VOELZ CHANDLER: Harmonious expansion

Springs center blends new, old

Published July 28, 2007 at midnight

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COLORADO SPRINGS - When the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center unveiled its expansion design in early 2006, director Michael De Marsche said the star of the show would be the collection.

He says it still, and in some ways it's true. After all, the center's holdings have just been augmented by a gift of the fine Dusty and Kathy Loo collection of Colorado landscapes.

But the bottom line here has been much more basic: How well the new section of the center, by David Owen Tryba Architects of Denver, would work with the existing structure, which opened in 1936 to a design by architect John Gaw Meem.

Looking ahead to the Aug. 4 opening of the expansion, here's the verdict for those worried by earlier proposals that would have obscured the center's beautiful facade while adding marginal gallery space: relax. New melds harmoniously with old. Respect is still the right word.

Those who know that museums and arts facilities now have to turn a penny with party space also get their wish; it's just more subtle than in previous proposals. The center has grown from about 88,300 square feet to 132,300, including 29,000 square feet of museum space.

Lead designer Tryba, project architect Jeff Poorten and principal-in-charge Bill Moon went beyond harmony, however. They reorganized the place (theater functions at one end, visual art at the other), extended the long corridor that runs from east to west as a major connector, and placed the bulk of the new art space far enough back on the property that the stucco-covered mass is only quietly apparent when viewed from the front.

What stands out is the way in which the new glass and metal corridor supports Meem's formed concrete building with its exuberant aluminum trim. It neither dominates nor defers to Meem's masterpiece.

It is a case study in how a complicated building - Meem's mix of moderne and Pueblo influences shares both Modernist and classical traits - can benefit from expending as much time and thought as money on a project.

Rather than rushing into an expansion that was way too expensive yet so despised that it would have taken an act of Congress to drum up funding, De Marsche looked inward when he arrived in 2003.

De Marsche cleaned up the galleries, showcased the center's collection, brought in shows (Dale Chihuly, Andy Warhol and Peter Max) that boosted attendance and membership, hung a splashy Chihuly chandelier in the lobby, opened a downtown art space during construction (it will stay open), and worked with a firm that actually held the old building in high esteem.

The center had hired Tryba before De Marsche arrived from a college art museum he had guided through construction. But moving ahead in the Springs was postponed while most of the funds were raised for a project billed as costing $28.4 million.

Erecting a new building meant tearing down an addition from the 1970s; that's a loss. The architects saved the facade, though changing it at the same time with new windows that try to work with the existing wall. That facade helps form the courtyard, and that, too, is different, morphing into a greater role as an events space.

Several mature trees have been removed and replaced by smaller ones. The amount of sculpture there has been trimmed, too, though the sculpture garden on Cascade Avenue is now much more prominent than before. The old Garden Gallery has been opened up and restored (with $271,467 from the State Historical Fund), but is now a gift shop, one of two gift shops, actually. I count the redirection of that space as a loss, especially since it is now so attractive.

The pluses at work here, though, win out. The extension of that all-important light-filled corridor, ending in a full wing for art, features terrazzo flooring compatible with that in the existing building. It leads to both the permanent collections on the first level and, via a grand staircase, to the upstairs spaces for traveling exhibitions.

The galleries throughout are both fixed and flexible spaces, and the detailing is superb (no wavy drywall that I could see). And the main upper-level space features soaring ceilings, inviting large paintings and sculpture.

Tryba says his plan was never to compete with John Gaw Meem's building, but to restore first and consider the original fine arts center somewhat sacred.

Time does march on, however, and things grow and change. The key is to find the right way, and, after two disastrous starts, call the third one the charm.

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center

• What: Opening of new expansion, with related exhibitions and events

• When: Thursday through Aug. 5

• Where: 30 W. Dale St., Colorado Springs

• Exhibitions: Going on view Thursday, works from the center's collection, including paintings from the recent gift of the Dusty and Kathy Loo collection of Colorado landscapes, and, through Oct. 28, "The Eclectic Eye: Pop and Illusion - Selections From the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation"

• Events: "The Artful Tommy," lecture by Thomas Hoving, former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 7 p.m. Thursday (reception and book-signing follow); screening of John Waters' Cecil B. Demented, 1 p.m. Friday, followed by Q&A and book-signing with the filmmaker; building ribbon-cutting 10 a.m. Aug. 4, followed by tours; lecture by actor Joel Grey, 7 p.m. Aug. 4, followed by dessert reception. Fees apply to all.

• Information: 719-634-5581; csfineartscenter.org

Mary Voelz Chandler is the art and architecture critic. Chandlerm@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2677

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