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Museum Architecture

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Museum architecture is the design and construction of buildings intended to house and display collections of art, artifacts, or scientific specimens. It encompasses aesthetic, functional, and contextual considerations, aiming to enhance visitor experience while preserving and showcasing the integrity of the collections.
lightbulbAbout this topic
Museum architecture is the design and construction of buildings intended to house and display collections of art, artifacts, or scientific specimens. It encompasses aesthetic, functional, and contextual considerations, aiming to enhance visitor experience while preserving and showcasing the integrity of the collections.

Key research themes

1. How do architects integrate natural and mechanical systems to shape visitor experience and spatial expression in museum design?

This research axis explores the architectural strategies that reconcile environmental control, lighting, and structural form in museums to create spatial poetics and enhance visitor experience. It focuses on the use of natural light integration, tectonic expression, and the visibility of mechanical and structural elements, illuminating how the museum's architectural language arises directly from these design decisions.

The Tectonic Thinking and Strategies in Louis I. Kahn's Art Museums
by Avanti Publisher

2022, International Journal of Architectural Engineering Technology

Key finding: Louis Kahn’s museum designs—specifically the Yale University Art Gallery, the Kimbell Art Museum, and the Yale Center for British Art—demonstrate the integration of natural lighting with mechanical services through tectonic... Read more
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Site-Specific Bioinspired Architecture-A Case Study of the Allen-Lambe House by Frank Lloyd Wright: The Pragmatic versus the Naturalistic, Intent versus Realization
by Richard Hyde

2023, Biomimetics MDPI

Key finding: By positioning Frank Lloyd Wright’s work within a framework combining architecture, biomimetics, and eco-mimesis, this study interprets architecture’s potential for ecological integration beyond pragmatic mechanical... Read more
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An Assessment of the Implementation of Green Design Strategies in Selected Museums in Abuja, Nigeria
by Horizon Research Publishing(HRPUB) Kevin Nelson

2024, Civil Engineering and Architecture

Key finding: Empirical assessments of three major museums in Abuja reveal moderate adoption of passive green design strategies such as building orientation, thermal mass walls, and solar PV panels, but highlight significant gaps in... Read more
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2. In what ways does museum architecture interact with and contribute to urban contexts and cultural networks beyond the individual building?

This theme investigates the role of museums as part of larger urban and cultural networks, analyzing how museum clusters, urban planning, and digital platforms extend the notion of a museum into multifaceted, interconnected cultural systems. It considers museum-city concepts, museum architecture digitization, and spatial relationships that contribute to the dynamic cultural identity and heritage representation on both physical and digital urban scales.

Representing Philadelphia from the Centennial International Exhibition to the Emergence of the Museum-City
by Gonca Tuncbilek

2024, ICAMT 50th Annual Conference in Taiwan 2024

Key finding: The study conceptualizes Philadelphia as a 'museum-city' where museums form an interconnected urban network that influences the city’s cultural, social, and economic development; it demonstrates that this networked model... Read more
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Europeana as an Open Archive of Museum Architecture
by Helena Barranha

2024

Key finding: Europeana’s digital platform, while rich in cultural heritage content, currently underrepresents museum architecture, presenting access challenges due to insufficient metadata, filters, and curated collections specific to... Read more
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Communicating Museum Architecture: The Role of Europeana Collections in the Construction of Architectural Memory
by Helena Barranha

2024, Comunicar la Arquitectura: Del Origen de la Modernidad a la Era Digital / Communicating Architecture: From The Origins of Modernity to The Digital Age

Key finding: Building on Europeana's role in cultural digitization, this paper critically assesses the underrepresentation of museum architectural spaces in the platform, advocating for substantive investment in digitizing and sharing... Read more
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3. How do spatial configuration and movement within museum architecture affect visitor experience and engagement?

This theme addresses the qualitative aspects of visitor movement and spatial interaction inside museum environments, focusing on embodied experience, choreographic analysis, and the relationship between physical barriers and museum narratives. It challenges predominantly cognitive or flow-based movement analyses by incorporating qualitative, social, and communicative dimensions of how space is experienced and negotiated.

Qualifying Movement: Choreography, spatial configuration, and movement notation in museums
by Daniel Koch

2025, Space Syntax Symposium 14

Key finding: By integrating choreographic concepts such as path, figure, and gesture into spatial syntax analysis, this study advances understanding of movement in museum spaces beyond metrics like flow rates and densities; it proposes... Read more
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Between Inhabited Interiors and Interiors on Display: Exploring Spatial Boundaries at Rosenborg Castle
by Ane Pilegaard

2023

Key finding: Analyses of Rosenborg Castle illustrate how physical display barriers (glass vitrines, railings) and the mixing of inhabited historic interiors with museum display create spatial ambiguity that oscillates visitor perception... Read more
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Related Topics

  • Museum Design (Architecture)
  • Museums and Exhibition Design
  • Adaptive Reuse
  • Museum Studies
  • Museum history
  • History of Museums
  • Spatial Frameworks
  • Modern Architecture
  • Architectural History
  • National Gallery

    • All papers in Museum Architecture

    The Post-dictatorship Generation in Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay. Collective Memory and Cultural Production
    by Ana Ros Matturro

    2012

    ("For sample chapter and browsing see: http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=530423). In this project I reflect on how the Southern Cone postdictatorship generations reshape the collective memory of the dictatorial past through... more
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    Tumba, templo e pirâmide: Arquitetura e repatriação no Grande Museu Egípcio
    by Bianca M Lupo and 
    1 more
    Karine Lima

    2022, Anais do Museu Paulista

    Este artigo analisa os projetos de arquitetura contemporânea referentes a novos museus e sua relação com a demanda pela repatriação de acervos museológicos. A metodologia baseia-se no estudo do projeto arquitetônico do Grande Museu... more
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    Translating heritage into museums: two architectural strategies inside Lisbon Castle
    by Helena Barranha and 
    1 more
    Rita Neto Silva

    2017, Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development

    The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of contemporary architecture in heritage protection, reinterpretation and reuse, an issue that has become increasingly relevant due to the recognition of architectural heritage as a key... more
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    Antiquity on Display: Regimes of the Authentic in Berlin's Pergamon Museum (Oxford U. Press)
    by Can Bilsel
    Reconstructing the lost monuments of Antiquity became, after 1800, a complement to Europe's colonial imagination. Countless archaeologists and architects travelled to the East, excavated extinct cities, and shipped their finds to Europe... more
    Fig. 1, Plan of the architecture rooms of the Pergamon Museum. Drawing by author, 2011.
    Fig. 2. Reconstruction of the west facade of the Great Altar of Pergamon. Photo: Johannes Laurentius,
    Fig. 3. View from the Pergamon Room toward the Room of Hellenistic Architecture. Photo: Reinhard Gérner, 2007.
    Fig. 4. Sea gods, Nereus, Doris, Okeanos from the Gigantomachy in the Pergamon Museum. Photo: Jiirgen Liepe.
    Fig. 5. The Pergamon Room and the Telephos Room in the Pergamon Museum Photo: Reinhard Gorner, 2007.
    Fig. 6. The Pergamon Room with visitors. Pergamon Museum, Photo: Ernst Wrba, 2007.
    Fig. 7. Foundations of the Great Altar of Pergamon, Bergama, Turkey. Photo by author, 2009.
    Fig. 8. The citadel of Bergama (the Hellenistic and Roman acropolis of Pergamon) Photo by author, 2009,
    Fig. 9, Theatre from the Temple of Dionysus, Pergamon, Bergama. Photo by author, 2009.
    Fig. 10, Restored plan of the Great Altar of Pergamon. Redrawn by author, based on a reconstruction by Dr. Volker Kistner.
    Fig. 11. Plan of the Pergamon Roont. Drawing by author, 2010.
    Fig. 12. The horse of Helios charging a giant from the Gigantomachy. Photo: Johannes Laurentius.
    Fig, 13. Wide-angle view of the Miletus Room, Photo: Johannes Laurentius.
    Fig. 15. Walter Andrae, reconstruction of the Ishtar Gate and the Throne Room ornaments, 1930), Photo: Max Galli, 2004.
    Fig. 14, The Miletus Room with visitors. Photo: Pierre Adenis, 2007.
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    ‘Bridging the Gap ’ in Sfmoma’s Learning Lounge: Where High-Tech Meets High- Touch
    by Peter Samis

    2008

    The inauguration of the new Koret Visitor Education Center (KVEC) has changed the way we conceive of interactive technology opportunities at SFMOMA. Situated on the Museum’s second floor a few steps from the galleries, this high design... more
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    Arquitetura, acervo e público no museu contemporâneo
    by Bianca M Lupo

    2017, Revista Pós FAU USP

    A análise do processo de transformação do espaço do museu a partir da ampla utilização de recursos tecnológicos, cenográficos e interativos, garantindo a aproximação do grande público a partir de artifícios como projeções, vídeos e... more
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    Expansive Cultural Strategy in the Periphery of Europe: Example of Tenerife Arts Space and Castelo Branco Cultural Centre
    by Maria Mikaelyan

    2017

    The following paper will focus on the way in which European local authorities have dealt with cultural policies, urban regeneration, place branding, and community-building in the last two decades. Following the museological model of... more
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    Art Museum in the Urban Landscape: The Role of Modern and Contemporary Art Institutions in the Urban Development of Frankfurt am Main
    by Maria Mikaelyan

    2016

    The 1980s was a significantly prolific period for the museum architecture in Germany, when a number of modern and contemporary art museums and exhibition halls were built. Apart from being a result of the new cultural policy, most of them... more
    Figure 5. Museum of Modern Art, central hall (Schneider, n.d.) Figure 6. Museum of Modern Art, oval hall (Hel mond, 2009). Figure 7. Museum of Modern Art, stairway (Helmond, 2009).
    Figure 1. Altstadt of Frankfurt am Main before 1944 (Sauerwein, 1911). Figure 2. Altstadt of Frankfurt am Main after the World War II (1960).
    Figure 3. Museum of Modern Art, main entrance (Krécher, 2009) Figure 4. Museum of Modern Art, aerial view (Schneider, n.d.) Of Che Giopiay ™ COMIPUPLUITCHLS GHG PUPLITIONS Gil ONY GUCUUULE il SVCCIICUHY LOMIPUIGLy SIlUUIUiS GHG Furi Cie fionk of becoming a backdrop” (Hollein, 1991, p.41). Hollein also emphasises the role of architectural design in a general representation of the museum as a sociocultural institution: “The quality of a good museum building is also its suitability as a utensil, dwelling, catalyst of art” (Hollein, 1991, p.41). In case of Frankfurt, the contemporary art museum assumes semantic functions of the forum — an oper public space —and metaphorically recreates within its walls some formal characteristics of the historic Altstadt. James M. Bradburne, former director general of the Museum of Applied Art of Frankfurt, claims: “Almost by default, the museum has become one of the Western society’s last truly public spaces. [...] Real physical space is indispensable. It is part of being an active participant in the world around you” (Bradburne, 2015, p.17). Citing Louis Kahn, Bradburne also draws a parallel between the museum building and the urban composition: “If the street is a ‘room by agreement’, as Louis Kahn once said, surely the museum is a house by agreement” (Bradburne, 2015, p.17). In other words, the art museum becomes not only a part of the urban landscape, but also an active catalyst of sociocultural nrocescec within it.
    Figure 8. Schirn Kunsthalle (Miguletz, 2011). “Together with other community facilities in those areas of the historic centre richest in memories, with the ‘museum district’ on the left bank of the Main and with new buildings of the Trade Fair, it sustains with authority the ambitious objective of bestowing the role of cultural metropolis on Frankfurt, as a counterweight to its more established image as a financial centre, so prevalent that the city has earned itself the nickname of ‘Manhattan”” (Stella, 1987, p.57).
    The long process of remodeling and requalification of the Frankfurt city centre begins in the early 1970s. In 197: reopens the History Museum (Historisches Museum) on Rémerberg square, marking the future museum-centri urban policy of the subsequent mayor:
    Figure 11. Altstadt of Frankfurt am Main and its contemporary art institutions, aerial view (Grebe, 2006).
    Figure 12. Dom-Romer project (2011). Figure 13. Hihnermarkt square in pre-war Altstadt (1900).
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    A Importância do Edifício Para o Conforto e o Controle Ambientais nos Museus
    by Marina Byrro
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    « La solidification du vide de Rachel Whiteread : l’invisible se matérialise », in Marges. Revue d'Histoire de l'art, n°18, Paris, PUV, 2014
    by Pamela Bianchi
    Through a multidisciplinary reading of Rachel Whiteread’s research, this paper probes the ideas of space and architecture in contemporary art practices. A cross-study with Daniel Libeskind’s and Peter Eisenman’s works then fosters the... more
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    STRAßBURG — FREIBURG — PARIS — KRAKAU. Zu den möglichen Inspirationsquellen Thomas Murners, des Autors von Chartiludium logicae sive logica memorativa (1507/1509)
    by Rafał Wójcik
    Die Ars memorativa war im spätmittelalterlichen Krakau sehr populär. Das Fach wurde vertreten von ausländischen und polnischen Gelehrten, zum Beispiel: Jacobus Publicius, Konrad Celtis, Thomas Murner, Johannes Enclen de Cusa (Cusanus),... more
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    The Denver Art Museum and the Bilbao Effect
    by Georgia Lindsay
    Museum buildings have clear behavioral functions; they also have symbolic functions, to express the privileged space and valuable objects they contain. Our ideas about what art museums should look like in the United States have changed... more
    The Hamilton Building (left), as seen from Martin Plaza. The North (older) Building is on the right.
    Figure 1-1. The Hamilton Building, as seen from the east. The 190-foot prow on the right extends over 13 Avenue and hovers over the oldest existing Denver Art Museum building, which is now used for a restaurant and event space.
    Today, the ‘Denver Art Museum is located in the heart of Denver, near the downtown (Figure 1-2). It lies directly south of Civic Center Park, which was created by clearing land in front of the State Capitol in the 1920s, and just north of the Golden Triangle neighborhood, an area that for a long time was stores. The DAM worked hard over time to get the space Center, across Acoma from the Library (Figure 1-3, nex multiple bond issues and property owners would not sel home to parking lots and liquor at the southwest corner of Civic page); the voters turned down . Slowly, the Museum cobbled together the land through gifts and condemnation proceedings (Staff Writer 1948*). The Civic Center area is home to four historically significant buildings: the 1894 Capitol, the 4 Although “anonymous” is a more common term for publications without a credited author, the byline for many Denver Post articles is “Staff Writer.” I credit the byline, rather than changing it to anonymous.
    Figure 1-3. Ariel view of the Hamilton Building (center left), the North Building (upper left), and the Central Public Library (upper right). The City and County Building is partially visible in the upper left corner. Photograph by John Wark.
    Figure 1-5. Denver’s City and County Building. located northwest of the DAM. Figure 1-4. The State Capitol Building, located northeast of the DAM.
    Figure 1-8. The South Wing, the Denver Art Museum’s oldest existing building, and its first purpose built building. It is now home to an upscale restaurant, Palettes.
    Figure 1-6. The 1910 Carnegie Library, located north across Civic Center Park from the DAM.
    Figure 1-7. The Denver Public Library, designed by Bernham Hoyt.
    Figure 1-10. The original entrance to the Ponti Building, from inside the lobby. The door opens onto Civic Center Park. Figure 1-9. The Ponti Building, as seen from the west.
    Figure 1-11. (above) A window in the Western Art Gallery, on the seventh floor. (Below) The view of the mountains visible from the window pictured above.
    Figure 1-13. The Asian Gallery, on the fifth floor of the Ponti Building. Figure 1-12. The Design room on the sixth floor of the North Building.
    Figure 1-14. Martin Plaza from the south. Left to right is the Hamilton Building, the Michael Graves Library addition in front of a downtown office building, and the Co-Development, with retail on the first floor and condominiums above. In 1999, after an advertising campaign on the part of the DAM, Denver voters approved a public bond for $62.5 million to finance the new wing of the Denver Art Museum. DAM’s board also contributed capital and fundraising time and, in the end, public and private funds reached $140 million for the new wing. An architect selection committee was formed, which eventually chose Daniel Libeskind, with his crystalline form and charming presentation style, as the architect. Contractors broke ground in 2001, and the new wing, called the Hamilton Building after the biggest individual donor and chair of the board, opened in 2006. More details on the funding and architect selection processes can be found in Chapter 4. ™/~ oo. «a «mth lg
    Figure 1-15. Top: Plan for the first floor of the Hamilton Building. It is quite different from a typical floor plan, and to make way finding easier, the Museum offers a section of the museum as their standard gallery plan (Below).
    Figure 1-16. The Museum Shop, from entrance to the Hamilton Building. The front desk is just to the left of the picture, and the atrium is behind the picture taker. next page). The only vertical structural walls in the Hamilton Building are those that surround the elevator shaft. Otherwise, art is either displayed on or against non-vertical surfaces, or non-structural walls are built to hang the art on, just as is done in the North Building (Figure 1-19, next page).
    Figure 1-17. The Central Atrium, as seen from the foot of the central stair (left) and from above, looking down (right).
    Figure 1-18. The Bridge connecting the second floor of the Hamilton Building to the Duncan Pavilion and the second floor of the North Building
    Figure 2-1. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, by Richard Morris Hunt in 1902, augmented a smaller building that faced the park. Note the stairs, the columns, and the decorative seals and busts, all signaling a building of importance.
    Figure 2-2. The Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, by Richard Morris Hunt in 1902.
    By contrast, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, founded the same year as the Boston museum, did not grow out of an athenaeum, but is considered the “mother of all New York art museums” (Newhouse 2006, 140). It is sited in Central Park, which represents turn-of-the-century elite ideas about what is good in society (Rosenzweig and Blackmar 1992). Just as the Cincinnati museum had a partnership with its host city, the Met had a partnership with New York City: the city would erect and maintain a building, while the trustees owned the collections and were responsible for programming, including public lectures (Hendon 1979, 25). “+ +s + 4 @ 4 omg: 7 a | a-.).—hk4
    Figure 2-4. Philadelphia Art Museum from the side
    Figure 2-5: Looking toward Philadelphia from the steps of the museum
    Figure 2-6. The first purpose-designed building for MOMA, by Philip L. Goodwin and Edward Durell Stone in 1939, as it After World War I, another museum paradigm emerged, one that was more austere and intended to highlight the art more and the building less. These Modernist containers were lower, less monumental, often used an international style, and, as the century wore on, increasingly offered amenities for the genral public like cafés and bookshops. That is, commercialization entered the museum building, although it was still usually in a separate space from the art. A Museum of Mod department stores, the MOMA building op large plate glass windows on the sidewal pping mall or hotel atrium (Figure 2-6; Wolf 2010, 145; Wallach 1998). Iding, which utilized the Modern architecture previously used only for resembled a sho At this new bui ern Art (MOMA) in New prim Yor ened kK; a e example of the container paradigm is the k City, opened in 1939. Taking a cue from directly onto the street, with no stairs and later addition included a garden hall that residences, there was no grand entrance, all fl and artificial lig oors were equal, there were low ceilings ht throughout, and the square rooms focused on small numbers of works (Taylor 1975, 45-47). The formal presentation of art was focused on education, with a chronological arrangement invented by Alfred Barr, MOMA’s first director, promoting an historical narrative, an arrangement in response to the “secularizing but still deeply religious culture; art negotiating its own relations to life, society, and otherness; market- led privatizing production, fostering radical individuality and gambit-playing” (Schubert 2009, 59; quote in Pollock 2007, 10). Museum professionals took the aesthetic role of their building very seriously, with the Aacanriatinn af Art Miicanim Tyirectare accerting that “the rnle af an art miucenm aca
    that the objects within 1ts walls are considered art, and thus sacred UMack L799, 1 /). These supposedly neutral galleries worked well for modern art because the art itself is self-contained and self-referential (Newhouse 10). The idea of having a neutral space within which to view art was not new. Painter, sculpture and archaeologist Johann Martin Wagner suggested in 1815 that plain, yellow-gray walls for museum buildings because people go to see a collection and ornament distracts from the objects being displayed (Pevsner 1976, 124). His plan did not prevail among most of the American public art museums, though, and although we now think of the white walled gallery space as neutral—a “testament to the success of MOMA”—at the time it was a significan break from the previous historically-inspired colors, drapery, and details, and was seen as quite radical (Wolf 2010, 205). On the other hand, architect Frank Gehry claims tha “there’s no such thing as a neutral environment” (quoted in Isenberg and Gehry 2009 102). While some artists loathed the isolation of the white cube gallery, other artists embraced the blankness of the space, demanding “pure walls that nails can be hammered into, with good toplighting and neutral floors” (artist George Baselitz, quoted in Szeemann 1999, 7). Art and architecture historian Nikolaus Pevsner calls the 20" century museums the “perfect place to show, enjoy and study works of art (1976, 136). At the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, opened in 1972, Louis I. Kahn v
    Figure 2-8. SF MOMA atrium (above) and exterior, below - When the Denver Art Museum commissioned its first bui Iding, the new gallery ended up being one story, with 150 by 80 feet of floor space unbroken by walls or pillars, which could be split up by plywood panels. More importantly for an International-style facade, with large show room windows o passers-by to see into the galleries. One columnist explained in th as a department store uses display windows as a part of its selling our discussion, it had f plate glass allowing e newspaper that “just program, so Bach uses his windows to “merchandise” his exhibits” (Moore 1949). The International style building was not popular with everyone in Denver: one Denver resident wrote in to complain about having a contemporary building on Civic Center p aza, next to the Greek Theater and City Hall with their Greek and Roman references, saying that “alone, contemporary architecture is sad and grievous and unsightly enough. Side by side with the glory that was Greece, it’s untenable” (Stephenson 1945). XtU71 6°14. Bia. on, eee: | f* 4 ze
    Figure 2-10. The Solomon R. Guggenheim museum by Frank Lloyd Wright
    Figure 2-11. The Lego version of the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum by Frank Lloyd Wright
    Figure 2-12. The North Building of the Denver Art Museum, by Gio Ponti. But the North Building is more than just a sculpture: the designers of this building thought very carefully about visitor experience, and responded to what the director at the time saw as the ideal experience for an average visitor. Director Bach had very specific
    Figure 3-1. The back wall of the Contemporary Art Center in Cincinnati, with the “carpet” where the sidewalk becomes the wall, metaphorically pulling the city sidewalk into the Center and up to the top floors of the building. talked not only about design, but about each museum’s “urban and civic presence, its cultural role in society, and its symbolic significance” (Stephens 1986, 8). Now, the architecture is supposed to be “as strong as the works of art it contains” (De Wit 2004, 14). This bold architecture is not just for the museum, but also for the city; 100 years ago, museums were separate from the city, but now they are an intimate part of the urban landscape. The demands on the museum have increased to include a need to stimulate economic activity, with “neighboring hotels, businesses, and local governments often encourag[ing] museums to create buildings that appeal to tourists and residents” (Tilden 2004, 8). The Bilbao-model museums are often in the downtown—which has historically served as the commercial, symbolic, and social heart of a city (Beckert 2001; Isenberg 2004; Fogelson 2001).
    Figure 3-2. The Central Library addition, designed in 1997 by Michael Graves, in the shadow of the Hamilton Building prow. ¢ The perception of Denver as a “little cow town” is notable, given that the City has over 600,000 residents, making it the 26th-largest in the country (Table 3-1, next page). When taking into account the metropolitan area population, Denver moves up to 21st- most populated metro area in the United States, with over 2.5 million people in the statistical area (Table 3-2, next page) (US Census Bureau 2013).
    Figure 3-3. Evans School, now abandoned, on the block just south of the Hamilton Building.
    Table 3-3. How the symbolism of the building was used.
    Figure 4-1. A sign marking the Cultural Complex near the entrance of the Hamilton Building. Without the global economic forces and the example of Frank Gehry’s iconic building in Bilbao discussed in Chapter 3, the Denver Art Museum’s new wing would not have looked as it does today. The origin story of the Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum begins with skepticism, nevertheless, according to anonymous interviews. Lewis Sharp, Director of the Denver Art Museum, was invited to the opening of the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum. His friend Lanny Martin was CEO of Timet Corporation, he Colorado company that had supplied the Bilbao Museum with its titantum cladding, and he invited Sharp. Sharp, having been at the Metropolitan Museum of Art before becoming Director of the Denver Art Museum, thought that museums buildings should fade into the background, leaving room for the art to be highlighted. He was initially reluctant to accompany Martin to the Bilbao opening, unimpressed with the idea of extravagant architecture to house art. But as they were walking down narrow streets to approach the building site from within the city, Sharp and Martin turned a corner to bring the shimmering new form into view, and Sharp realized the potential for the building to revitalize an industrial city. He turned to Martin and said, “I want one of those for our museum and our city.”
    Figure 4-2. A few examples of Facebook page banners for various art museums. Note that those who have older buildings do not bother to use their building as their Facebook icon.
    Table 4-1: Reasons given for the new building.
    Table 4-2. Reasons given for why Libeskind was chosen.
    Figure 4-3. The Contemporary and Modern Gallery in the Hamilton Building, where the ceiling meets the walls. The architects offered the museum many different ceiling options that were not standard drop ceiling, but DAM staff insisted on this ceiling.
    Figure 4-4. The Asian Gallery in the North Building. DAM staff found the lighting system difficult to rearrange.
    Figure 4-6. South end of the Hamilton Building. The 3" and 4" floor on the north end are visible behind. Figure 4-5. The north end of the Hamilton Building, towering over the 2-story Duncan Pavilion and gesturing towards the Ponti and downtown.
    Figure 5-1. (left) the entrance lobby in the North Building. The admissions desk is on the left, the bookshop on the right. The elevators are at the far end. (right) A sign in the elevator indicates what can be seen on each floor. usually park in the street around the Museum, either in the parking lot just south o after the 1993 renovations. After paying the entrance fee, visitors would then cross a obby to get in an elevator, selecting their desired gallery by floor (Figure 5-1). | The Hamilton Building changed the spatial sequencing, the experience of the Museum across time, for visitors to the Denver Art Museum. Before, visitors would f the North Building (in the block where the Hamilton Building now stands) or in other on- street parking on Bannock Street, to the west. They would walk to the entrance, which before 1993 faced Civic Center Park and which faced the Public Library on Acoma Plaza long Each
    Figure 5-2. The entrance to the Hamilton Building. The parking garage is wrapped by the condos on the left of the picture.
    Figure 5-4: Wall guide for wayfinding in the Denver Art Museum. Instead of the normal plan, the galleries are shown in section, by floor. Security officers say that the Hamilton Building is more energetic, “kinetic,” ot “wild,” and that visitors have more energy there than in the Ponti. When asked about their favorite spaces, the security officers explained their choices based on the artwork. not on the shape of the rooms. But many noticed that they were more tired after a day of working in the Hamilton Building, and most chose parts of the North Building as thei favorite spaces to work. People specifically commented on the extra energy that people draw from the building, observing that children get excited and even adults seem to have extra exuberance when in the Hamilton Building. Staff find the North Building is more contemplative, more intimate (in spite of being bigger), and more studious. Visitors have a harder time finding their way in the Hamilton Building, than in the North Building. At the same time, Robin Stolp, a volunteer with the DAM’s Access program—designed tc meet the needs of visitors with a range disabilities—says that the Hamilton Building’s spaces better accommodate people with mobility issues.
    Figure 5-5: Scottish Angus Cow and Calf by Dan Ostermiller. Often there are people sitting on, eating near, or taking pictures of this sculpture. In constructing the Hamilton Building, the Museum extended its programming yutside the walls of the building. The project added a $5 million plaza between the yarking garage and the new wing. Libeskind’s design extended the Cultural Complex slan, shifting the axis to a north/south orientation down Acoma Street by making a plaza where Acoma street used to end, pledging to “continue the tradition of world class urchitecture found in the Civic Center,” incorporate public art, and preserve axial views lown Acoma (Libeskind 2002, 3.37). Sharin and J.Landis Martin donated $5 million for vhat came to be named Martin Plaza, which is 75,000 square feet and designed by Libeskind (The Denver Post 2006). The plaza has four public art pieces, which were gifts rom trustees. A cow sculpture was given by Leo Hindery, who had commissioned it for 1is ranch but donated it and $1 million for its upkeep (Figure 5-5). The Big Sweep by
    Figure 5-6: The Big Sweep by Claes Oldenburg & Coosje van Bruggen, tucked under the Hamilton Building’s sloping walls near the entrance to the Museum (left). The picture is taken from 13% Avenue.
    Figure 5-7: Chalk artists and members of the public working on a sidewalk art piece in the shelter of the Hamilton Building on Martin Plaza.
    Thirty-three thousand people toured the building during the 35-hour marathon opening weekend on October 7-8 in 2006 (Dunn 2006c). The Hamilton certainly increased the number of memberships purchased; but a DAM staff emphasizes that renewal of memberships is where the money is, and she did not data to estimate if all those memberships were renewed. According to annual rep Building member have the ort data, admission income was highest in 2008; individual and membership income peaked that year as well (Table 5-1). While income from both admissions and individual giving decreased in 2011, membership income has increased slightly since 2009. Timing is an important factor here, since the building went up so soon before the recession hit. With the economic recovery, the numbers are bouncing back from their 2009 low, according to DAM staff. Overall in Denver, total economic activity related to culture went up 19% between 2005 and 2007, from $1.426 billion to 1.691 billion (Colorado Business Committee for the Arts 2008). The next two years saw a decline almost to 2005 levels, back down to $1.456 billion (Colorado Business Committee for the Arts 2010). But in the 2011 report, the total economic activity related to culture was back above 2007 levels, at $1.76 billion (Colorado Business Committee for the Arts 2012). Thus, the number of visitors correlates directly with the state of the economy, and the worldwide recession of 2008 hit the Museum hard. Tha TYANA nactad «4 (6% 7 millkinn lace Ga JDONNK Ane tA Ancta aceocAarniatad «uth tha
    During the first year the Hamilton Building was open, 65% of visitors surveyed said they came to see the new building, and 31% said they “just wanted to see the Museum’—up from 20% who said so during 2000-2006 surveys. Seeing a temporary exhibit dropped significantly (from 31% to 11% of respondents) between the two time periods (BBC Research & Consulting 2008, 2). These numbers indicate that during the first year it was open, the architecture of the building brought a significant number of people in to the Museum. However, that effect faded with time, as is shown when breaking down the responses after the opening into smaller time periods. Of the people surveyed in October 2006, 80% said they were there to see the building; that number dropped to 73% in November 2006 to January 2007, and to 62% in February to June 2007. Although the BBC survey ends there, I speculate that the percentage continued to drop, since most of my interviewees cited “collections or exhibitions” as both “favorite places” and “reasons to go” far more often than just “to see the building.” The number of visitors was lowest in 2006 (Table 5-2); the new building opened in October, and much of the Museum was closed in preparation for the opening. The Museum had its highest attendance in Fiscal Year 2007, the first full year the new wing was open. Attendance
    Figure 5-9: “Finish this drawing” game, where the outline of the Hamilton Building is offered and participants are invited to fill it in. The Museum then hangs some of the responses in the window in the Duncan Pavilion, with the Hamilton Building visible in the background. retired administrator said that the high profile Hamilton Building increased interest in all he architecture. Programming changed for children too, with the “Architects Wanted” summer course developed around the opening of the new wing sold out first of all the other classes that summer. And when groups of school children tour the Museum with heir classes, one of the activities they are likely to engage in is writing a poem based on how the atrium space feels to them. Furthermore, much of the programming in the family and children space in the Duncan Pavilion, where the bridge crosses from the Hamilton Building into the North Building, is devoted to architecture. Foam blocks shaped like parts of the Hamilton Building, a table devoted to an architecture-themed puzzle, and a ine drawing game (Figure 5-9) are all examples of activities relating to the Hamilton Building theme.
    Table 5-3: Opinions on the architecture of the Hamilton Building grouped by level the comment is addressing. Overall, the positive comments greatly outweighed the negative comments, although much of that is due to what interviewees frequently called the “wow factor:” If one takes out comments about the styling of the building, the comments are balanced between positive and negative (see Table 5-3). However, more information can emerge if
    Figure 5-10: Angled wall and the interventions to keep people from hitting their heads on it. Originally, the floor fixture was a temporary wooden block, since replaced by uniform gray platforms throughout the building. In the Western Gallery on the second floor.
    Figure 5-11: This small space on the second floor of the Hamilton Building is too small to hang art. The Museum usually offers an activity there, but I have never seen anyone in the space. In this picture, there is not even an activity in there; the space stands empty. Table 5-4: Comments summarized by topic.
    Figure 5-12: The prow of Hamilton Building from Acoma Plaza, with Lao Tzu by Di Suervo in front of it. and the economy changed the number of visits, the demographics of visitors, and where in the Museum those visitors went, which affected what art those visitors saw. Moreover, the comments on the architecture reveal more than the quality of the architecture or how people use it; they reveal what people value, including possibly latent or emerging patterns of values and behavior. Those unintended consequences for values and behavior are the subject of the next chapter.
    Figure 6-1: The Modern and Contemporary Gallery in the Hamilton Building. The white walls and the dark wood floors are in the tradition of the neutral container paradigm, but the angle of the walls and ceilings is not. The varied sources for this dissertation offered a more nuanced view than just a good or bad dichotomy of how the Hamilton Building interacts with the art within it: only a quarter of he comments were directly negative (Table 6- 1). Some of those comments were about the building, that it is not good to see art in and that it distracts from the art, which should be the focus of a museum visit. Some critiqued the perceived waste of space caused by the form, or he competition with the art and inflexibly of he forms, and still others say it is hard to enjoy he art in such a space (Ouroussoff 2006). Some of the negative comments, however, were no about the space but about the curators’ inability to hang art well within the space. One artis specifically complained that sometimes the back of the art, including the canvas and hanging hardware showed, which she found distracting. The atrium might be under-utilized
    Figure 6-2: The African gallery. The display designers added some vertical walls to hold pieces of art, but the El Anastui piece hanging to the right casts a shadow on the angled wall behind it. The shadow becomes a part of the art display.
    Figure 6-3: (left) The entrance atrium as seen from the elevators. One artist complained about the lack of art installed, although I have seen three different pieces of art in this space. (right) Art installed on the atrium wall. Table 6-1: The Hamilton Building as a tool for art display. *Starred lines highlight the importance of the installation in art appreciation within the Hamilton Building.
    Figure 6-4: The painting in the center, hung high and at an angle, was cited as an unusual ye successful hanging, possible because of the non-orthogonal walls. In the Hamilton Building, the hanging of art requires and inspires creativi y from curators, educators, and exhibition designers. Not always a fan of the Hamilton Building spaces, former curator Diane Vanderlip said that, “there are some really grand around, but this offers a rich alternative to conventional white-cube spaces, and surprised me how powerful the volume of space is. If a curator works with the vo boxes it even ume of space instead of trying to fight it and turn it into something conventional, then i works incredibly well” (Figure 6-4) (quoted in MacMillan 2006). One of the ways the Museum worked with the space was in the African Exhibit. There, the furniture of display is vastly different from square pedestals. Instead, there is a large piece of furniture in the center of the gallery broken into many small platforms; inspired by the shape of the room,
    Figure 6-5: Children’s cave in the display furniture of the African Gallery. An educator who worked on the installation said they never would have thought of this in a more traditional building.
    Figure 7-1: The second-floor landing of the grand stairs serves as an installation room. The Western Gallery is to the picture taker’s left, the elevators and atrium are to the right. Visitors taking the stairs to the third floor walk through this space before continuing up the stairs around the atrium. The art installed in this room is always either bright or interactive; children tend to enjoy this space. ~*~ In prior museum scholarship, the public has been understood through a lens of taste and class, leaving public museums in the US with a tension around who they serve: is it the elites who own the art and donate the money? Is it the middle classes who provide the bulk of the visitors? Is it the lower-middle and lower classes, for whom the museum represents a chance at elevation? The DAM seems to work hard to break down the high/low taste divide, with popular free days, pop art, a popular and critically scoffed- at building, and programming that seeks to engage wide ranges of audiences. This is
    Table 3-2: Metropolitan Areas ranked by population. From the US Census Bureau. Some sources c from a highly educated aimed that optimism and architectural adventurousness comes population: Denver is in the top ten of the most educated cities in the US, and some sources place it as the second-most educated population, next to either New York or DC (Heat hcote 2006; Nicholson 2006; CBS News 2010). Yet, an architect working on the projects says that schools do not emphasize architecture because of the strong outdoor and spor s culture; she says people are often intimidated by “high” culture and the institutions that house it. In her opinion, part of the role of the Denver Art Museum in the community is to start a conversation about high culture and architecture. Denver is in transition, from an industrial center to a large regional city with a more complex economy, from a “cow town” to one of leisure and culture (Palmer 2012). Like many regional cities, it investments. is trying to distinguish itself with architecture and infrastructural
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