The Denver Art Museum — DAM is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. The museum is one of the largest art museums between the West Coast and Chicago. It is known for its collection of American Indian art, and its other collections of more than 68,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world.
The newest addition to the Denver Art Museum is the Frederic C. Hamilton Building, which holds the Modern and Contemporary art collection, along with the Architecture and Design collection, and Oceanic art collection. The unique building also serves as the main entrance to the rest of the museum complex.
The complex geometric design of the Hamilton building consists 20 sloping planes, covered in 230,000 square feet of titanium shingles. The angular design juts in many directions, supported by a 2,740-ton structure that contains more than 3,100 pieces of steel. One of the angled elements extends 100 feet (30 m) over the street below. None of the 20 planes is parallel or perpendicular to another.[10]
The design uses many extended angular planes to be reminiscent of the natural landscape. Similar to the peaked roof of the Denver International Airport, the Hamilton building emulates the sharp angles of the nearby Rocky Mountains, as well as the geometric crystals found at the mountains' base near Denver. Daniel Libeskind, architect of the building, said “I was inspired by the light and geology of the Rockies, but most of all by the wide-open faces of the people of Denver.” The titanium panels also reflect the light of the Colorado sunshine.
