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At the heart of downtown Roanoke,
the new 81,000 square foot Taubman Museum of Art
proves an arresting landmark for visitors arriving
from US I-581. As Roanoke's most contemporary structure,
it provides an analog for the city's evolution from
industrial and manufacturing town to technology-driven
city. The building's forms and materials evoke both
the drama of the surrounding mountainous landscape
of the Shenandoah Valley and the lyrically gritty
industrial-era building culture of the great early
20th century railroad boom, when Roanoke came to
prominence as a switchpoint city of the new South.
The finish on its undulating, angel hair-finish
stainless steel roof forms reflects the rich palette
of colors found in the sky and the seasonal landscape.
Inspired by mountain streams, translucent glass
surfaces - some brilliantly clear and others frosted
to filter and modulate interior daylight - emerge
from the building's mass to create canopies of softly
diffused illumination over the public spaces and
gallery level. As it rises to support the stainless
steel roof, a layered pattern of angular exterior
walls surfaced in shingled, patinated zinc gives
an earthen and aged quality to the façade.
The building occupies three levels above ground,
with all functions organized off a central 4,300
square foot atrium space. The atrium serves as a
multi-use "facility within a facility"
for ticketing and information, temporary installation
of large-scale sculpture and small exhibitions,
public meeting, special events and performances,
and spontaneous, informal encounters. The glass
atrium allows the lobby to be filled with natural
light during the day, while at night the translucent
glass roof surfaces are illuminated to allow the
volume to glow like a beacon and draw visitors to
museum activities.
"Hokie" stone,
an Appalachian Dolomite limestone native to western
Virginia and quarried in Blacksburg, is used in
the lobby, shop and café, as well as in other
public spaces throughout the new building, adding
a familiar, natural texture and color to the interior.
Variations of tone and texture in the stone are
intended to evoke the striations, clefts and eroded
rock surfaces found in the region's famous caverns,
cliffs and river gorges.
Public spaces, including the Museum lobby, café,
shop, auditorium, and education areas, are located
on the ground level, along with support areas associated
with the loading dock, art receiving and shipping,
and security.
More than 16,000 square feet of gallery space for
permanent collection and temporary exhibition galleries
are located on the building's second level. Illuminated
glass treads lead visitors up a limestone-clad grand
staircase to the galleries. At the landing, a luminous
sculptural ceiling of cascading, back-lit, translucent
polycarbonate panels will draw visitors forward
through the central gallery hall to the permanent
collection galleries. In the contemporary art and
American art galleries, this luminous ceiling feature
extends into these spaces to diffuse daylight from
clerestory windows and skylights above.
The third, and uppermost, level of the new building
holds the TMA board room, director's suite, and
staff offices. The third floor administration level
receives a significant amount of natural daylight,
which will permeate through the many strategically
placed clerestories created by the building's undulating,
layered roof forms.
The Taubman Museum of Art contains advanced technology
for distance learning to serve the entire region
of western Virginia. It features fiber optic cable
links to broadband networks across the state to
enhance K-12 education and provide greater access
to the visual arts. Such technology also enables
the museum to interface with artistic endeavors
at museums, universities and other institutions
across the Commonwealth, across the nation, and
beyond.
In keeping with the trustees' mandate, the new Taubman
Museum of Art features significant sustainable design
components, including modulated day lighting, passive
solar energy systems, a thermal conserving envelope,
and computerized building management systems, among
other ecologically smart mechanisms.
Summarizing his approach to the design for the Taubman
Museum of Art, Randall Stout said, "A guiding
principal of this project is creating a powerful
relationship to the natural landscape and its influence
over life, learning and art in Roanoke. Our references
to nature are intended as deeply meaningful ones
and are central to the purpose. At the completion
of other buildings I've designed, I have heard new
interpretations of the architecture. Sometimes these
surprise me at first, but eventually I see the buildings
through others' eyes, too. In this way, a new public
building is like a Rorschach inkblot test. The beauty
of architecture is that it creates a democratic
situation by engaging every observer equally and
making room for every possible interpretation. Like
art, it connects people with their own past experiences
and future ambitions, and provokes an intriguing
array of responses. We hope the Taubman Museum of
Art will function in just this way."
For more information on the architect, visit Randall
Stout’s website at
www.stoutarc.com.
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In 1951, the Roanoke Fine Arts
Center was incorporated as an independent organization.
Anne Funkhouser Francis contributed her family estate,
Cherry Hill, located in South Roanoke, to the Fine
Arts Center in 1965. The Center received its full
accreditation by the American Association of Museums
in 1977 and, in acknowledgement of its high standards
and successes, was reaccredited in 1986 and 1999.
In 1980, the name was changed to the Roanoke Museum
of Fine Arts. In 1983, the Roanoke Museum of Fine
Arts moved from Cherry Hill to Center in the Square.
The new location transformed the Roanoke Museum
of Fine Arts into a vibrant community institution
and redirected its mission. Recognizing the need
to geographically expand the Roanoke Museum of Fine
Art’s services and outreach programs, the
Board of Trustees renamed the institution the Art
Museum of Western Virginia in 1992. In 1993, the
Art Museum inaugurated a children’s interactive
gallery and art center, Art Venture. Today, the
Art Museum continues to change and grow as the needs
of the community are identified.
The next phase of growth is now complete. The new
Taubman Museum of Art, an 81,000 square-foot Museum
in downtown Roanoke, has been constructed. The new
facility, designed by architect Randall Stout, is
transforming western Virginia with an architectural
achievement like no other. The facility houses state-of-the-art
exhibition galleries, a stellar permanent collection,
and an education center that provides innovative
and exemplary education initiatives that will enhance
and improve K-12 and higher education programs in
the region.
The Taubman Museum of Art is the boldest public-private
economic development project ever undertaken in
the western region of the Commonwealth. It will
fuel economic development, attract new businesses
and employees to western Virginia, create jobs,
revitalize downtown Roanoke, and add significantly
to the quality of life in Roanoke and the region.
As a major tourist destination, the Taubman Museum
of Art will attract record numbers of visitors to
Roanoke and western Virginia. The new facility will
enable the Museum to properly showcase its rapidly
growing, nationally important permanent collection,
and to grow its education and outreach programs
to meet continually increasing demand for quality
art education programming and family experiences.
The new Museum will become the signature attraction
for Roanoke and western Virginia in the twenty-first
century.
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