To accommodate rapid growth of its collections and programs, the Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, Va., had Los Angeles-based Randall Stout Architects Inc. design a new 81,000-square-foot (7,525-m2) building. Located at one of Roanoke’s most visible and historic intersections, the Taubman Museum of Art is the first major purpose-built museum constructed in the city. As Roanoke’s most contemporary structure, the museum is a metaphorical gateway to the future as the city evolves from an industrial and manufacturing economy to a technology-driven economy.
The building pays homage to the famed Blue Ridge and Appalachian Mountains and features flexible exhibition galleries for the museum’s permanent collection of 19th and early 20th century American art, contemporary art and decorative arts; education facilities with a studio classroom and library; multipurpose auditorium, flexible theater/programming space; café; museum store; and outdoor terraces providing unique vistas of the city.
The stainless-steel roof finish reflects the rich variety of color found in the sky and seasonal landscape. Inspired by the landscape, the translucent glass surfaces emerge from the building to create canopies of softly diffused light over the public spaces and gallery level. A layered pattern of angular exterior walls is surfaced in shingled patinated zinc to give an earthen and aged quality to the façade as it rises to support the stainless-steel roof.
The three-story museum has a central 4,300- square-foot (399-m2) atrium that is a multipurpose space used for ticketing and information, temporary installations of large-scale sculptures, public meetings, special events and performances. The ground level includes the lobby, café, store, auditorium, theater and education areas, along with the loading dock and art receiving areas. The second level features the permanent collection galleries, temporary exhibition galleries and art storage. Visitors are led up the grand staircase to the gallery level by illuminated glass treads. The boardroom, director’s suit and staff offices are on the third floor.
In the lobby, store and theater foyer, Hokie stone, native to western Virginia, is used to add a familiar, natural texture and color to the interior. The variations of the forms and textures mirror the region’s famous caverns, cliffs and river gorges. The glass atrium fills the lobby with natural light during the day, while at night the translucent glass roof surfaces are illuminated, drawing visitors and the community to the museum. On the second level, a luminous ceiling of cascading, backlit, translucent polycarbonate panels lead visitors through the central gallery hall to the permanent collection galleries. The luminous ceiling extends into the gallery space to diffuse the daylight from clerestory windows and overhead skylights in the contemporary and American galleries. The third level receives a significant amount of natural light as the undulating roof forms allow multiple opportunities to provide clerestory windows for the offices.
All gallery and education spaces in the museum are wired to link to broadband networks across the state to enhance elementary, secondary and higher education and provide greater access to the visual arts. The museum also features a number of sustainable design elements,including daylighting, radiant heating and cooling, thermal-conserving envelope and computerized building management systems.
A. Zahner Co., Kansas City, Mo., provided a variety of products for the project, including all the complex geometrical shapes in the patented ZEPPS system. Zahner also designed, engineered, fabricated and installed 50,000 square feet (4,645 m2) of custom Zahner Angel Hair stainless-steel roof panels and 40,000 square feet (3,716 m2) of custom Zahner Roanake zinc flat lock wall panels in parallelogram format. Zahner developed the custom patina along with Randall Stout to reflect the colors and images of the Blue Ridge Mountains, as well as the region’s native stone palette. Umicore Building Products USA Inc., Raleigh, N.C., supplied zinc sheet material to Zahner for the project, and Samuel, Son & Co. Inc., Dallas, supplied the stainless-steel sheet metal. Permasteelisa North America, Windsor, Conn., supplied supplied 22,750 square feet
(2,113 m2) of glass curtainwall and exterior glazing.
Rodriguez Ripley Maddux Motley Architects, Roanoke, was the associate architect; Balfour Beatty Construction, Fairfax, Va., was the general contractor; Mattern & Craig, Roanake, was the civil engineer; DeSimone Consulting Engineers Inc., San Francisco, was the structural engineer; IBE Consulting Engineers Inc., Sherman Oaks, Calif., was the MEP engineer; and Curtainwall Design & Consulting Inc., Dallas, was the curtainwall consultant.
A. Zahner Co.
Permasteelisa North America
Umicore Building Products USA Inc.
