Purpose and Approach

The transformation of Denver Art Museum’s (DAM) North Building—Gio Ponti’s 1971 mid-century modern masterpiece—has re-established the museum as the city’s cultural complex hub. The new, resilient campus is the key urban link between downtown Denver, its cultural institutions, and city neighborhoods, connecting Denver’s Civic Center and cultural and public buildings, including Denver’s Central Library, Clyfford Still Museum, and the City and County Building.

The rehabilitation of the North Building and removal of a dilapidated, non-historic building allowed for the grounds of the historic setting to be redesigned. New outdoor spaces and experiences, resilient gardens, the redesign of Acoma Plaza, and the addition of the Sie Welcome Center has created a new center to the DAM campus. The grounds unite its buildings, provide critically needed programmatic space, and activate the public realm. The DAM site redesign weaves together historic preservation and sustainability with exemplary urban design to create a spectacularly beautiful and cohesive campus that is resilient and welcoming to museum visitors and the public alike.

Role

Serving as sub-consultant to the prime architectural team (composed of two architects: one local and one nationally renowned), the landscape architect was responsible for the urban design of the campus—including its connection with the city—and for the detailed site and landscape design for outdoor spaces, terraces, plazas, water quality gardens, paving, and features. As a specialist in historic preservation, urban design, landscape architecture, and sustainable practices, the landscape architect was instrumental in ensuring the design of materials, features, and spaces showcased the iconic North Building and met all programmatic requirements in a sustainable and resilient site.

Context

The DAM campus is a crucial institution in Denver’s cultural complex and downtown’s urban fabric. The grounds are strategically located on Acoma Plaza—the key pedestrian space known as the cultural spine or ‘cultural axis’ to which the museum’s newly redesigned main entry is now oriented. This new DAM campus holistically connects beloved cultural institutions to Denver’s Civic Center—the hub of governmental activity, downtown Denver, adjacent neighborhoods, and the city’s bicycle and transit system.

Public spaces of the new Sie Welcome Center, where 900,000 annual visitors enter the museum, are the center of activity. The 50,000 square-foot building with its plazas and gardens are built on the site of a demolished 1950s warehouse, anchoring Acoma Plaza. Originally built with the 1990s Denver Central Library, Acoma Plaza was redesigned with the project to serve as the key pedestrian spine for the campus and for the cultural complex. This cohesive pedestrian experience connects the museum campus, is shared with Denver’s Central Library, and connects visitors and the public to downtown, nearby neighborhoods, and parking and bike routes.

The campus is reactivated by the Elliptical Terrace and Kemper Courtyard that re-establish Gio Ponti’s historic portal, open the museum site to Denver’s Civic Center, and create vibrant, sustainable outdoor spaces for the DAM’s robust children’s programs and community events. Harkening to Ponti’s unrealized vision for an auditorium, the Elliptical Terrace is designed for daily and special events. It’s sculptural seating, grassy terraces, integrated accessible route, and plaza formed as an ellipse provides flexible outdoor space for everyday and large events that spill over into Acoma Plaza.

The lower terrace, Kemper Courtyard, is inspired by Gio Ponti‘s patterns and materials. Characterized by a ‘maze,’ sculpture, architectural lighting, custom seating, and hardy plantings, it inspires educational programming and offers intriguing experiences for kids and adults. This is the primary outdoor space for the museum’s evening events and children’s programs. The ‘maze’ is illuminated by lighted pavers for evening events, complementing the lighting along the creases of the North Building. It provides much-needed program space for DAM’s children’s programs that reach more than 500 students a day from across the region during the school year.

The Prow, accessed from Kemper Courtyard by an accessible route integrated into a folded lawn, is a celebration of sustainability, historic preservation, and beauty. Designed as an intimate plaza built of porous paving, LED architectural lighting, custom seating, and hardy, resilient plantings, the terrace is nestled into the crook of Ponti’s newly restored original concrete walls. Rehabilitation of the Portal, a beloved element of Gio Ponti’s masterpiece, allows for access by a sculptural bridge that provides a much-needed universally accessible route to the north façade.

A cohesive palette of materials unites the campus redesign and extends the mid-century modern aesthetic of the campus. Pavers in neutral tones are within all outdoor spaces, each designed to support their program and use, i.e., the ‘maze’ of granite and LED-lit pavers in Kemper Courtyard. Site walls reflect Ponti’s aesthetic, but don’t mimic it, in a design of custom exposed aggregate walls—some with larger aggregate and finish, and others ground on all faces with a smoother finish.

Special Factors

A research-focused design process revealed sketches and models by Gio Ponti of his vision for the North Building. Most compelling was an unrealized elliptical auditorium. The landscape architect’s design of the outdoor spaces and the architect’s design for the new Welcome Center embrace Ponti’s vision. This is reflected in the elliptical form of the building, an architectural icon that connects the two existing architectural masterpieces—Ponti’s North Building and Daniel Libeskind’s Hamilton Building—and is the form of the new Elliptical Courtyard that traces Ponti’s unrealized space.

The North Building has often been viewed by the public as an unwelcoming fortress due to the massive concrete wall that creates the building’s base. Removal of a portion of this original wall in the new design creates a human scale to the façade and provides a crucial pedestrian experience portal oriented towards Denver’s Civic Center.

Environmental Sensitivity and Sustainability Context

Resiliency and sustainability are core principles for the entire project, shared by the client and consultant team. Resource conservation is at the forefront of the campus and site design. Campus sustainability practices include an integrated stormwater system with custom water quality gardens, architectural LED lighting, dark sky-compliant fixtures, hardy plantings selected for low water use, mature tree protection, addition of new trees to improve the city’s urban tree canopy, and restoration of historic features, i.e., the Ponti building and site walls. The integrated stormwater system holistically treats on-site stormwater, filtering roof and site drainage through gardens of plantings, porous paving, infiltration basins and below-grade reservoirs before stormwater enters the city system. Water quality gardens flank the Welcome Center’s main entrance.

Significance

The Denver Art Museum (DAM) campus has established the museum and Acoma Plaza as the hub of the city’s cultural complex and key urban space connecting neighborhoods, cultural institutions, and downtown Denver. Rehabilitation of the North Building and addition of the Sie Welcome Center, new gardens, outdoor terraces, and public spaces has transformed the museum into a new, resilient campus. Sustainability is at the forefront of the design, most notably the integrated stormwater system that showcases gardens as water quality features and puts resource conservation first. The DAM site redesign weaves together historic preservation and sustainability with exemplary urban design to create a spectacularly beautiful and cohesive campus that is resilient and welcoming to museum visitors and the public alike.