As reported this week by Architectural Record magazine (and then yesterday the Port blog), local architect Brad Cloepfil and his firm, Allied Works, have unveiled their new design for the Clyfford Still museum in Denver.
Devoted to the seminal painter Clyfford Still, the museum will sit in the shadow of Daniel Libeskind's massive expansion for the Denver Art Museum. But only in scale will the Allied buidling acquiesce to Libeskind's angular titanium edifice; it's quite possible the Still, with its more subtle, restrained form, will better stand the test of time.
Jeff Jahn at Port makes an interesting observation about Cloepfil's work: that there is a "heavy" Brad, seen in projects like the Wieden + Kennedy headquarters, and a "light, dematerializing" Brad, evidenced in newer work like the Museum of Art and Design at New York's Columbus Circle or the 2281 Glisan building here in Portland. Jeff likes the "heavy" Brad better.
The Still museum seems to have a little of both weight and lightness. Some of the exterior materials give the buiding a solidness like W+K, but there will be tons of natural light in this building, as Record describes:
Cloepfil's building is a two-story, rectangular structure of textured concrete and glass set in a tree-lined plaza. Visitors will enter it by way of a cantilevered concrete canopy. A wooden staircase will take them to the second-floor galleries, where Still’s work will be displayed in 10,000 square feet of exhibition space. Natural light, via clerestory windows, will illuminate most of the galleries.
Cloepfil's museum is a two-story, rectangular structure of textured concrete and glass set in a tree-lined plaza. Visitors will enter it by way of a cantilevered concrete canopy. A wooden staircase will take them to the second-floor galleries, where Still’s work will be displayed in 10,000 square feet of exhibition space. Natural light, via clerestory windows, will illuminate most of the galleries.
In imagining this museum devoted to Clyfford Still, I wondered if there might be any type of small museum we could build in Portland. How about a Mark Rothko museum? Granted there's already the Rothko Chapel in Houston, but that's not a museum devoted to showing his artwork. And Rothko spent many of his formative years here in Portland. Granted, our city doesn't have a good track record of supporting bold public projects (unless they're transit), but wound't Rothko's name be able to attract a lot of outside investment?
Brad Cloepfil is also one of the 11 people featured in an Oregonian article I wrote that comes out tomorrow for the paper's A&E section, called "Dreamers + Builders" and highlighting the top names in local architecture and design. So watch out for that.
Maybe we don't exactly have a design malaise, but we certainly shouldn't be crowing too much either. We have a relatively high baseline for the quality of our architecture (more to do with urbanism), but not a whole lot of really outstanding work. You could say we are raising the bar incrementally.
That said, many of these firms are capable of excellent work. I'd like to see the less established ones getting more important commissions.
Posted by: Monforts | March 07, 2008 at 10:48 AM
Oops, that was meant for the 10 architects entry. Nice work here, though.
Posted by: Monforts | March 07, 2008 at 10:55 AM
I'm pretty much doing a case study on Cloepfil these days because my solo show at PNCA in April is in one of his earliest projects (the Izquierdo gallery)... it's a flawed space but I'm giving it an artist's treatment that will point out how cool it actually is (Im leaving the walls blank... everything is on the floor or on top of the walls). Basically Im condensing the spatial experience... and hoping to hell it won't suck. At the same time I'm pretty sick of the architects being more radical than artists these days. Zaha Hadid vs. Julie Mehretu anyone? Hadid wins nearly every time. I like how Smithson and Gordon Matta Clark really challenged architecture. I like how Paul Klee taught composition at the Bauhaus. Oh well the Jahn clan are an oinery bunch.
Also, Tyler Green had a brilliant idea about the Rothko issue in Portland. Apparently the National Gallery has about 600 Rothko works (that isnt an exageration either) and can hardly diplay them all. Answer.. a series of permanent rotating loans with the NGA.
Expect to hear more on Rothko on PORT this week too.
Posted by: Double J | March 10, 2008 at 12:32 AM
Rothko at Portland Art Museum would be wonderful - since the museum was the first to give him an exhibition. I don't know where you'd find the works though, or the money to buy them...
Posted by: kd | March 11, 2008 at 02:49 PM
Kd, I have a report on a Rothko we CAN afford plus a brilliant idea from Tyler Green based on loans from the NGA here: http://www.portlandart.net/archives/2008/03/rothko_in_portl.html . It's a real possibility but Portland has to want it.
Rothko has way more connection to Portland than Clyfford Still has to Denver. Frankly Still had more connection to Portland than he had to Denver... but I'm still stoked he's getting his own museum. Ugh "Still Stoked" was a totally unintentional pun that I should be shot and hung for.
Posted by: Double J | March 13, 2008 at 10:29 AM