Adjaye Associates’ first public commission in the
US, the practice won the competition to create a new building for the Museum of
Contemporary Art/Denver. Designed
as an environmentally sustainable
building, the facility gained the distinction of Gold Leadership in Energy and
Environment Design (LEED). Making it
the nation’s first LEED certified contemporary art museum.
Located on a prominent site, the museum sits at the corner of a mixed-use
block on 15th and Delgany Street; 15th Street is an important route to and from
downtown Denver and Delgany serves the immediate area with a metro station and
close proximity to the South Platte River. In order to establish a visual
relationship with the traffic moving in and out of the downtown area, the
north-east façade is set at a slight angle to 15th Street. The south-eastern
corner of the building has been pulled forward so that it’s visible from the
metro station on Delgany Street. In keeping with the scale of the neighboring
buildings, the main volume of the new building has a height of four generous
stories.