美术中心
被著名历史学家马歇尔·斯普拉格称为“生活中美好事物的城堡”和“该地区最重要的文化贡献”, 科罗拉多斯普林斯美术中心是一个长期的建筑和慈善合作的结果. 因此，它的意义在于建筑的两个领域, deriving from the 重要性 of its architect and design; and philanthropy/history, 这源于它对科罗拉多斯普林斯文化生活的重要贡献.
架构师, 还有设计, 有助于美术中心在建筑上的重要性. 架构师, 约翰·高·米姆, 从1924年到1959年，谁的办公室记录了他职业生涯中的654项委托, 设计了一系列住宅, churches, 政府办公室和大学大楼. 他主要在新墨西哥州工作，在科罗拉多州只受少数委托. 西南地区的顶尖建筑师之一, 他发展并完善了典型的“圣达菲”风格, 源自普韦布洛和西班牙殖民时期的建筑. 荣誉不断地向他袭来 ... 他喜欢在激烈的比赛中赢得委托 . . . 大学授予他荣誉学位 . . . 新墨西哥州州长宣布设立约翰·高·米姆纪念日."
The 建筑的 design, which earned for Meem the Silver Medal in 1940 at the Fifth Pan American Congress of 体系结构 in Uruguay, was the most modern design he was ever to create. It 代表 a pivotal point in his career – the 成功的 结合 of the regional style, for which he was already well known, and 现代主义. In 认识到 the innate 兼容性 of the two, he 巧妙地 集成 传统, 技术 专业知识 and 功能主义.
The design 体现 three important trends of the 1930s – Art Deco, here expressed in an 适应 of the idiom, utilizing 装饰 designs from the Pueblo and Navajo cultures' 地方主义 and 现代主义. These three, added to the elements of 古典风格, give the design a universal feel. The styling, combined with the quality of finish and detail, and the survival of the interior, make the Fine Arts Center unique in the state. The presence of murals by 在全国范围内 known artists Robinson, Mechau, Musick, Lockwood, Dasburg, and Adams and aluminum panels by Ronnebeck (refer to Section 7), also lends 重要性 and artistic 成就 to the design.
The design has 额外的 value for its 成功的 grouping of various art 活动 into a complete art center, resulting in one of the first such 合并 in the country, and certainly the first in the Rocky Mountain region. This solution would 从今以后 be adopted by 中等大小的 社区 across the country. The 历史/慈善 重要性 of the Fine Arts Center is 相关的 with its founder, Alice Bemis Taylor, and with its complete 体现 of the 繁荣 and level of cultural 愿望 which have 特征 Colorado Springs since its founding in 1871. Mrs. Taylor (for whom the Taylor Museum division of the Fine Arts Center is named) was one of the 社区的 leading 恩人, 支持 an array of civic and 科学 projects and higher education. The Fine Arts Center 代表 her crowning 成就. 最初 设想 as a modest folk art museum to house and display her personal 集合, it was expanded to a "vast center where all the community could practice all the arts." In 结合 with the 鼓励 and 协作 of two other major community leaders and 慈善家, Mrs. Meredith Sage Hare and Mrs. Spencer Penrose (of Broadmoor 利益), and building upon the already existing and 在全国范围内 known Broadmoor Art Academy, the Fine Arts Center came into being.
集成 elements of the 西南部, 现代主义, Art Deco, and 古典风格, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center is a one- and two-level Pueblo-style 单片 poured concrete 结构, with a 一栋四层 theatre fly tower. The 主要 effect is that of a 多层次的 Native American terraced pueblo, created by the stepped massing, minimal 开窗术 and absence of 装饰 – an effect 钢筋 by the 建筑的 detached setting (特别是 when viewed from the west). The building is 有利地 situated on a bluff, 俯瞰 Pikes Peak and bordering a city park. It is located in one of the oldest 住宅 社区 in Colorado Springs, now 特征 by a mixture of 住宅, office and college 建筑, within the nine blocks of the city's central downtown business district.
重要的 exterior features begin with the 建筑的 massive walls. Textured from the marks of the 水平 wooden concrete forms, they are broken only by narrow, 小心翼翼地 成比例的 vertical windows and slim 渠道, which appear on some walls and the theatre fly tower. The minimal exterior 装饰 is limited to aluminum doors, window frames and loggia and balcony railings and 匀整 canales (西班牙式 water spouts). Murals appear in two, 受保护的 exterior 位置. Directly above the five entryway doors, five spandrels are decorated with frescoes by Boardman Robinson depicting the five arts – 雕塑, drama, dance, music and art – in a "faintly cubistic style." A frieze extending the length of the 院子里 features a fresco 作文 of horses by Frank Mechau.
The exterior squared columns of the loggia, which extends across the western face of the building, are repeated in the squared columns of the portico-style entrance with recessed doors, classical in effect. Further, a classical unifying device described as “抽象 Palladianism” divides columns, windows, and bays into 3s, 5s, and 7s. A 对比 基础上, made of local red Manitou pumice, is evident on the sloping hillside section of the site.
Elements of 传统的 Southwest floor planning are 完成 with a 有柱廊的 portal (porch) along the north side of the 院子里 and with a zaguan (wide-gated entryway) east of the main entrance.
The interior of the building is 特征 by its use of costly materials (heralded by the black granite front steps) and 专门设计的 details and fixtures. The building houses 画廊, museum storage space, 执行 arts 设施, art studios, a museum shop, a library and offices. This 描述 will focus on five 杰出的 interior areas: entrance lobby and foyer; theatre; theatre lounge and loggia; library and music room.
The spacious, two-floor high entrance lobby, whose feeling has been described as “克制 古典风格”, extends westward in a long, wide corridor which serves as an art gallery and an entrance hall for the theatre. Its flooring is marble terrazo, with insets and borders of green and black marble; the latter continues as 护墙板. 细分 by two, gentle floor level changes, this foyer leads to a 落地 window and 华丽的 view of Pikes Peak. Above the entrance vestibule are works by Taos artists Andrew Dasburg, Kenneth Adams, and Ward Lockwood. Striking 吊灯 are found in both the lounge and loggia, with designs derived from Native American symbols. The lounge ceiling 演示了 the only interior use of uncovered cement: its wood grained design, 人字 pattern, and squared beams are 抽象 from the cross-logs and vigas (support timbers) of 西南 ceilings.
The library features two reading rooms paneled in walnut and birch, with 落地 shelving and built-in cabinets of the same woods.
A 二楼 music room (seating 能力, 140) is reached by stairs from the lobby, whose railing 包含了 treble clef and musical notes. A small, rounded, 流线型的 Art Deco stage and a 吊灯 with 雨/云 motif with lyre-shaped supports are focal points of the room.
Further interior details of note are: a) the 合并 在 the building of Art Deco designs, 抽象 from Native American designs, into the 施釉 aluminum gallery gates, door trim and grills, in addition to the 吊灯 and lighting fixtures already 提到; and b) a mural by Archie Musick which wraps around the walls of the anteroom to the basement restrooms.
In 1972, a wing was added which provides a fourth side to the 院子里. This 外壳 of the 院子里 allowed circular movement of traffic through the 画廊, which now 完全 surround the 院子里. A 两级, nearly 没有窗户的 wing was designed by Carlisle Guy, a protege of the original 架构师, who adapted the original 材料, massing, and details in scale and harmony with the original building. The open, 有柱廊的 porch along the north side of the 院子里 was glassed in at this time, further 促进 an interior 循环 pattern.
In 2003, the FAC's ambitions took a leap forward with a series of 百视达 art 展览 featuring Dale Chihuly, Andy Warhol, and Peter Max. The 压倒性的 受欢迎程度 of the Chihuly 展览 in 2005, with more than 71,000 与会者, helped kick off an ambitious $30 million capital campaign for a 改造 and expansion of the facility. David Owen Tryba, a Colorado Springs native, designed the 两层, 48,000 平方英尺 expansion - bringing the building to a total of 132286平方 feet - that was 普遍 praised for how it 补充 the original building. The 2005 改造 also upgraded the theatre's sound, light, and set 功能. The name of the theatre was changed to the SaGÄ�Ji in honor of the donor's three daughters.
An Historic Alliance
In 2016, the Fine Arts Center 正式 announced an historic alliance with Colorado College that signaled the 重新构想 and 重新定义 of both 组织的 贡献 to the arts in the region. The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College will continue to provide 创新, 教育、 and 多学科 arts 经历 that elevate the 个人 spirit and inspire community vitality, building upon its history as a unique cultural pillar of the Rocky Mountain region.