THE DENVER ART MUSEUM’S $175 MILLION REUNIFICATION PROJECT COINCIDES WITH ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY.
New meets old: The Sie Welcome Center connects with the renovated Martin Building. PHOTO BY JAMES FLORIO PHOTOGRAPHY/COURTESY OF THE DENVER ART MUSEUM
FIFTY YEARS AGO, the Denver Art Museum’s North Building, designed by renowned Italian modernist architect Gio Ponti, opened to the public. One of the first-ever high-rise art museums, featuring a two-towered facade with some 1 million reflective glass tiles, it had become a Denver icon.
This fall, the museum unveiled a major renovation project designed by Machado Silvetti and Fentress Architects that unifies the museum’s campus. The 1971 Ponti building, renamed the Lanny & Sharon Martin Building, was completely reimagined, including two new rooftop terraces on the seventh floor. The architects dug up old Ponti drawings and discovered the architect had always planned for a rooftop pavilion. The reconceived seventh floor allows visitors to view Western American art in the gallery, then walk outdoors and take in views of the landscape that inspired those works, from Mount Evans to Longs Peak, as well as sweeping views of downtown Denver.
Clockwise from top left: The seventhfloor terrace realizes Ponti’s vision; Duncan Hall sparkles; Ponti’s reflective glass tiles stand the test of time; the new Grand Staircase is a monolithic piece made of terrazzo. PHOTOS BY JAMES FLORIO PHOTOGRAPHY/COURTESY OF THE DENVER ART MUSEUM
“The Martin Building had an extraordinary skin and configuration that gives it tremendous identity,” says architect Jorge Silvetti. The challenge was to create a harmonious campus and reimagine a historical building while still honoring the original Ponti design.
The plan also needed to connect the 2006 Frederic C. Hamilton Building by architect Daniel Libeskind, who adorned his signature ship’s prow silhouette with 9,000 titanium panels meant to complement Ponti’s gray glass tiles. Unifying these two existing architectural icons is the new 50,000-square-foot Anna and John J. Sie Welcome Center, which boasts a spectacular circular space with 38-foot-high convex windows overlooking Denver’s civic center park. “It communicates the idea of welcoming, openness and transparency,” Silvetti says. When the space is lit at night, it will serve as a beacon to draw in the community. 100 W. 14th Avenue Pkwy., Denver, denverartmuseum.org
Photography by:
