This article was originally published in The Denver Post on May 30, 2001.
Since the final model for the Denver Art Museum’s $62.5 million
addition was unveiled with considerable fanfare in February, the
focus has shifted from the building’s exterior to the less
glamorous task of configuring its interior.
Most of the sizes and placement of the rooms are set, though
museum leaders said some minor modifications are still possible as
this phase of the project reaches completion in one to three weeks.
Inside the opposing and overlapping angles and planes of the
146,000-square-foot structure’s exterior, none of the rooms will
be a standard rectangle, and no two will have the same shape. The
most dramatic space is expected to be the central, skylit atrium,
which will be 118 feet from floor to ceiling. It will possess a
kind of angular cone shape, growing bigger in diameter as it
rises, with bridges going across at each level.
“It’s going to be one of the great architectural spaces,”
said Lewis Sharp, the museum’s director, who, along with Dan Kohl,
director of museum design, provided The Post with details of the
interior layout.
The new wing will have 34,000 square feet of exhibition space
for the permanent collection on three floors. The galleries are
being designed as what Sharp called “generic” spaces that can
accommodate any kind of art.
No decisions have been made about what parts of the permanent
collection will be shown in these galleries. He and Kohl soon will
be meeting with curators to determine how the space is to be
apportioned.
The two most likely departments to be represented in the new
wing are modern and contemporary art, and architecture, design and
graphics. Sharp said the museum’s African and Oceanic holdings
would probably be shown there, as well.
“African and Oceanic has to have a place,” he said. “On the
top two floors, you’re going to see some pretty dramatic spaces
that would lend themselves, and I think it’s obviously going to
happen.”
In one preliminary design, the permanent collection was
assigned space on the south end of the building, but museum
leaders requested that it be shifted to the north portion of the
addition, which juts across West 13th Avenue.
Sharp said the permanent collection would function better in
these “stronger architectural spaces.” And because these galleries
would rarely be closed for changes, visitors rarely will be denied
the chance to see the architecture.
The new wing will have 23,750 square feet of space on two
floors for special exhibitions – about 7,000 square feet more than
is available in the museum’s current 1971 building. These
galleries will be able to handle one massive show or as many as
three smaller shows simultaneously.
Other significant elements in the new wing will be a 285-seat
auditorium in the basement and a family cafe on the first floor,
which will serve sandwiches, soups and salads. Palettes, the
museum’s full-service restaurant, will remain in its present
location.
Virtually all of the wing’s public areas are being designed
to accommodate art in some way, including the central atrium and
passageway between the addition and existing building. For the
pass-through space, Sharp said, the museum might consider a
site-specific piece by marquee artist Jenny Holzer or light
sculptor James Turrell.
“Every space in this building,” Sharp said, “we say, should
be an art museum. Art should be integrated into every part of it.
So, there’s not a spot in the building that we don’t think that
something can’t go into.”
The addition will be funded by a $62.5 million bond issue
approved in November 1999 by Denver voters. Construction is
expected to begin in 2003 and the building should be completed two
years later.
Once the interior configuration is completed, responsibility
for the bulk of the remaining work will shift from design
architect Daniel Libeskind and his Berlin firm to their local
architectural collaborator, Davis Partnership.
The next phase, in which the addition’s design is refined and
remaining details are worked out, is scheduled to be completed in
January, when work will begin on the blueprints to be used for the
building’s construction.
