Curtis W. Fentress

Curtis Fentress was inducted into the Colorado Business Hall of Fame by Junior Achievement-Rocky Mountain and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce in 2017.

In 2010, Fentress was given the Thomas Jefferson Award by the American Institute of Architects. The Jefferson Award recognizes Fentress for "a portfolio of accomplishments that evidences great depth while making a significant contribution to the quality of public architecture."

Fentress also designed Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, which was voted the World's Best Airport by Skytrax's 2009 World Airport Awards, a survey of 8.6 million international travellers.

Fentress was inducted into the Denver Tourism Hall of Fame in 2009. The Tourism Hall of Fame serves as the highest award for Denver's travel industry. Fentress designed three of the most important landmarks in Denver, transforming the skyline.

In May 2008, the City of Los Angeles selected Fentress Architects to modernize Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the fifth busiest airport in the world.

Fentress then moved to Denver, Colorado as the KPF's Project Designer for the Rocky Mountain Headquarters of Amoco in downtown Denver. Attracted by the natural beauty of the area, Fentress struck out on his own, selecting Denver as the base for his new firm, C.W. Fentress and Associates with James Henry Bradburn. In 2004, Bradburn retired and in 2007 the firm's name was abbreviated from Fentress Bradburn Architects to Fentress Architects. Today, the firm maintains studios in Denver, Colorado, Los Angeles, California, Washington, D.C. and San Jose, California.

Fentress Architects has been recognized as a pioneer in sustainable design since the early 1990s. The firm's green practices were acknowledged first in 1993 with the Architecture and Energy Award for the Natural Resources Building in Olympia, Washington. It was the first project to ever set indoor air quality improvement as a goal at the onset of design, which established a standard for the industry. Fentress also designed DIA (Denver International Airport), one of the largest daylit facilities ever built. The firm's sustainable design for the California Department of Education Headquarters Building – Block 225 - created the largest LEED 2.0 GOLD rated building in the world, which became the second project in the world to achieve LEED EB Platinum in 2006. The majority of the firm's licensed architects are LEED accredited professionals. Fentress recently ranked among the Top 25 Green Design Firms by Engineering News-Record magazine, a leading publication in the design and construction industry.

In college, Fentress secured a summer job as a draftsman, but constantly lobbied to be allowed into the architectural division. Finally, he was given his first design project: site adaptations for 23 Krispy Kreme locations. Curt Fentress graduated with honors in 1972 from North Carolina State University's College of Design, School of Architecture where he received a bachelor's degree of architecture.

Curtis Fentress FAIA RIBA (born 1947) is an American architect. He is currently the principal-in-charge of design at Fentress Architects, an international design studio he founded in Denver, Colorado in 1980.