Continuing a legacy of deconstructive architecture, Daniel Libeskind designs an expansion that would accommodate the Denver Art Museum. The extension is also called The Frederic C. Hamilton Building, which design resembles the tops of the Rocky Mountains and geometric rock crystals found in the foothills near Denver. “I was inspired by the light and the geology of the Rockies, but most of all by the wide-open faces of the people of Denver,” says Libeskind. The building is a reflection of Colorado sunshine. This extension of the Denver Art Museum is the first Daniel’s work to be finished in North America.

The building name itself is to honour entrepreneur Frederic C. Hamilton, who has presided as Chairman of the Denver Art Museum since 1994. Placed south of the two-towered North Building by Italian architect Gio Ponti and James Sudler Associates and side-by-side to the Denver Public Library by Michael Graves, the museum’s extension is first major addition since the North Building built 35 years ago, nearly doubles its facilities. The huge cantilever that protrudes northwards over 13th Avenue makes a bridge above the road, connecting between the extension and the existing building.

The 146,000 square foot extension comprises four stories and houses both permanent and changing exhibits of contemporary fine art, American western art and African art. The Hamilton Building will become the main entrance to the entire museum complex, and include shops, a café, theatre and a rooftop sculpture garden with views over the Rocky Mountain. It has a north-south alignment considered that all the temporary exhibition galleries are in the south end of the building, and the permanent collection is housed mainly in the north end. Libeskind also designed residential units called the Museum Residences across a new plaza from the Hamilton building.

The Museum complex includes a landscaped pedestrian plaza, exhibiting remarkable works of outdoor sculpture. Three new sculptures around the Hamilton Building are the Big Sweep by Coosje van Bruggen and Claes Oldenburg, Scottish Angus Cow and Calf by Dan Ostermiller and an untitled sculpture by Beverly Pepper. The complete development expands and revitalizes the Civic Center streetscape, giving pleasant new public space.

Libeskind’s masterplan is excellent examples of contemporary architecture program. This is proven by set the housing directly opposite the museum, connecting this complex to the residential district to the south. It was his reason to a natural and practical response to cost concerns. There was a requirement to provide a 1,000-space car park for the museum complex, where the original proposal was to put this underground. “We’ve just raised all this money, $62 million (£33m), from a public bond, and now we are going to spend it all on the parking garage? So I said, ‘Build the garage normally, above ground, and we’ll wrap it in residential and commercial,’” says Libeskind.

The Hamilton Building’s architectural form consists of sequences of wall planes. The new wing’s design is materialized out of a titanium cladding and sculptural form, which naturally meshes with the surrounding urban. It is conceived as nexus, a close connection with the function and aesthetic of the existing Ponti museum as well as the entire Civic Center and the public library. The project is not designed as a stand alone building but as part of a composition of public spaces, monuments and gateways in this developing part of the city, giving to the synergy amongst neighbors large and intimate.

The area’s wonderful topography with its breathtaking views of the sky and the Rocky Mountains creates dialogue between the conspicuousness of construction and the romanticism of the landscape. The innovative structure is to be realized through the totality use of metal (titanium, contemporary) with glass and stone (Colorado granite, contextual) combine together will form spaces that connect local Denver tradition to the 21st Century. A challenge aspect of building construction was assembly 2,740 tons of structural steel, relatively few of these frame members was vertical.

The visitor will experiencing dynamic art of architecture right before actually entering the building because it’s conceived as a spectacular urban form within the center of the horizon of the city. A giant bronze spider by French-born American sculptor Louise Bourgeois is the first thing to be spotted. Visitors enter the building through a visitor’s service area before moving into the 120-foot high El Pomar Atrium that features dramatically sloping walls, a skylight, and a grand staircase that follows the walls guiding to the building’s galleries.

The ceiling height on entrance is low to create intimacy. It is only when you reach the foot of the stairs that the expansive atrium reveals itself. And it’s mightily impressive, skinned in white plasterboard, with an installation of blue LED panels by Japanese artist Tatsuo Miyajima, and descending like a flow from the top floor to the ground. The new building will centralize the lobbies and social activity spaces and functional connections as a single new entrance to the complex as a whole. It will also offer an unprecedented link and therefore transform the public perception of the Ponti building. The main lobby also provides access to the museum shop and 280 seat auditorium.

The Frederic C Hamilton extension to the Denver Art Museum is an key building for two reasons: it is the first of Libeskind’s works to be built, and the building was begun in 2000, before September 11 and his succeed hiring as architect of Ground Zero. Libeskind works together with Davis Partnership to provide the project’s requirement for such a complex form and usage of titanium-clad material. The team is overseeing the construction of the project and has been based in Denver since the completion of schematics.

They have worked intensively with the director, curators, the core exhibit team, the contact architect and the Board of Trustees to realize an innovative museum for the 21st Century. The new architecture of the 21st century is produced by digital design and construction management. The project relied heavily on computer models shared by the design and construction teams. The models were 4d, meaning that time and schedules were part of the models. Complexities of form that never could have been considered before are now present to the architects of the world.

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