DENVER ART MUSEUM

MARTIN BUILDING AND WELCOME CENTER EXPANSION

Denver, CO

 

IES Lumen Award of Merit, 2022

 

DESIGN ARCHITECT

Machado Silvetti

 

ARCHITECT OF RECORD

Fentress Architects

 

LIGHTING DESIGN

Buro Happold Engineering

 

IMAGE CREDITS

Photography by Gabe Guilliams

 

PROJECT SUMMARY

 

The Denver Art Museum’s Martin building designed by Italian architect Gio Ponti was first opened in 1971. This $150 million renovation updated the existing North Building and added 30,000 sf of gallery space. At the heart of the renovation is a 50,000 sf event space and welcome center that enhances community engagement through diverse public amenities, including expanded education space, a café, restaurant, and multiple event venues.

 

Upon entering the welcome center, visitors are greeted by a stunning 20’ wide by 200’ long internal promenade with a perforated, luminous ceiling. With most program components converging along this grand corridor, we conceived the idea that localized variation in the density of light would announce programatic intersections and create an intuitive wayfinder for arriving visitors. The expansive ceiling simultaneously exists as a monolithic luminous installation and choreographer for the various centers of gravity along its length. This was mocked-up in advance to confirm effect and work through constructability sequencing.

 

A notable feature of the building’s exterior are full-height vertical incisions that bifurcate the overlapping wall surfaces. The 1971 building’s original lighting scheme included neon light within each crease. We understood this as a desire to communicate an impression that the building’s internal light was slipping through the seams and washing across the exterior, tiled façade. As this effect fades, a texture of soft interior illumination glows through various aperture typologies. To re-create the slot effect, we installed narrow-distribution LED sources mounted only at the top and bottom of the seven-story slot that would graze along the interior surface and be reflected back to the exterior surface. An on-site mockup was conducted in order to finalize the specification and mounting details.