Denver Art Museum – Hamilton Building
Location
Denver, CO
Completed
2006
Client
Denver Art Museum
Architects
Studio Libeskind
Davis Partnership Architects
The Denver Art Museum’s $140-million 2006 expansion was designed by world-renowned architect Daniel Libeskind and executed by local architects at the Davis Partnership. The Frederic C. Hamilton building is a feat of engineering and architectural design that has helped anchor the Civic Center Cultural Complex as a Denver landmark. Due to the sharply angled walls and dynamic silhouette of the building, ArtHouse had to devise highly technical ways of ensuring that the dimensional type that was used in everything from donor recognition installations to gallery identification was perpendicular to the floor.
Another important factor that led the design process for ArtHouse was the relationship between the architecture and light—a key feature in any world-class museum. This led the team to create sculptural wayfinding signs that captured and related to the atmospheric lighting conditions in such a way that they blend seamlessly into the ethereal environment that the architecture creates. ArtHouse maintained this same approach for the exterior signage and wayfinding elements that can be found throughout the Civic Center Cultural Complex. These angular signs seem to jut out of the ground in much the same way that the Museum does, and the metallic finishes complement and mimic the exterior surface of the building itself.