Construction is progressing nicely on the Clyfford Still Museum in Downtown Denver’s Civic Center district. The $30 million museum is scheduled to open in late 2011 and will feature rotating exhibits of some of the 2,400 items from the artist’s estate the City and County of Denver acquired several years ago. The Still Museum, along with the Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center and the History Colorado Center, represents a half billion dollars of investment under construction within a few blocks of each other.
The Museum recently released images of the final design of the building. The 30,000 SF minimalist-inspired structure, with its earth-toned concrete walls and horizontal massing, provides an appropriate and welcome counterpoint to its next-door neighbor, the titanium-clad crystalline-entity Hamilton Building of the Denver Art Museum. Here are a couple of photos:
Or, check out this video animation tour of the future museum:
Details about the new building are available at the Clyfford Still Museum website.
Good things are happening in Downtown Denver!
Denver is quietly creating the most architecturally significant collection of late 20th and early 21st century civic buildings anywhere in the world. Graves, Libeskind, SOM, Ponti, Allied Works, Calatrava. Throw in the work of local architects with big budgets for civic architecture – Fentress, Tryba, Klip – and you’ve got an incredible mix.
The new rendering of the exterior texture, or the refined concept, is much improved. Looks great! Generally, it seems, the well-regarded architects can manage to do good buildings.
The museum looks fantastic! I am really impressed and cannot wait until it is completed.
Corey
Though this structure is likely appropriate for it’s purposes, I still wish we could break out of pure modernism and get to some more adventurous architecture. Too many boxy buildings with oddly shaped but unusable additions tacked on to make them look modern. I happen to like Fentress, and even Calatrava to some degree, but I keep asking myself, what will people in 200 years think of these buildings…assuming they are still there?
I love this building, especially in this location. It’s almost like a temple for Clifford Still’s work — I like how this quiet contemplative space will be just steps away from the comparatively raucous Acoma Plaza. To me, this seems like an excellent place for viewing these paintings: somewhere meditative, subtle, and textured.
I am also very excited about this museum. I like how the architecture doesn’t try to compete with the DAM Hamilton building. The textured concrete material is interesting and will look good next to the titanium. Although it does look a little utilitarian to me. This building seems to humbly make a statement. I think the landscape around it will really “soften” the hardness of the concrete and I really hope all those trees don’t get taken out of the plan. Overall, a very nice piece of modern architecture in an appropriate site.
Still not a fan of this one, the whole ‘textured’ concrete/bunker look just never appealed to me. Also until all those trees get big enough to soften the exterior, I think it will be pretty harsh. Still though, you never, know, it might wind up looking much better in person.
Who did that exterior rendering? It’s like the building suddenly got relocated into the middle of a forest in Wisconsin.
(A different Chad)
I was thinking the exact same thing. I guess Chad’s think alike!
I was thinking Connecticut, myself.
Here’s the thing. I just walked by this site ten minutes ago, and there will never be enough room on the lot to hide the building’s urban environs as the rendering seems to suggest. In my opinion, a rendering that intentionally misrepresents a building’s context is ignorant and just STUPID.
They should show some weed-infested, empty parking lots and discarded grocery carts in the distance.
I have to agree with Gash AND Chad… I love the massing and the idea, but once the building transitions from renderings to reality, the textured concrete will look like 70’s brutalism instead of 21st century modern. The only exception is when the building sits in the middle of a generously landscaped site, (such as the one depicted), but Denverites know how hard that is to achieve when sitting on an urban site, high atop a desert (more or less) with long cold winters. If the landscape architect can prove Chad and me wrong, then we all win!
Don’t forget your Burberry coat whilst visiting the Museum!
long cold winters?
I’m in LA…
Ummmmm, Mr. Cloepfil, your render monkies forgot to change the default setting on the “render now” button from Portland to Denver.
Egads! Eight trees and some grass – how will we ever replicate that utopian garden?