Calatrava's Art Museum design may become a Milwaukee icon - The Business Journal
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From the The Business Journal: http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/1999/06/28/story4.html
Calatrava's Art Museum design may become a Milwaukee icon The Business Journal - by David Schuyler Date: Sunday, June 27, 1999, 11:00pm CDT Santiago Calatrava steps across a rubble-strewn lot, flanked by a photographer, a press agent and number of well-dressed associates. His entourage has whisked him from the airconditioned confines of the Milwaukee Art Museum to the sweltering construction site to the south. The group pauses at the door of the contractor's trailer before he moves to the base of a rib of concrete arching out of the earth, yet another photographer in tow. His navy suit stands out against the curved, white pillar. His dark Spanish hair lilts in the breeze. Calatrava is no movie star, but his art has made him the center of attention, particularly on the shores of Lake Michigan. That's where the architect's soaring design for the Milwaukee Art Museum's addition is taking wing, carrying the museum and the city of Milwaukee into the next millennium. "This design comes very much from the impressions of this place," he says. "It comes from the relation between the two buildings. And it also comes from the presence of the lake. My architecture is very much place-related." The architect and artist from Spain has come to check on his work, but hardly finds time for lunch amid a steady string of interviews and photo shoots. The buzz is not unexpected; his lakefront vision has sparked the city's imagination, and his design means more to the city than additional gallery space and an enhanced skyline. The $50 million Calatrava addition also adds an unprecedented level of prestige and scale to the city and the art museum to which it is appended. Such prestige translates into national and international recognition. The art museum received national coverage in a profile of Calatrava in the June issue of Smithsonian magazine. That recognition comes as art museums nationwide are looking at new ways of heightening their presence and prestige, says Chris Goldsmith, executive director of the Milwaukee Art Museum. Goldsmith pointed to an April 22 article in the New York Times that outlined the changing role of art museum architecture. Art museums are increasingly using architectural design as a way of developing and building recognition, which can mean everything in the art museum business. "When we try to bring exhibitions in, the deciding factor is the reputation of the facility,"
http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/1999/06/28/story4.html?s=print
25/07/2011
Calatrava's Art Museum design may become a Milwaukee icon - The Business Journal
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Goldsmith says. A turning point The artistic factor isn't lost on Calatrava, who sees the museum addition as a way of uniting the elements of the museum, the War Memorial Center, the streets surrounding the site and the lakefront location to create a unique, human space. "You see us looking at the architecture as a so-called `summa artiste,' all the arts put together," he says. "You have a part of human planning, a part of engineering, a part of sculpture and a part of the region of the city. All that takes body in the building itself." Calatrava's unique, site-specific design may not translate into flurry of fluid, organic designs in the conservative, blue-collar city of Milwaukee. It does, however, show that the city is reaching for the next level of architectural design and structure, says David Kahler of Kahler Slater, the Milwaukee company serving as architect of record for the project. "It represents a turning point in design history," Kahler says. "Up until this point, we've always been looking backwards rather than looking forward." The addition breaks barriers for a city enamored of the architecture of the past. But Calatrava may not have just helped move architectural design in the city to the next level, but also the city's consciousness as well. "(The addition) creates more vitality in the community," Kahler says. "The community has a higher image of itself than in the past." Industrial tradition Calatrava knows Milwaukee's blue collar traditions, and in some ways, he has incorporated that history in the design. The movable sunshade of the addition -- the brise soleil -- is constructed of spun carbon fiber manufactured at TPI Technology Group Inc. in Wauwatosa. It will be supported on a spine built by Waukesha-based Lunda Construction Co. and powered by a hydraulic system developed by Oilgear Co. in Milwaukee. "You have a tradition of industrial manufacturing," Calatrava says. "The fact that we are using carbon fiber shows you how deeply the building has its roots in this part of the country where all the manufacturing exists." With Milwaukee's C.G. Schmidt Construction serving as construction manager, the project truly becomes a local effort -- a landmark as representative of the city as of the architect from Spain who envisioned it. Not only might the Milwaukee Art Museum addition spark additional pride in the community, but it may also serve as an ambassador to other cities and countries, says Michael Utzinger, chairman of the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Cities have often become identified with innovative or unusual buildings in their areas, he
http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/1999/06/28/story4.html?s=print
25/07/2011
Calatrava's Art Museum design may become a Milwaukee icon - The Business Journal
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says. The image of San Francisco is invoked by the Transamerica Building. Seattle, of course, has the Space Needle. The art museum's Goldsmith admits he has considered the possibility of the Calatrava addition becoming an icon for the city. The selection of Calatrava for the project was based on the immediacy and scale of his works and their impact on people, he says. "We wanted a building that people would perceive as beautiful," Goldsmith says. That is exactly what one would expect from a sculptor, engineer and architect. Even before Calatrava's design comes to life in late 2000, he has set the imagination of Milwaukee asail.
http://www.bizjournals.com/milwaukee/stories/1999/06/28/story4.html?s=print
25/07/2011