Aspen Art Museum celebrates 10 years of Shigeru Ban’s landmark design
Courtesy photo
It’s been a decade since the Shigeru Ban-designed Aspen Art Museum (AAM) on the corner of South Spring Street and East Hyman Avenue opened its doors.
To mark the occasion, Ban is returning to Aspen and being honored at the museum’s annual ArtCrush Auction and Gala alongside artist Jacqueline Humphries as well as composer and artist Jason Moran.
After an international search in 2007, the Aspen Art Museum’s Architect Selection Committee — spearheaded by Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, former Aspen Art Museum CEO and director — unanimously chose Shigeru Ban Architects (SBA).
The building, however, became a controversial and contentious topic in the community.
“This was such a difficult project to start,” Ban said. “We designed two buildings — the first for the original site, but the community didn’t want to put a museum there. So we gave up the first site because the community didn’t agree. I had to redesign the building for the second (and current) site, but it was very small for what they wanted. So that’s why it was quite a difficult project.”
The design of the 33,000-square-foot, four-level facility was led by SBA’s New York office and opened on Aug. 9, 2014. It houses eight exhibition spaces: six gallery spaces, a rooftop sculpture garden, and an outdoor commons. There are five main architectural features within the building’s design plan: Grand Stair, Moving Glass Room Elevator, Woven Wood Screen, Wood Roof Truss, and Walkable Skylights.
Ban was born in Tokyo in 1957 and graduated from Cooper Union’s School of Architecture. Ten years after founding his firm, he became a consultant to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1995 establishing the NGO, Voluntary Architects’ Network (VAN) in the same year to support disaster relief.
In 2014, he was named the 37th recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize — the most prestigious prize in modern architecture — for his dedication and work in socially-conscious architecture.
For 30 years, he has traveled the world to sites of natural and man-made disasters to work with governments, residents, volunteers, and students to design and construct simple, low-cost, recyclable shelters and community buildings for disaster victims. He is currently working on a hospital complex in Ukraine, alongside other projects.
Aspen Art Museum is his only art museum (and public) project built in the United States. On Friday, Ban will hold two events: Shigeru Ban in Conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist at 11 a.m. on the Aspen Art Museum rooftop, and Shigeru Ban Book Signing Cocktail at Bad Harriet from 4 to 5 p.m.
I caught up with Ban in Tokyo via telephone, ahead of his trip to Aspen. The below conversation was edited for brevity and clarity.
Sarah Girgis: Have you been back to Aspen in the last 10 years?
Shigeru Ban: Yes, for the fifth anniversary in 2019. When I went back, I was very pleased to see that the condition of the museum under the leadership of Heidi was perfect.
SG: What was your approach to the design?
SB: The site was nice but very small for what they (AAM) wanted. So I got the idea to make a semi-outdoor staircase and a transparent elevator to bring all the visitors to the rooftop first since there wasn’t space for a lobby on the first floor.
Looking out over the mountain (Aspen) from the roof, I wanted to mimic the act of skiing. When you ski you take a lift to the top, enjoy the view, and ski down. I wanted the experience of moving through the museum to feel like skiing down the mountain from top to bottom.
SG: How did you consider Aspen’s natural surroundings?
SB: I also put in a big window, which allows you to see into the bottom floor gallery and see what exhibitions are happening. So I wanted to connect the public on the street with inside the museum visually. Normally, you will find out what’s inside the exhibition after you enter the museum.
SG: How would you describe your style?
SB: Well, I don’t have any particular style. The most important thing is interpreting the site condition. I try to take advantage of the site condition, both the good and the bad. That is my style.
SG: Talk a little bit about the exterior of the building.
SB: There was no space to design the facade. So I just stuck in all the necessary galleries and covered it with this woven wooden material to match the context of downtown Aspen. As you know, many buildings are square and brick. Instead of using bricks, I made the wooden screens but wanted it to fit in the existing downtown Aspen context.
SG: You’ll be honored at ArtCrush on Friday. What are you looking forward to doing during your return to Aspen?
SB: I’m looking forward to meeting the new director of the museum (Nicola Lees).
Sarah Girgis is the Arts and Entertainment Editor for The Aspen Times. She can be reached at 970-429-9151 or sgirgis@aspentimes.com.
Aspen Art Museum celebrates 10 years of Shigeru Ban’s landmark design
It’s been a decade since the Shigeru Ban designed Aspen Art Museum (AAM) on the corner of Spring and E. Hyman opened its doors. To mark the occasion Ban is returning to Aspen and being honored at the museum’s annual ArtCrush Auction and Gala alongside artist Jacqueline Humphries, and composer and artist Jason Moran.
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