With its recently announced plans to acquire and overhaul a historic building at 2501 Larimer St., Plus Gallery hopes to enhance its visibility and cement its place among Denver’s top-tier commercial art galleries.
“I’d like to think, based on the quality of work, that we are (in that league), but, that being said, I do feel that in order to take that next step we need to do something like this,” said owner and director Ivar Zeile.
With the gallery marking its seventh year in business and coming to the end of its lease, he said the time seemed right to make a major change.
Plus has purchased two buildings that were part of the former Benjamin Moore paint factory complex, including one with a four-story, monolithic brick flue that has become something of a landmark. The site is two blocks north of the gallery’s current leased location at 2350 Lawrence St.
A portion of one building will be converted to loft space for Zeile and his family, and the rest could be leased to a restaurant or kept in reserve for a possible future expansion of the gallery.
A two-story addition, designed by Steve Chucovich, a principal with ArchitectureDenver, will be constructed between the two buildings. The expansion, with rippled aluminum siding and wood accents, will be attached to the flue structure and slightly cantilever over its lower section.
The new building will have 2,300 square feet of space. That is slightly smaller than the gallery’s present location, but it will be expressly configured to the gallery’s needs.
Although Zeile considered moving Plus to other areas of Denver, including the Art District on Santa Fe, he decided that staying in the Ballpark neighborhood remained the best fit.
“My gallery was formed as a destination gallery, and the whole way it functions is as a destination gallery,” he said. “Once you pull that into a more commercial zone, your whole business model changes a little bit, or maybe dramatically.”
At the end of August, the gallery plans to move into a temporary space at 15th and Delgany streets across from the Museum of Contemporary Art/Denver.
Zeile said the gallery could reopen in its permanent location as early as January.
