DAM Welcome Center Wins Award

Feature
News

Published
October, 2019

Tags
Denver Art Museum, Awards, Materials

Earlier last month the Denver Art Museum’s new John J. Sie Welcome Center was awarded the Best Jumbo Glass Project in the 2019 Glass Magazine Awards. The prestigious glass and metal industry awards program recognizes the best products and glass applications the commercial, retail and fabrication markets have to offer.

Construction Process

The new John J. Sie Welcome Center at the Denver Art Museum is one part of the combined project to revitalize the original Gio Ponti designed Martin Building (formerly, North Building) and establish a new welcome center at the heart of Denver’s civic and cultural center. A total of 52 glass panels make up the full elliptical façade of the Welcome Center, including 36 curved panels standing 25 feet high and 8 feet wide.

Glass installation on the Welcome Center earlier this year, courtesy of Saunders

In June 2020, the Denver Art Museum will kick off a phased reopening of the united museum campus, welcoming visitors to the first three levels of the refurbished and renamed Martin Building (previously the North Building) and the new, curved glass-walled Anna and John J. Sie Welcome Center.

Related Content

  • The Denver Art Museum’s campus, comprised of several notable works of architecture including the 1971 Gio Ponti museum tower, commissioned Machado Silvetti for the design of the new Sie Welcome Center which serves as a beacon and an anchor for Denver’s emerging cultural center. Read more about the completed project here.

  • Made with curved glass panels, the Welcome Center’s façade creates an elegant surface ripple as its appearance responds to the curvature of the elliptical plan, the environment and the viewer’s own movement around the building. Learn more about the fabrication of the glass used at the Denver Art Museum here.

  • The Denver Art Museum is undergoing a significant expansion and overhaul led by design architect Machado Silvetti and architect-of-record Fentress Architects. The project includes the restoration of Gio Ponti’s glass tile-clad North Building and the construction of an entirely new, elliptical-shaped welcome center defined by a scalloped structural glass curtainwall. Read the full article here.

  • The DAM’s tower closed nearly two years ago, and within months construction began on an addition to replace the last remnant of the 1950s museum, which was torn down in preparation. In early 2018, the Ponti tower was emptied of its collections, and rehab work began there. Read the full article here.

  • Project updates, upcoming events, construction features, & site visits — Continue exploring news articles and stories here.