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April 13, 2004
The Denver Museum of Contemporary Art
today announced today the choice of David Adjaye of Adjaye/Associates
of London to design its permanent building.
The 15,000 to 20,000 square foot structure
will provide the museum – formerly without a home- with
spaces for galleries, education, lectures and movies, as well
as an outdoor sculpture center.
Adjaye was chosen among an impressive
field that included TEN Arquitectos of Mexico, Snohetta of
Norway, Rick Joy Architects of Arizona, Predock_Frane of New
Mexico, and Gluckman Mayner Architects of New York. The selection
process took seven months and included extensive interviews
from not only museum officials but from the public in the
form of several lectures.
"We asked for an architect who would
build a building that supports rather than defines the mission,"
noted museum curator and director Sydney Payton. "He
had a direct relationship to the mission, and he had a clear
understanding of contemporary art."
Adjaye/ Associates, formed in 2000, has
designed ultra-modern buildings for the Nobel Peace Center
in Oslo, Norway, The Idea Stores, and two libraries in Tower
Hamlets, England.
Founded in 1996, the Museum of Contemporary
Art is currently located in a temporary space in Sakura Square
in Denver. Complimenting Daniel Libeskind’s upcoming
Denver Museum of Art, located less than a mile from the Contemporary,
the museum helps give the city some of the most cutting edge
architecture in the country.
"We hope it brings attention to
Denver. It’s an ongoing part of an ongoing architectural
dialogue with what’s happening here," said Payton.
There’s still a little bit of that residue of another
time. There is this kind of ‘let’s get this done"
attitude here."
The museum is planned for a late 2006
opening.
Sam
Lubell
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