Bellevue Arts Museum is located in the heart of downtown Bellevue where the bold glass, aluminum and textured concrete structure provides a dramatic presence at the intersection of Bellevue Way NE and the NE 6th pedestrian corridor. The building’s new facility, designed by renowned architect Steven Holl, has 5,800 sq ft of gallery space on three floors, plus an art school, studio space for visiting artists, and the interactive Explore Gallery. This art museum building specializes in the work of Northwest artists but also explores national and international influences on local art.

The Bellevue Arts Museum focuses on education and outreach rather than collecting, and collaborates with local arts and educational institutions to provide innovative arts programming and temporary exhibitions. Steven Holl made extensive use of glass, terraces and skylights in his investigation of light, creating a building that is an artwork in its own right. Roughly a third of the exterior surface is glass, with the remaining two-thirds divided evenly between hand-sanded marine aluminum and textured concrete stained in earth-red tones.

“Tripleness” is the organizing concept of the building, in which openness of experience, thought and contact give character to the spaces on three levels, in three galleries, with three different light conditions and three circulation options. This is expressed in the three main lofts which are each slightly warped and gripped by the end wall structures. The building’s outer walls, in a special ‘shotcrete’ construction, support the inner lightweight steel framework. The three distinct lighting conditions of the gallery lofts are designed to correspond to different concepts of time and light.

Linear Ongoing Time is expressed in the evenness of the light in the north loft. Cyclic Time has its parallel in the arc of light from the south, with the south loft’s plan corresponding roughly to the arc of the sun at 48 degrees north latitude. Fragmented Time is reflected in the east-west skylights of the studio loft. To continue the experience of time and light, outdoor terraces extend the museum’s top level of the building. With sunlight and views, the terraces accommodate outdoor classes as well as exhibitions and events on summer evenings. The design also focuses on how light comes into the building and how it emanates out to create an interactive beacon of light at night.

Inspired by the Museum’s origins as a street fair, the large windows at ground level reinforce the building’s openness to community. The glass and aluminum entryway off Bellevue Way is two-storied and visitors are welcomed into the Museum Forum through a reception lobby. The Forum, an elliptical interior atrium, is at the center of the building and raises two stories. This large, open space serves as a gathering place, a starting point for tours and a site for special events.

A 5 and half foot wide staircase along the south wall takes visitors to the second floor and 4,000 sq ft of gallery space. A suspended stairway along the north wall over head transports the visitor to the third floor and another 8,000 sq ft of gallery space. This building looks better completed than it does in the models and drawings. It offers wonderful surprises of form. It is gentle yet tough and willful form-making. In spite of its vigorous geometry, it comes off restrained and gentile, and despite its strength it doesn’t suffer from “shape-it is”, with a resoundingly successful resonance of building’s program and form.

In 2005, the Bellevue Arts Museum was renovated to meet the building’s new mission as the Pacific Northwest’s center for the exploration of the fine art of craft and design. Three former classroom spaces were given over to gallery space, a vestibule was added to the stairway entry to the third floor galleries, the Museum Store was reorganized for better display of craft and design objects and a new track lighting system was installed throughout the building to more easily highlight objects. A new color palette and carpeting were used to soften the visitor experience. Modifications to the building underscore the versatility of the design created by Steven Holl.

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