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The Denver Art Museum鈥檚 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鈥檚 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, 鈥淚f a museum has to protect works of art, isn鈥檛 it only right that it should be a castle?鈥� Ponti was also interested in creating a building that would reflect light. 鈥淚 asked the sun and the light and the sky to help me,鈥� 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鈥檚 reflections better than a strong color would. He described the DAM鈥檚 North Building as 鈥渁n invitation to the sun.鈥� 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)
