What's old collapses, times change, and new life blossoms in the ruins

Things I love about older cities include the textures and colors of their aging buildings. The materials and skeletons that make a structure can often decay into a beauty all of their own.

Inevitably, over time, decayed buildings are lost to the natural course of things. Historically, cities prosper over the ruins of older cities, entombing the few remaining secrets below.

The beauty of the modern era is that this decay can now be immortalized in greater detail than ancient hieroglyphs ever could have imagined.

It doesn't just happen in far off places, but in our own backyards.

DenverInfill has an amazing photo collage of the soon to be renovated innards of the old Fontius Shoes building on the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver.

For every shiny new building that goes up downtown, we shouldn't forget the history that got our city there.

Denver, like all cities, builds in the shadow of its ruins.