The view from my desk at The Register is mostly of computers and those who type into them, yet if I cock my head I can see downtown Napa’s future.

I speak of the view to the left of the newsroom, over the classified ad takers and out the glassed-in lobby.

For years what caught my eye was the roof of City Hall. By standing up, I could survey the City Hall parking lot. I’ve been able to tell when the city manager came to work and whether the mayor was keeping office hours.

Only a reporter on the city hall beat could love such a view.

The scene began to change when the city replanted the trees along Second Street. When spindly specimens developed significant mass, my view of City Hall was largely obliterated. Instead, I looked out on greenery.

Which was very cool. I mean, here I was, working downtown, yet everything outside my window suggested forest. Downtown had greened before my very eyes.

This fall something altogether different began to sprout. Girder by girder, the steel skeleton of what will become the three-story Napa Square commercial project climbed into the sky. The structure arose practically overnight. It wasn’t there, then it was.

The framing of Napa Square now dominates my window onto the world. City Hall and the raywood ashes have been reduced to bit players.

This new structure is as close to being a skyscraper as any building I ever expected to see in this town. Viewed from my work station, it’s a behemoth, obliterating all else.

Actually, that’s not quite right. I’m overstating things. The real behemoth will be Avia, the five-story hotel at First and Franklin behind Napa Square, scheduled to begin construction early next year.

From most vantage points, this taller building should loom over Napa Square, although from my desk location maybe it won’t. Perspective is a funny thing.

In describing the view out The Register’s front door, I’ve been remiss in not mentioning another essential feature: the eastern hills that serve as a backdrop to downtown.

They have always been there, looming over City Hall. When the exterior skin is put on Napa Square, they won’t be.

True, this undulating land mass is not spectacular. It is not craggy and snow-topped. And yes, I have largely taken it for granted all these years. If I ever wrote a column extolling the majesty of Mount George, I do not recall it.

But now that the hilltops are being wiped from my view, I’m suddenly mournful. I’m losing coyote country and the habitat of the purple-blooming ceanothus. Napa Square and Avia are fencing me in.

In a nutshell, this is what’s happening all over downtown. Empty lots and low-rise buildings of little consequence are being replaced by stunningly large edifices. First Street, Main Street, the Oxbow District, and the riverfront are transforming before our very eyes.

Will there be enough offices, stores and restaurants to fill all the new square footage, not to mention buyers for the planned residential condominiums above commercial establishments?

It’s happening elsewhere. Why not our not-so-little Napa? Did I suppose that raging success would be eternally just out of reach of our downtown?

These days downtown is the canvas attracting a host of developers with records of success in other communities. They are investing vast sums in hotels and commercial buildings that would have been unfathomable a decade ago.

This is all such a turnabout from the 1970s when the city had to look long and hard to find a single redeveloper to launch its urban renewal program. They finally found one with a sketchy history. The results were not spectacular, to say the least.

What will downtown look like, feel like, in five or 10 years? I don’t have the imagination to say.

All I know for certain is that downtown is in flux, bigger is replacing smaller, fancy is replacing ordinary and the riverfront will emerge as the community playground.

And the view from Courtney’s desk will never be the same.

Kevin can be reached at 256-2217 or Napa Valley Register,  P.O. Box 150, Napa 94559 or kcourtney@napanews.com