The Denver Art Museum’s North Building was designed by Italian architect Gio Ponti, along with Denver-based architects James Sudler and Joal Cronenwett. The building opened on October 3, 1971, and is Ponti’s only building in North America. Its form provided an identity for the Denver Art Museum and became a symbol of the DAM itself. Many visitors have said that the North Building looks like a castle or fortress. These comparisons complement how Ponti understood the function of art museums: to protect treasures. He asked, “If a museum has to protect works of art, isn’t it only right that it should be a castle?” Ponti was also interested in creating a building that would reflect light. “I asked the sun and the light and the sky to help me,” he said. He chose to cover the building with gray tiles (in several different shades of gray) because the neutral color picks up the sky’s reflections better than a strong color would. He described the DAM’s North Building as “an invitation to the sun.” Otto Bach, Director of the Denver Art Museum at the time, envisioned a modern, visitor friendly museum where patrons could find the collection they wanted to see easily. Instead of walking through gallery after gallery on one floor, collections are divided into seven floors. Ponti emphasized this verticality in his building design. He overlapped vertical wall segments, arranged the outside wall tiles vertically, and used vertical, narrow windows. The walls within the galleries were designed so that they could be moved around to suit the needs of different curators and their collections. Because of this, there is great variety in gallery design among the different floors of the building. (Adapted from the Denver Art Museum website)

Located five miles south of Boulder atop the 565-acre Table Mesa adjacent to the Flatirons, this campus was established in 1961 to provide the setting for the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Known as the Mesa Laboratory, this 28-acre complex designed by I. M. Pei and Dan Kiley was modeled after Mesa Verde and other indigenous sites across the Southwest. Initially facing public scrutiny due to concerns about environmental impacts in Boulder Mountain Park, the selection of Pei and the promise of a natural preserve assuaged the public. Comprised of two five-story vertical forms connected by a low, horizontal mass, the structure provides both a framework and a platform from which to experience the campus and its surrounds. Strategically placed walls, halls, courtyards, portals, and stairs offer a proliferation of externally-focused perspectives while the monochromatic sandstone visually connects the structure to the Flatirons. Accessing the site, Kiley designed a one-mile long road skirting the edge of the mesa and passing through a stand of ponderosa pines before revealing Pei’s fortress-like structure against the mountainous backdrop. The road terminates at a horseshoe-shaped parking lot, inspired by Native American earthwork enclosures known as herraduras. Connecting the parking area to the laboratory, a linear walkway passes through junipers and prairie grasses to access a serpentine stairwell, which leads to a rooftop forecourt. On axis with the forecourt, a geometric fountain frames views of the prairie and Flatirons beyond. A formal stairway with two opposing flights of stairs and landings accesses a rectangular terrace punctuated by a grid of sixteen honey locust and cast concrete benches. A one-mile long interpretive trail within the boundaries of NCAR connects to a larger network extending throughout Boulder Mountain Park. (Cultural Landscape Foundation)