Its skin of glass, concrete, stone and steel boldly references the ambition of the museum's present and future mission while recalling the building's eventful past. Its open atrium invites the timid, while revealing the heavenward gaze - the aspiration - that is at the soul of all art.
It is a building that both defines and reflects the spirit of this community.
I. FROM THE FRONT, LOOKING IN
At first glance, the front façade of the Missoula Art Museum may be a bit baffling to passersby. The building appears to have two doorways: one at the center of the old Carnegie Library that now forms the north wing of the museum, the other at the base of the glass atrium that separates the Carnegie Library from the boxy, modernist new wing.The two doorways say much about what has changed at the Missoula Art Museum.
Grand as it may appear, the door to the Carnegie Library was in part responsible for the museum's redesign and expansion.
Located atop a long staircase, the door was inaccessible to patrons in wheelchairs.
At a conceptual level, that doorway was, if anything, even more troublesome in relation to the modern mission of the Missoula Art Museum. Framed between two classical columns, elevated above eye level to those who approached it, the door communicated a sense of awe, even of removal from everyday human life.
“It wasn't inviting,” says Rafael Chacon, an art history and criticism professor at the University of Montana. “That wasn't the agenda 100 years ago, when museums and libraries were supposed to be imposing temples of culture. So that doorway doesn't fit the ethos of today.”
Access: it's more than about wheelchair-bound patrons, as important as those patrons are.
It's about openness to artists and curious first-time visitors.
It's about inviting exploration, rather than overwhelming with grandeur.
Hence the new entrance, and all that it conveys. Located just one step (or gradual ramp) up from street level, constructed entirely of glass but for its pull-handle, and sized not much larger than a residential front door, the new entrance to the Missoula Art Museum addresses visitors at a human scale and presents a literal sense of transparency.
Same with that vaulting atrium, off which each of the galleries is arrayed. The atrium allows passersby on the sidewalk to see a few works of art hung on the interior walls - and, hopefully, a few smiling patrons wandering about - before venturing inside.
The doors that remain on the old building still draw the eye, and arouse curiosity. They were left in place for reasons of historic preservation, but they lead nowhere and are, in fact, unopenable from inside or out.
To discourage patrons from confusing the doors with an entrance, the exterior stairs have been reconfigured from human scale to giant scale: Even Shaquille O'Neal probably would never mistake their high risers and deep treads for “steps” anymore. Instead, the old stairs now function as an exterior seating area.
The mixed message of the multiple front doors may forever seem strange. But it will also remind us of the building's important past, and of the museum's simultaneous appeal: Come as you are, but be prepared for awe.
II. FROM INSIDE, LOOKING THROUGH
There is a certain spot in the Missoula Art Museum's first-floor north gallery where one can reflect on what was, countenance what is, and ponder what might yet be - all within the periphery of one sight-line.
That spot, just next to the northeastern-most column of the gallery, presently affords a southerly view that includes the first-ever acquisition of the Missoula Art Museum, as well as several works of art that have only been promised to the museum at some future date.
It includes a painting by early 20th century painter Edgar Paxson, and a ceramic plate created by Rudy Autio just four years ago.
This line of sight pierces through an aperture that was originally occupied by a window in the Carnegie Library, but which was covered over during the building's earlier years as a museum, through a cascade of natural light that washes into the new, main foyer of the museum, past the elevator that was the impetus of this construction project, into a split-level gallery that fills a corner of the universe previously occupied by the branches of an old weeping birch tree.
That ability to see “through” the old and the new, to address both at once, is one of the most successful attributes of the new museum. As one walks through the building, portals and glass panes and false walls appear constantly, creating a sense of wonder: What's around the next corner?
Some of these features arose as happenstances of, again, historic preservation of the old building. For example, the window that allows visitors entering through the front door to gaze into the basement classroom was an original window in the Carnegie Library.
“We would've never thought to put a window into that classroom if it weren't for the preservation issues,” admits Laura Millin, executive director of the MAM. “But it turned out to be a very happy accident, since it allows people coming in to see some of the most exciting activity in the building.”
The ability to see so many spaces from anywhere you stand in the building also allows revelatory associations to appear. The more you linger, the more you notice: the similar color palettes of paintings by two different artists, the evolving depictions of wildlife by various artists, and so on. Works of art begin to take their place within a context - not just of the museum, but of culture itself.
Perhaps most importantly, with so much to see from so many angles within the building, the implication of hierarchy - which gallery (and which work) is biggest and thus most important - dissipates into one rounded experience of art.
III. FROM THE PAST, LOOKING FORWARD
Back outside the building, one particular detail of the front façade of the new Missoula Art Museum will, perhaps as long as the building stands, remind visitors that this is a building with as much history as currency. That detail is etched in stone above the original entrance to the old building: “Public Library.”
The old building, funded by the Carnegie Foundation as part of a nationwide public library construction project, wasn't Missoula's largest building when it was built in 1903. It was only one story tall, and it faced away from the center of downtown.
But in many ways, it was Missoula's most impressive building of the time, and a testament to the town's developing civic identity.
Credit for the original library's visual impact goes to A.J. Gibson, an Ohio-born Missoula architect who is now remembered as one of the most influential building designers ever to live in this state. Gibson, who designed buildings that included the Missoula County Courthouse, Jeannette Rankin Hall on the UM campus and Hellgate High School, chose to design the library in a Greek classical revival style - a style that he knew would convey a sense of awe.
Many tourists with an eye for historic buildings will note that plenty of America's remaining Carnegie libraries look like the one in Missoula.
But according to Chacon, Gibson's design wasn't derivative of those other museums. In fact, it was the other way around.
“The building has been discussed in the wrong terms, as following the ideal Carnegie library plan,” explains Chacon. “That's not true; it predates the Carnegie plan and became the plan that was published as the ideal. It was a great reflection of Gibson's genius. It's a unique building that stands at the height of his career.”
Unfortunately, the design of Missoula's Carnegie Library soon seemed antiquated - not stylistically, but functionally. Within a few short years, it became evident that the one-story building was just too small for local demand.
So it fell to Ole Bakke, former assistant to Gibson, to design a second-floor addition to the building, just eight years after the original building was completed. Bakke dressed out his mentor's masterpiece with a cap of a different style. His second floor and roof followed the design principles of the so-called Prairie style, the then-current school of architectural thought pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Bakke's second floor provided a bold stylistic contrast to Gibson's first, incorporating different finish materials and detailing. But over the years, most architects and historians have agreed that the two styles complemented each other.
Once the second-floor addition was completed in 1913, the building remained more or less unchanged for the duration of its life as a library.
In April of 1974, the current Missoula Public Library on East Main Street was completed, and the Carnegie Library was rededicated as an art museum the following year.
But just as Gibson's original building wasn't a perfect library for the community, neither was the two-story building a perfect facility for art. The natural light that made the old library such an inviting place to read books is considered a danger to artwork. The artificial lighting - as well as other technical facilities of the building - were well behind the state of the art even three decades ago.
And, importantly, there was no way for wheelchair-bound patrons to even get into the building, without being trundled up that long exterior staircase. Though that problem had plagued the old library as well, it increasingly became an issue in the age of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
But adding an elevator to the building was no mean feat, either in terms of engineering or architectural design. The only real available option would have involved the construction of an elevator shaft on the exterior of the building - a modern wart on a beautiful historic building.
So, starting in the late 1990s, leaders of the museum began pondering a much greater expansion - one that would improve the technological infrastructure and exhibition capabilities of the museum, add that much-needed elevator, and - importantly - result in a new, well-designed architectural landmark.
It perhaps needn't be said that historic preservationists were apprehensive about how such an expansion and upgrade would be carried out.
“I and others were very concerned about additions to that building,” says Chacon, who sat on the state's historic preservation board at the time. “If you look around town, you'll see plenty of notoriously bad additions. I supported the museum living in that building wholeheartedly, but I was very nervous about the kind of building that would be added.”
The museum hired Warren Hampton of Missoula's Oz Architects to design a new addition and renovation. In Hampton's original conception, the exterior walls of the new wing were to be clad in dark zinc, giving the walls a smooth, reflective character. The entry atrium was set nearly parallel to the front façade of the old and new wings, and a number of angled planes consisting of glass and stone lent a boldly modernist flavor to the atrium section.
That design ran into criticism with the preservation committee. In March of 2004, state historic architecture specialist Pete Brown gave a thumbs-down to the initial architectural scheme for the building, saying it strayed too far from the character of the Carnegie Library building.
So Hampton and the museum's staff went back to the drawing board, and eventually returned to Brown with a number of changes.
Most obvious was the decision to cover the exterior of the new wing in red sandstone, reflecting the color and natural texture of the existing building.
The new wing was also endowed with features that echo the horizontal lines that separate the three levels of the Carnegie building. The angled faces in the atrium section were eliminated, and the atrium was recessed a bit more from the front plane of the Carnegie building.
Looking at it now, Chacon says he believes the new addition walks the perfect tightrope between respect for, and engagement with, the old building.
“They built a beautiful, elegant addition that fits the current and the future of that institution,” says Chacon. “It respectfully treats the older building without competing with it, showing it up. That's very rare to find in contemporary additions.”
It is from that historical angle, then, that one can perhaps most appreciate the new aesthetic and future potential of the Missoula Art Museum.
This building, so long devoted to the education and mind expansion of Missoula residents, is finally redesigned around its new focus: the presentation and nurturing of cutting-edge art, accessible to all, ready for another millennium of service to the community.
Reporter Joe Nickell can be reached at 523-5358 or at jnickell@missoulian.com. Photographer Linda Thompson can be reached at 523-5270 or at lthompson@missoulian.com.
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