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Frederic C. Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum

Denver, Colorado
Studio Daniel Libeskind with Davis Partnership

Studio Daniel Libeskind and the Davis Partnership shake up downtown with a new addition to the Denver Art Museum  


Photo © Jan Bitter
   

By Suzanne Stephens

The shardlike titanium-clad forms of the Denver Art Museum’s Frederic C. Hamilton Building burst on the city’s downtown with the energy of a lightning bolt. The museum addition, designed by Studio Daniel Libeskind in joint venture with Davis Partnership, will not easily win over those who decry the way that “signature” architecture tends to overwhelm art on display. With its fractured shape, slanted planes, and sharp corners galore inside and out, it pointedly and insouciantly declares its position in the ongoing debate about whether or not architecture should fade into the background when displaying art.

Nevertheless, as museumgoers thread their way through a series of galleries, they will find arresting platforms for viewing art, even where the angular geometry creates compelling and sometimes vertiginous vistas. But more about that later. Regardless of the controversy about the display of art within the canted gallery walls, the jagged building is a surprisingly successful tour de force on urbanistic grounds alone. It revitalizes an area of downtown Denver between Civic Center Park, the location of the Colorado State Capitol, and a dilapidated district to the south dubbed the Golden Triangle, now in the process of being gentrified with housing, art galleries, shops, and restaurants. At the southwestern end of the Beaux-Arts park stands the home of the Denver Art Museum, which was designed in 1971 by Gio Ponti, the Italian architect who was founding editor of Domus. Even in those pre-Bilbao Guggenheim days, the museum figured it needed an architect of international stature to draw the crowds. The local architect for the job, James Sudler Associates, chose as design consultant the Milan office of Ponti’s firm—Studio Ponti, Fornaroli, Roselli—largely based on his sleekly Modern Pirelli Building in Milan of 1956. Ponti, however, did something quite different in Denver: He designed two connected towers clad in reflective glass tiles, which, with 28 sides, jaunty crenellations, and myriad slot windows resembled a medieval fortress. It earned the epithet “eccentric.”

Next door looms Michael Graves’s addition to the Denver Central Library of 1995, a large-scale assemblage of polychromatic drums and cubic blocks that arguably adds an equally “eccentric” note on the the park.

Want the full story? Read the entire article in our January 2007 issue.
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the People

Owner:
City of Denver and the Denver Art Museum

Architect's firm name:
Studio Daniel Libeskind with Davis Partnership Architects – A Joint Venture
2301 Blake Street, Suite 100, Denver, CO 80205
P. 303.861.8555  f. 303.861.3027
www.davispartner.com/

2 Rector Street, New York, NY 10006
P. 646.452.6190  f. 646.452.6198
www.daniel-libeskind.com/

Architect of record:
Studio Daniel Libeskind with Davis Partnership Architects – A Joint Venture

Interior designer:
Studio Daniel Libeskind with Davis Partnership Architects – A Joint Venture

Engineer(s):     

Mechanical/Electrical Engineer:
MKK Consulting Engineers
www.mkkeng.com

Civil Engineer:
J.F. Sato
www.jfsato.com/

Structural/Mechanical Engineer:
ARUP
www.arup.com

Consultant(s)

Landscape:
Davis Partnership Architects
www.davispartner.com/

Lighting:
George Sexton Associates
www.gsadc.com/

Acoustical:
ARUP
www.arup.com

Other:
Exterior façade consultant: Gordon H Smith and ARUP
www.arup.com

Graphics:
Arthouse

Lobby consultant:
LORD cultural resources
www.lord.ca/

Wind tunnel testing:
CPP
www.cppwind.com/

Traffic
Felsburg Holt & Ullevig
www.fhueng.com/

Vertical Transportation:
HKA Elevator Consulting
www.hkaconsulting.com/

General contractor:
Mortenson
www.mortenson.com/

  

the Products

Structural system:
Structural Engineer:
Ove Arup
www.arup.com

Connection Design:
Structural Consultants Inc.
www.structuralconsulting.com/

Erector:
LPR

Exterior cladding

Titanium:
Timet Titanium
www.timet.com

Installer:
McGrath

Metal/glass curtainwall:
Curtainwall/skylight:
EFCO
www.efcocorp.com

Elnard (installer)

Roofing

Fibertite
www.fibertite.com/

Metal:
Titanium
Timet Titanium
www.timet.com

Installer:
McGrath

Windows

EFCO
www.efcocorp.com

Glazing

Glass:
Viracon
www.viracon.com

Skylights:
Viracon
www.viracon.com

Doors

Entrances:
revolving door
Crane
www.cranedoor.com/

Fire-control doors:
Cookson
www.cooksondoor.com/

Special doors:
coiling doors
Cookson
www.cooksondoor.com/

Hardware

Hinges:
Rixson
www.rixson.com

Closers:
LCN
www.lcnclosers.com

Exit devices:
Dor-O-Matic
www.doromatic.com

Pulls:
CHMI
www.chmi.com/

Security devices:
Sentrol

Interior finishes

Acoustical ceilings:
Hunter Douglas
www.hunterdouglas.com

Paints and stains:
Sherwin-Williams
www.sherwin-williams.com

Special surfacing: wall fabric – auditorium
Eurospan Wall System
www.walltechnology.com

Furnishings

Auditorium seats:
 Parliament Chair manufactured by Theater Solutions, Inc., Quakertown, PA www.theatresolutions.ne

Lighting

Interior ambient lighting: Gallery lighting and track
Litelab
www.litelab.com

Downlights:
Edison Price
www.epl.com

Controls:
Andover
www.andovercontrols.com

Service lights:
Metalux
www.metalux-lighting.com

Sure-Lites
www.surelites-lighting.com

Conveyance

Elevators/Escalators:
Freight:
Elevators Unlimited
www.elevatorsunlimited.com

Passenger:
KONE
www.kone.com

Plumbing

American Standard
www.americanstandard.us.com

 
 
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