Denver Art Museum

o Ayesha- 10
o Aswin- 9
o Jumanah- 22
o Sharique- 26
o Salma- 38
Architect Cost
Daniel Libeskind
Built in $62,000,000
2003-2006 Location
West 14th Avenue Parkway, Denver, United States

• In October 2006, the Denver Art Museum completed its

first major expansion in over 30 years. The 146,000ft²
addition nearly doubled the size of the museum. The
expansion, taking the form of a separate building joining
the existing museum via a 100ft enclosed walkway, has
been called the Frederic C Hamilton Building after
entrepreneur Frederic C Hamilton, who has served as
Chairman of the Denver Art Museum since 1994.

• The new building is located directly south of the twin

towers of the original building, and adjacent to the
Denver Public Library, designed by Michael Graves is the
core of the new cultural district of the city. From the
inside, visitors can see the mountains and the city of
Denver.
CONCEPT

• Design Concept – The

project was not simply
designed as a standalone
building but as part of a
composition of public
spaces, monuments and
gateways in the developing
part of the city, contributing
to the synergy amongst
neighbours and intimate
places. It displayed a
significant work of outdoor
sculpture.
 CONCEPT
• The amazing vitality and growth of Denver from its foundation to the present inspires the form of
the new museum. Coupled with the magnificent topography with its breathtaking views of the sky
and the Rocky Mountains, the dialogue between the boldness of construction and the romanticism
of the landscape creates a unique place in the world. The bold and forward looking engagement of
the public in forging its own cultural, urban and spirited destiny is something that would strike
anyone upon touching the soil of Colorado.
• The sharp angles and the complex geometry of the Denver art
museum's Hamilton building emulate the jagged peaks of the
surrounding Rocky Mountains . The project is designed as a
single building, but as part of a composition of public spaces,
monuments and gateways in the development of this part of
the city, which contributes to the relationship with
neighboring buildings. The most striking feature of the
museum is the triangular shape of a corner that is fired out of
the street toward the old Gio Ponti building.
 CONCEPT AND MEANING
• Other forms are deployed out into the square, partially covering the entrance. But the generality
of the exterior lies in how it changes its appearance when looking in different directions.
Fragments of a peak can guess outstanding between the towers of the city. From another angle,
the structure seems static and has the appearance of búnquer. At night, the building tends to give
a visually achatarse strange sense of stillness.
• One of the challenges of building the Denver Art
Museum was to work closely and respond to the
extraordinary range of transformations in light,
coloration, atmospheric effects, temperature and
weather conditions unique to this City.
• The architect insisted these be integrated not only
functionally and physically, but culturally and
experientially for the benefit of the visitors' experience.
• Since its opening, the new building has become a
major cultural landmark for Denver , attracting
thousands of visitors to the museum complex
• The new building is not based on an idea of style or the rehashing of
ready made ideas or external shape because its architecture does not
separate the inside from the outside or provide a pretty facade
behind which a typical experience exists; rather this architecture has
an organic connection to the public at large and to those aspects of
experience that are also intellectual, emotional, and sensual.
• The integration of these dimensions for the enjoyment and
edification of the public is achieved in a building that respects the
hand crafted nature of architecture and its immediate
communication from the hand, to the eye, to the mind. After all, the
language of architecture beyond words themselves is the laughter of
light, proportion and materiality.
SITE FEATURES
LOCATION

▪ The building is located directly south of twin towers of original

building and adjacent to Denver public library.
▪ It is core of new cultural district of the city.
▪ The entrance is opposite to the new plaza that links the civic
centre in golden triangle , a neighbourhood of fashionable villas.
▪ From inside the site visitors can see the mountains and city of
Denver.
▪ Thus the new building has became a major landmark for
Denver,attracting thousands of visitors to the museum complex.
LANDSCAPE
▪ Coupled with the magnificent topography with its breathtaking views of sky
and the rocky mountains the dialogue between the boldness of construction and
romanticism of landscape creates a unique space in the world.
▪ The bold and forward looking structure and landscaping features strike the
public.
▪ Instead of designing it as a standalone building ,the project placed
monuments, gateways and outdoor sculptures to create a composition of public
spaces.
▪ Static elements in landscaping to maintain the boldness of the building.
▪ In the site,frontyard is used for public art and other for staging public events
joining the landscape of the complex.

▪ Vegetation grown here include grass lawns shrubs and less canopied trees
inorder to emphasise the building.
 DESIGN AND
CONSTRUCTION
 SPATIAL DESIGN
• The Hamilton Building acts as the main entrance
to the entire museum complex, and
accommodates shops, a cafe, theatre and a
rooftop sculpture garden with views over the
Rocky Mountain range. Modern and contemporary
art, as well as the collection of architecture and
design and Oceanic art are also housed in the
building.
• The Hamilton Building’s architecture consists of a
series of wall planes. The new wing’s design is
created out of a titanium skin cladding and
sculptural form, which naturally meshes with the
surrounding civic buildings.
FORM OF THE
MUSEUM

• The museum consists of a series

of interlocking rectangles. This is an
aggressive form of geometric design, pure
and irregular, glass and titanium, reflecting
the peaks and rock crystal from the nearby
mountains. A volume overhang crosses
the street to link the structure of the
Gio Ponti building by a bridge of steel and
glass.
• The design uses many extended angular
planes to be reminiscent of the natural
landscape. Similar to the many-peaked roof of
the Denver International Airport, the Hamilton
Building emulates the sharp angles of the
nearby Rocky Mountains, as well as the
geometric crystal found at the mountains'
base near Denver. Architect Daniel
Libeskind said, “I was inspired by the light
and geology of the Rockies, but most of all by
the wide-open faces of the people of Denver.”
• The design consists of angular forms culminating in a
cantilever that reaches across 13th Avenue towards
the existing Ponti Building. There is a soaring lobby
space with a glass ceiling located in the heart of the
structure, and a glass sky bridge connection to the
existing museum.
• The bridge spills into a glass pavilion on the top floor
of the Morgan Wing, which houses the museum’s
restaurant, and enter the existing grey glass tile
Ponti Building through a wall at second-story level.
The innovative structure was realised through the
dramatic use of metal (9,000 titanium panels), glass
and stone (Colorado granite).
FACILITIES

• The entire museum complex

totals more than 350,000ft².
A co-development project,
consisting of a five - storey,
1,000-space car park and
270,000ft² of retail and
residential space, was also
designed by Daniel Libeskind.
The facilities also include a
300-seat auditorium, special
exhibition galleries, art
storage and conservation,
permanent galleries, kitchen,
cafe, atrium, and crating and
loading spaces.
MATERIALS AND CONSTRUCTION

• Deep foundation – Driven piles.

• Construction of the Hamilton Building required
2,740t of steel, 230,000ft² of titanium and 7,400yd³
of concrete.
• The three largest steel beams weigh 550lb per
linear foot and are 60ft long – so long that the only
company able to fabricate the steel is based in
Belgium. Mortensen used a 3D state-of-the-art
computer programme to map the location of every
steel rod before it was installed.
MATERIALS AND
CONSTRUCTION

• For the siding was chosen titanium and granite,

thus looking for a dialectical relationship with
the other elements of the context:
monuments, public spaces, infrastructure.
• To make the Hamilton Building secure
and stable, 116 vertical columns of steel
and concrete extend from the building’s
foundation in to the bedrock. The Hamilton
Building initially saw leakage from the roof due
to its angular shape.
 THE LANDSCAPE SPACES ARE
LEVELED DOWN FROM THE
GROUND WHICH CREATES A
FEELING OF HIGHLIGHTING
THE STRUCTURE FROM THE
STREETS WHICH ALSO HAS A
FUNCTION TO CREATE THE
STORAGE IN THE BASEMENT.

THE FAÇADE IS DYNAMIC WITH THE USE OF TITANIUM

CLADDING WHICH STANDS OUT FROM THE NEIGHBOORING
BUILDINGS.THE SPACE LACKS PARKING ONLY STRET PARKING
IS PROVIDED.LESS NUMBER OF WINDOWS THE MAJOR
OPENING IS ON THE SOUTH EAST SIDE .THE OTHE FACADES
CREATES LESS OPENINGS FORMS A SOLID MASSING
GROUND FLOOR PROVIES ALL THE REQUIRED SPACES FOR
BUILDING SERVICES. THE BUILDING PROMOTES
HORIZONTAL CIRCULATION THE EXHIBITION SPACES ARE
PROVIDED ON UPPER STORIES.THE CONSTRUCTION OF
THE STAIR WAS CHALLENGING THE ONLY VERTICAL
SUPPORTING WALLS WERE ON THE CENTRE OF
THE STRUCTURE WERE THE ELEVATOR SITUATES.
THE USE OF
DRIVEN PILES ON
THE FOUNDATION
WAS WORKABLE
AND IT ENABLED
THE USE OF
SLENDER
COLOUMNS
ALONG THE
CONSTRUCTION
THE EXPERIENCE

• Within the context of its plaza, the museum can

be magical. In its most striking feature, a
triangular form at one corner shoots out over a
street toward the old Gio Ponti museum building.
A bridge connects the two buildings just
underneath. Other forms tumble out toward the
plaza, partly sheltering the entrance. Yet the
genius of the exterior lies in how its appearance
changes when viewed from varying directions.
Fragments of the cantilevered beak-like form can
be gleaned between towering downtown
buildings; from other angles the structure seems
static and bunkerlike. At night the building tends
to flatten out, giving it a strange stillness.
 THE EXPERIENCE
• Mr. Libeskind pulls some of that energy right
up through the building. Visitors enter the
galleries by ascending a staircase that spirals
up through a four-story atrium lobby. As you
climb, the staircase gets tighter, more
intimate. Slivers of daylight enter through
slotlike skylights set where the walls
intersect, so that at times the building looks
as if it were pulling apart at the seams.
Farther up, beams crisscross the space as if to
prevent the walls from falling in on you.
• The intersecting geometries yield the sort of
wonderfully odd, leftover spaces typical of an
attic, and Mr. Libeskind takes advantage of
this by setting up small sitting areas within
some of them.
THE EXPERIENCE

• Resting on a sofa, you may catch a glimpse of a silhouetted

figure wandering up the staircase several levels above. At
other times the experience can be like entering the jarring,
riotous forms of an Expressionist canvas.
• Yet this is a place for viewing real works of art. And if
criticizing contemporary architects for creating flamboyant
museums that mistreat the art they house has become a
tiresome pastime, it is overwhelmingly justified here. In a
building of canted walls and asymmetrical rooms — tortured
geometries generated purely by formal considerations — it is
virtually impossible to enjoy the art.
• The curators have made a valiant effort. Some of the
sculpture, for example, looks terrific here. Antony Gormely’s
2000 “Quantum Cloud XXXIII,” an anonymous figure
fashioned from stainless steel rods, seems to splinter off into
space, as if the entire building were floating in pieces around
it. But paintings by Degas and Pissarro look absolutely lost in
the chaos of the surroundings. A row of Campbell’s soup can
paintings by Warhol hangs on one side of a column, as if the
curators had given up trying to find a suitable spot for them.
 THE EXPERIENCE

The structures often seem shaped entirely

by their own internal logic; their relation to
their function and the buildings around
them seems strained or artificial.