Museum Founder Chooses World-Renowned Architect

DESIGN DIMENSIONS Architect Moshe Safdie looks out of a window Thursday next to a large red untitled magnifying disk sculpture by artist Fred Eversley at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. “I want people to leave the place uplifted, and never forget it. Is that too much to ask?” he said.
DESIGN DIMENSIONS Architect Moshe Safdie looks out of a window Thursday next to a large red untitled magnifying disk sculpture by artist Fred Eversley at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. “I want people to leave the place uplifted, and never forget it. Is that too much to ask?” he said.

— Moshe Safdie turned to the work of a fellow world-renowned architect when seeking inspiration to design Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.

Safdie — an architectural icon in his own right — visited homes that architect E. Fay Jones had designed for Alice Walton and her parents, the late Sam and Helen Walton.

In the end, Crystal Bridges founder Alice Walton chose for the museum a design that most closely resembled the work of Fayetteville-based Jones and his emphasis on natural beauty.

“It was about capturing the ravine, the park and the natural beauty of the place,” the Boston-based Safdie said during a phone interview in September. “And I didn’t want to disturb the dozens of trees. I knew the ravine would be the most amazing place. … It was echoing, at the smaller scale, what Jones had done before.”

Walton locked onto the 73-year-old Safdie after visiting a project of his in Los Angeles, the Skirball Cultural Center. There was no bidding process or formal negotiations required; the job was simply his.

“It was a very nice process, compared to what is normal,” Safdie said.

Safdie had many projects to consider. Four of his designs, including the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Mo., were scheduled to open in 2011.

Safdie has worked nonstop since making his international debut in 1967 with Habitat 67, a series of stacked housing units, resembling Lego building blocks, that he built in Montreal, Canada. The Israeli-born architect, urban planner and author has designed dozens of buildings, including Exploration Place in Wichita, Kan., and the National Gallery of Canada in Ontario.

Walton’s concept for an art museum, both in scope and location, intrigued him. Construction on the project began in 2006.

“It was Alice Walton, and her ambition to create an amazing museum with an amazing collection,” he said.

Walton handed Safdie several parameters. The design was, in addition to showcasing the collection, to incorporate meeting spaces, offices and an art library, a sculpture garden and walking trails, all with a theme of art intersecting with nature.

What resulted is a multitiered, multifaceted complex of connected galleries, waterways and green spaces. Totaling 201,000 square feet, the Crystal Bridges complex is a series of 11 independent buildings that include six galleries, meeting rooms, a restaurant, a museum shop and an event space known as the Great Hall. Several of the buildings are three stories, others are two and still more are one level. The buildings rest on a 120-acre plot that will eventually contain more than 3 miles of walking trails.

Walton and other museum officials have declined to discuss the cost of the project.

NATURE, ART CO-EXIST

The museum’s main entrance is on the east side, with the main access coming from Bentonville’s J Street. The museum is largely hidden from the curbside view except for the large silver-tree statue created by New York artist Roxy Paine. As guests walk nearer, they see the main gallery buildings and water features nestled into a pond below. Safdie said the idea was to give visitors the illusion of stumbling upon a hidden village.

A closer look shows intricate construction and detail that make it one of Arkansas’ most important buildings, said Burt Taggart Jr., a Little Rock-based architect with 30 years of experience. In Arkansas, Crystal Bridges is rivaled perhaps only by the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, he said.

“It was intended to be a piece of art itself,” Taggart said of the museum.

The idea that it houses a world-class art collection only magnifies that appeal.

“Some buildings just want to be significant,” said Taggart, who came out of retirement three years ago to open a boutique firm with his son, Burt Taggart III. “It’s in the upper echelon of projects.”

Safdie’s design features two long, copper-topped walkways spanning a creek bed. These structures create the “bridges” of Crystal Bridges, with the other half of the name coming from Crystal Spring, the naturally flowing water source at the site. One of the bridges houses the museum’s restaurant, Eleven, and the other will serve as a gallery. Both provide access to adjoining galleries that create a rectangle of space for the permanent collection, which is divided in the middle by the pond.

From the southernmost of the two bridges, the complex hooks farther to the south and toward the museum’s traveling exhibit area, the Great Hall. The event space, community art showcase area and southern entrance can be accessed via a walking path with a trailhead near the Bentonville square.

Viewed from the air, the complex resembles a scripted “9” with the permanent collection in the upper circle and other exhibit spaces trailing below.

Critical to the design are spaces between the galleries. Best described as “thinking rooms,” these passageways feature furniture and reading materials related to the artists showcased in the adjoining galleries. Each of these spaces offers views of natural elements such as the pond, a rooftop rose garden or a wooded hillside. The idea is to provide moments of calm between the visual climate inside the galleries.

“As you start moving through the museum, it’s constantly alternating between the art and the framing of nature for you,” Safdie said. “There is a glass bridge, then you’re in a gallery again. … It creates a rhythm and a dialogue between the two that will be very unique.”

Local architect Marlon Blackwell won a competition to design the museum’s gift store. As he created his complementary design inside the space, he recognized the duality of Safdie’s design.

“First of all, we had to understand what Moshe was doing,” Blackwell said. “He’s clearly trying to develop a way of articulating a relationship between culture and nature.”

Natural beauty — specifically that of Arkansas — comes into play in many of the construction materials. The namesake bridges are made of four primary materials. Canted glass is placed at a 15-degree angle, and custom-formed, curved pine beams serve as the resting point for the copper roof. The structure rests on industrial concrete made at an on-site form shop.

The concrete below the bridges is arranged as a weir system, which simultaneously acts as a dam but also allows the water to flow over the top. This will create a 10- to 12-inch waterfall along the museum’s northern bridge.

The pine beams are made primarily of southern pine, said Sandy Edwards, museum associate director, and the custom-curved shape of the large beams was created by a manufacturer in Magnolia. Like a suspension bridge, the roof and beams are supported by large cables, in this case, 4-inch diameter metal ones. The design allows for several inches of expansion or contraction of the bridge structure, which is expected because of temperature fluctuations. Evolution of the bridge structures does not end there. Just like a copper penny changes over time, the copper roofs of the bridges and the Great Hall will evolve to have a greenish hue, Safdie said.

The exteriors are most often smooth industrial concrete with wood inlays. The wood will also change color over time, as the reddish-brown hue of the still-new cedar will soften into a shade of blond. Inside, flooring alternates with oak from the Monticello area.

Edwards said the surrounding area will grow into part of the overall concept. Trees planted recently don’t yet match the height of the native timber, but they should in time, as if the museum were gently planted into the site.

Safdie has visited the site about every six weeks during the construction process, while juggling projects such as the Kauffman Center and the beginning phases of a residential housing complex in Qinhuangdao, China.

He said Walton’s original vision, now coupled with his own, plays a large role in what makes the museum so special. To take works often reserved, at least theoretically, for coastal art centers and put them in such a setting changes the art world. The significance of this being his first building outside of an urban setting is not lost on him.

“The very fact that it is rethinking museums in a fundamental way, in a very exciting site, it’s rare that a museum can do that,” he said. “I want people to leave the place uplifted, and never forget it. Is that too much to ask?”

This article was previously published in NWA Media on Oct. 16, 2011.

Upcoming Events