Sometimes it's not the "what" that makes architecture such a challenge, it's the "where." And for Jeff Sheppard, location added monumental pressure to the task of designing the new Denver Art Museum Administration Building.

The Bannock Street lot was humble and squeezed right between the two highest-profile pieces of modern architecture in the city: DAM's $110 million Hamilton Building addition, designed by Daniel Libeskind in 2006, and the $29 million Clyfford Still Museum, a concrete wonder dreamed up by Brad Cloepfil in 2011.

How does a local guy — even, arguably, Denver's most creative, budget-conscious, building designer — compete with that? With an $11 million budget?