DAM...
...I hate fashion victim architecture. Moody starchitecture. I just don't get it. The expansion of the Denver Art Museum, that is.
Played hooky one sunny day during ULI in Denver last week and went for a run to check out Daniel Libeskind's new extension to the Denver Art Museum</a>. After reading Ouroussoff's review in the NYT, I had to see it for myself. Does the "Bilbao effect" of starchitecture work if the building doesn't?
Does the strategy of adding condos--clad in Rheinzink rather than titanium-- to the mix save this plaza from a windswept exile?
The sculptural aspects of the building were impressive from a distance. Titanium works well in the afternoon light. I can't for the life of me understand how it will be a great place for understanding art. The arrival sequence is dehumanizing. Form completely separated from function. Lighting is tough with the sloping walls.
It will be a great space for a particular sub-genre of art--sculptor Antony Gormley's Quantum Cloud XXXIII, an abstract human figure made of sharp-edged metal seems right at home among the rest of the sharp edges.
There is no other exhibit space I know of that has planes colliding into planes in the way this space does.
The number of acute angles may drive demand for art that responds to this angularity. Was it a reaction to the surrounding buildings?
And for a building owner, the fact that titanium, besides being expensive, marks. How do you keep this clean over time? They should have gone with the granite at ground level.
The detailing up close was disappointing--metalwork joinery was not up to the level of quality one would expect from a game-changing building, if that is what the museum's board members were after with the $110 million they spent on adding 146,000SF to the museum. What else could have they been after?
The most interesting juxtaposition is how the acutely angular DAM expansion plays off Michael Grave's thirteen year old PoMo Denver Public Library. A real architectural odd couple. Now, I will be the first to admit that I am not a huge fan of master-planned environments, but will it be interesting to walk this plaza ten years from now.
The real trick will be whether this structure adds to the life around it, or is a one-off stunt that sucks the life out of, and detracts from the art contained within Denver's arts center.
UPDATE: Guess I was not that far off--
attendance is way off original estimates, and construction defects, like structural problems around the roof and condensation inside the exterior walls--are causing heads to roll.
