Gidez said. “Attention to the presence of the architecture not only at a personal level but at the large civic level — to be viewed at a distance — that’s a tough thing to do.”

Gidez paused, then added with a gentle note of admiration, “That was pretty good.”