DAM!

As mentioned in a previous post, I had the chance to visit the Denver Art Museum (DAM) a couple of weeks ago and I loved it. The museum is divided between the original North Building designed by Gio Ponti in 1971 and the newer Frederic C. Hamilton Building designed by Daniel Libeskind. The Hamilton Building is an architectural photographer's dream:

And the interior:


While in the Hamilton Building, I went to the special exhibition, Inspiring Impressionism, which shows Impressionist paintings alongside the Masters paintings that inspired them. The audiotour was impressive and I liked that they also had a children's version. After checking out that exhibition, I trotted over the skybridge to see the permanent exhibition in the North Building.

The permanent exhibition isn't huge but it's very well-edited and I absolutely loved the way the galleries were organized and designed. Most of the galleries had beautiful seating arrangements with art books to read and activities for kids, and there was a library/reading room where you could just relax and flip through more art books. My favorite gallery design had to be the Davis W. and Ellen N. Moore Gallery's, which showcased Design Before 1900:

I love these yellow benches!

Overall, the Denver Art Museum is definitely one of the best art museum experiences I've had. I love how American cities outside of New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are really making a name for themselves by incorporating some amazing cultural spaces. One unlikely design destination that I'd love to visit is Minneapolis, which has buildings by Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron and Michael Graves. (It also has the Mall of America and Target HQ, both of which would be guilty pleasures for me.) While in that part of the Midwest, I would also have to make the 5-hour drive to Milwaukee to see the brise soleil of the Milwaukee Art Museum by my favorite architect, Santiago Calatrava. In any event, these cities are showing that the Midwest and culture are not mutually exclusive:

Even cows like architecture!

For the full Flickr set of my DAM photos, click here.