Staff brainstorming and planning begins.
El Denver Art Museum abrirá al público su campus ampliado y rediseñado el 24 de octubre de 2021, con entrada general gratuita, para mostrar los 8 niveles de su icónico edificio Lanny y Sharon Martin, diseñado por Gio Ponti (anteriormente conocido como el Edificio Norte) y el nuevo Centro de bienvenida Anna y John J. Sie.
Vista general del edificio
Diseñado por el arquitecto italiano Gio Ponti y el estudio con base en Denver James Sudler Associates, el Edificio Martin abrió sus puertas en 1971. Con su silueta de siete pisos, es uno de los primeros museos de arte de edificio alto y el único edificio completado en Norteamérica del renombrado modernista italiano Gio Ponti.
En ocasión del 50 aniversario del Edificio Martin, se ha restaurado y renovado por completo, que incluyo hacer realidad la visión original que Ponti tuvo para el séptimo piso: abarcar las dos torres, ampliando el espacio de salas y ofrecer al visitante acceso a las espectaculares vistas de la ciudad y las montañas.
El edificio exhibirá las colecciones enciclopédicas del museo, incluidas las aclamadas obras de las colecciones de arquitectura y diseño, arte asiático, arte indígena de Norteamérica, arte indígena de Alaska y la Costa Noroeste, arte europeo y americano anterior a 1900, arte latinoamericano y arte antiguo de las Américas, fotografía, textil y moda y arte del Oeste de Estados Unidos, a la vez que coloca su nacionalmente afamada programación educativa en el centro del campus
Completar la renovación del campus, permite al museo expandir su capacidad de servir a la comunidad, atrayendo visitantes a nuestra ciudad y preservar y presentara las generaciones venideras obras de arte de incalculable valor, procedentes de culturas de todo el mundo a través de la historia.
Vista general piso por piso
Art Conservation and Technical Studies: The redesigned facility also includes an expanded, purpose-built laboratory for art conservation and technical studies on the lower level of the Martin Building. Technical study and conservation treatment of the museum’s more than 70,000 collection objects is central to its ongoing mission to preserve cultural heritage for generations to come.
Sie Welcome Center: The Welcome Center serves as an entry point and a destination for visitors and seamlessly connects all aspects of the museum campus. The center's façade is comprised of a series of 25-foot-tall, 8-foot-wide curved structural glass panels with insulated glazing—an unprecedented feat of engineering and the first building of its kind.
Restaurants: The Ponti restaurant combines art and dining, presenting a locally sourced and seasonally inspired menu with high standards of sustainability. The museum will also offer quick-service casual dining at Café Gio, with both indoor and outdoor seating.
Learning and Engagement Center: The new learning center features more than 12,000 square feet of flexible programming space, workshop rooms, the Singer Pollack Family Wonderscape, and the 5,600 square foot Creative Hub.
Special Exhibitions Gallery: A 6,500 square foot renovated gallery that will feature special exhibitions drawn primarily from the DAM’s collections. This space will open with the thematic exhibition ReVisión: Art in the Americas, which brings together works from the museum's internationally acclaimed Latin American and art of the ancient Americas collections.
Level 1 Mural: Denver-based artists Emily Hope Dobkin and Olive Moya were selected to create a new large-scale mural entitled I Invent It, My Hands Draw a Cloud, which will be prominently featured on the main level. The new piece will serve as a beacon of welcoming to students, families, and visitors of all ages.
Northwest Coast and Alaska Native Gallery: Featuring more than 2,500 square feet of reimagined, immersive gallery space, the revitalized Northwest Coast and Alaska Native Gallery will present works by Indigenous artists from the western coastal region of North America, stretching from Puget Sound to southeastern Alaska.
Design Galleries: Home to nearly 10,000 square feet of new and renovated space within the building’s original footprint, the expanded design galleries will feature more than 400 objects spanning two exhibitions: By Design: Stories and Ideas Behind Objects and Gio Ponti: Designer of a Thousand Talents.
Design Studio: An interactive space for all ages, created with the idea that design is everywhere. Visitors can intersect with designers in this space as well as work on their own design making and thinking.
Latin American Art and Art of the Ancient Americas Galleries: In this 20,000-square-foot reinstallation, the museum's art of the ancient Americas and Latin American art collections will be exhibited in adjoining galleries, featuring more than 1,000 rare works and artifacts that present an expansive history of artistic creation in Latin America. These collections—among the most comprehensive in the United States—span 3,500 years of art and culture in Latin America and will be on view for the first time in one unified space.
Asian Art Galleries: Comprising approximately 20,000 square feet, the DAM’s reinstalled Asian art galleries will house approximately 850 works spanning 5,000 years drawn from the museum’s exceptional collection, many on view to the public for the first time. With a mix of treasures from the DAM's collection as well as exciting recent additions, the galleries will present revitalized, broadened narratives emphasizing the continuity and connections between Asian artistic traditions across time.
European Art Before 1900 Galleries: These reinstalled galleries will feature approximately 65 works drawn from the DAM’s collection of paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts to present a chronological history of European art through the centuries. The 20,000 square foot installation will trace the development of expressive themes as they evolved over time, from the Gothic style to the humanism of the Renaissance, to Baroque grandeur and finally to the decorative theatricality of the Rococo.
Textile Art and Fashion Galleries: With 4,000 square feet of gallery space, these galleries will explore the evolution of the tailored suit for the female form over the course of the 20th century and beyond. Featuring approximately 70 silhouettes from 1900 through the present day, Suited: Empowered Feminine Fashion will be sourced from the DAM's collection along with loans from History Colorado Center.
Photography Galleries: Spanning 2,800 square feet of the Martin Building’s sixth floor, the photography collection reinstallation features approximately 60 works from the 20th and 21st centuries in an inaugural two-part exhibition titled Curious Visions, which explores photographic experimentations with abstraction from the mid-1900s to present.
Western American Art Galleries: The Petrie Institute of Western American Art shepherds a leading collection of art of the American west spanning two centuries. Works from this collection will be on view in a completely reimagined display across 15,300 square feet, unified in a single space for the first time. This new installation will tell the history of American art from a distinctly Western perspective, strengthened by the DAM’s unique collection and its location in the heart of the Mountain West.
The DAM hosts community free day and celebration of the North Building, including performances and hands-on activities to say "See You Later" to the North Building prior to renovation.
All onsite activity—including school tours, exhibitions, collection presentations, and events—move to the Hamilton Building.
The DAM celebrates groundbreaking of the North Building renovation project.
Ongoing renovation work includes new plumbing, HVAC, access upgrades, technology, insulation, and lighting, as well as construction of the Sie Welcome Center.
Public reopening of all spaces, under the new name Lanny & Sharon Martin Building.
Visit our online newsroom for press inquiries and media resources.
The Martin Building project will expand the museum’s ability to serve the community, welcome guests to our city, and preserve and present priceless works of art from cultures around the world and throughout history for generations to come.
You can find answers to frequently asked questions about the Martin Building project below. If you have further questions not answered in these sections, please email us at email@example.com.
Preguntas frecuentes sobre la renovación del edificio
What is the Martin Building Project?
An architectural gem in the heart of Denver’s downtown Golden Triangle neighborhood, the museum’s North Building, renamed the Martin Building, celebrated its 50th birthday in 2021. The vision for renovating the iconic Gio Ponti-designed structure is to unify the museum campus to serve audiences reflective of our shared community; to illuminate collections; to highlight the museum’s exemplary education programs, and to deliver excellent programs in contemporary spaces.
Reopened to the public on October 24, 2021, the completed campus transformation project included the addition of a new welcome center, expanded public gallery spaces, flexible event spaces, and significant outdoor improvements, as well as the reinstallation of DAM’s celebrated permanent collections through a more inclusive lens. Updates to the Martin Building also include critical safety and operations systems and replacing aging infrastructure and equipment to enable continued public service for the next 50 years.
What does the renovation mean for the community and its visitors?
The completed Martin Building renovation will unify the museum campus to better serve a broad spectrum of audiences and community needs; to illuminate collections; to highlight the museum’s exemplary education programs, and to deliver excellent programs in contemporary spaces. The museum serves more than 700,000 visitors per year, half of them attending for free, including all visitors 18 and under who enjoy free general admission every day thanks to the DAM’s Free for Kids program. The improvements in the Martin Building project will enable the museum to better and more safely serve the community, including school groups and visitors with different abilities.
Why did you decide to close the building all at once for the renovation?
Closing the entire building enabled the museum to work on multiple pieces of the project at a time, with the goal of completing the construction work needed in the shortest possible timeline.
Why was the North Building renamed the Martin Building?
In celebration of a $25 million lead gift from Denver Art Museum’s Board Chair, Lanny Martin and his wife, Sharon, the North Building has been renamed the Martin Building.
Who were your construction and architecture partners?
The project design was developed by the team of Fentress Architects of Denver and Machado Silvetti of Boston. Saunders is serving as our construction partner. Grundy Construction Management & Consulting serves as the Owner’s Representative for the project.
How much public money was used for this project?
This project featured a $3 million allocation from the 2007 Better Denver Bonds program to renovate the Bonfils-Stanton Gallery on Level 1 of the Martin Building. Thanks to the voters of Denver, the museum also received $35.5 million from the Elevate Denver General Obligation Bond, approved by city voters in November 2017. The museum matched each public bond dollar with three privately raised dollars.
Have there been any major cost overruns, or were you still on budget and on time?
The project was both on budget and construction was completed on time.
What are the access upgrades that are new to the Martin Building?
The design team has included an ADA compliance partner throughout the project. The team has strongly focused on meeting all accessibility needs in the new Welcome Center as well as accessibility upgrades were a priority for the museum.
Preguntas frecuentes sobre la arquitectura
Has the original Gio Ponti-designed structure remained intact?
The original Gio Ponti-designed building has stayed whole. The connecting corridor between the Martin Building towers and the south structure, called Silber Hall, has been partially rebuilt in order to connect to the new Sie Welcome Center, and support the build-out of the lower level, improving natural light.
Was anything demolished during construction?
The south structure, which housed the old restaurant and served as the entrance to the main building, was removed to make way for the Sie Welcome Center that house The Ponti, a new full-service restaurant, Café Gio, a new quick-service café, an events space and a ticketing desk.
What will the Sie Welcome Center add to the museum?
The Sie Welcome Center includes 50,000 square feet on three levels, unifying the campus. Upon opening, this significant addition will feature visitor-centric amenities including a restaurant, quick-service café and improved wayfinding, along with dynamic and flexible program spaces and a state-of-the-art event space. The new space also includes expanded art storage and a purpose-built conservation lab.
More than 33,000 square feet of new space was added to the Denver Art Museum when the project completed, including expanded gallery space on level 2 and 7 of the Martin Building.
Did the museum work with community groups to gather input on design and gallery installations?
Yes, the museum collaborated with local creatives, artists, and constituent groups to gather feedback on collection presentation and how to best share this information with our communities in metro Denver and beyond.