Monday Visual Inspiration: Delusions of grandeur in Cherry Creek North

While walking through Cherry Creek North recently, I discovered a detail on a recent building there that caused me to do a double take.  The building below was built in the last ten years (probably newer than that), but it was the feature over the large window on the right that gave me pause.

Um, is that the hand of God and Adam touching each other, resplendent in stucco, or--God forbid--EIFS?  And what image is on those diamond-shaped medallions?

Oh good Lord.  It's da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, immortalized in some sort of bronze plating or cast stone.  And there's a little security camera to catch the faces of anyone who dares pause at this capitalist edifice and ponder the possible meaning of plastering Renaissance imagery on what is essentially a high-end strip mall near downtown Denver.

I like art.  I like capitalism. I like brokerage firms and restaurants.  I like da Vinci. I like Cherry Creek North.  I even like stucco.  I do not like them all lumped together as an attempt to prettify or even legitimize a 21st-century building with 17th-century artistic references.  Be modern and be proud.