Really excellent work Lynn, and a great example of a good image becoming an amazing image by its creator being prepared to accept crits and apply them. The final render, with the dark wall at left illuminated a bit more, looks much better. Only in space are large shadowed area's fully black, because here on Earth there is almost always some secondary reflected light. For example, the brightly lit courtyard wall and floor will be casting a secondary glow on the darker wall, and your final image captures this effect beautifully.
Although I agree fully with pretty much everyone's comments in this thread, I think the soft shadows are a little too soft. The sun, appearing as a disc rather than a point, does indeed cast slightly soft-edged shadows, but in the bright midday sun they are still quite crisp. Here in Australia it's currently summer, and comparing your image to the view from my window I would say the shadow cast by the baclcony onto the back wall is about 2 times too soft, for its distance from the wall. I would adjust the settings to bring it about half way between your current settings and fully hard edged. My only other crit would be that the ambient occlusion effect could be even further enhanced. The space inside the building should appear almost black, and the ladder should cast a slight, very soft shadow on the wall it is leaning against (because it's light source is entirely secondary, coming from all directions). Also, the doors still look a little plasticy. Perhaps a stronger ambient occlusion effect (as well as door handles) might improve them somewhat.
When an image is as good as this the viewer finds themselves drawn in, studying every tiny detail, so minor things like I have mentioned above tend to be noticed. Unfortunately, it seems the more detail you put in an image the more demanding the audience becomes! You should be congratulated on creating an image that leaves us unable to criticise more than the tiniest of details!!
