The beacon was raised to the 40th floor of the Hyatt Regency Denver atColorado Convention Center, nearly 450 feet above the ground. It measures 100 feet tall and weighs 10,000 pounds and represents the final piece of framing for the state-of-the-art hotel designed by klipp/Brennan Beer Gorman Architects, LLP/Joint Venture. Design Principal Brian R. Klipp calls the beacon "a stake in the ground that will give visitors a keen sense of orientation."

"This is the first Downtown Denver high-rise built in 25 years," says Klipp. "We wanted the building to have a dramatic presence on the skyline."

Klipp envisions visitors to Denver riding in a cab as they approach the city and seeing the beam of the beacon. "With that shaft of light, visitors will know right where they are," he says. "The broadcast notion of arrival is the beacon."

Denver Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau spokesman Rich Grant says the beacon will call out to visitors and immediately identify where the Convention Center is located. "It will become an icon on the Downtown Denver skyline," he says.

Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center is in the southernquadrant of the Central Business District in an area known as the Silver Triangle. The site is on a full city block located directly across from the Colorado Convention Center. The hotel features 1,100 guest rooms, more than 60,000 sf of state-of-the-art meeting space, 45,000 sf of ballroom space, a lobby level restaurant and bar, a 27th-floor lounge and 630 spaces of below-grade parking.

"This property is instrumental in elevating Denver to a first-tier city for convention-goers and will be an economic boon," says Nick Pritzker, president of Hyatt Development Corp.