Andrew Rutz

Andy Rutz, CNU-A, is an award-winning urban designer and planner with nearly 20 years of professional experience shaping communities through urban design, architecture, planning, and implementation. His career spans architecture, municipal government, and private-sector consulting, giving him a rare ability to bridge the perspectives of communities, public agencies, developers, and design professionals and translate shared aspirations into compelling, buildable outcomes.

As the founder and principal of Crescendo Planning & Design, Andy leads projects ranging from downtown and neighborhood master planning to strategic planning, transit-oriented development, streetscape and corridor design, design standards, and compatible infill and redevelopment. Prior to founding Crescendo, he served as a Senior Planner/Urban Designer with the City & County of Denver, and as Director of Planning & Design Services at MIG, where he served as the project manager for Blueprint Denver, the city’s comprehensive land use and transportation plan. Earlier in his career, he worked as an architect at Torti Gallas & Partners. His work is grounded in the conviction that planning and design should do more than describe a community’s future – it should help create it.

Andy holds a Master of Architectural Design & Urbanism and a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Notre Dame. For the past decade, he has taught in CU Denver’s College of Architecture and Planning in both the Master of Urban Design and Master of Urban & Regional Planning programs and serves on the College’s Urban Design Advisory Council. He frequently presents at national and regional conferences, including APA, CNU, APA Colorado, and Downtown Colorado, Inc.