by Russell Boniface
Associate Editor

Summary: The new $28 million Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, Colo., announced this summer the selection of Tokyo-based Shigeru Ban Architects as principal architect and designer for a new 30,000-square-foot downtown museum on a five-acre site. The five-year expansion will re-situate curatorial and exhibition space from the existing 7,000-square-foot structure—a converted hydroelectric plant—to a new 13,000-square-foot facility. The project will mark the first museum design in the U.S. by architect Shigeru Ban, Hon. FAIA. Ban will work with New York City-based Dean Maltz Architects on the project.

The Aspen Art Museum is working with the Aspen City Council to secure for the new museum a five-acre site in an area called the Zupancis-Galena, located directly between Aspen’s downtown urban core and the open space of Rio Grande Park and the Roaring Fork River Corridor.

“We are excited about the selection of Shigeru Ban and what we think that means to the architecture world,” says Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson, director and chief curator of the Aspen Art Museum. Although the Shigeru Ban and Dean Maltz design has not been revealed and is still pending the final approval of the Aspen City Council, if approved it will expand curatorial and exhibition space to 13,000 square feet. “We show artists from around the globe," says Zuckerman Jacobson. “It is a very international program.”

Zuckerman Jacobson says the new Aspen Art Museum, like the existing museum, will continue to provide a venue for contemporary art. It will include gallery spaces, education classroom space, and a bookstore. The cost of designing, building, and operating the new facility will be supported by private funds from Aspen Art Museum donors.

In 1999, Shigeru Ban formed a partnership with Dean Maltz Architects, and both firms have done museums worldwide. “We are in the pre-design phase for the museum,” says architect Dean Maltz of Dean Maltz Architects. “From the short list, the Aspen Museum interviewed a number of architects in Aspen who presented to the building committee, and then we were selected.” Maltz is enthusiastic about the prospect. “Aspen is one of those pleasure places on the planet—skiing, fishing, hiking, bike riding. I think it’s a great opportunity to be working on a cultural institution in Aspen, because of the people who come to Aspen from around the world. The idea of having an art museum in an area with so many different cultures and people is a fantastic opportunity for us.”

Frances Dittmer, chair and secretary of the Aspen Art Museum’s Board of Trustees, is positive about the selection of Shigeru Ban Architects as principal architect and designer for the new Aspen Art Museum. “In our search, we felt that it was vital that the prospective architect not only understand the standards and expectations we have for the future home of our institution, but its importance to Aspen as well. Ban’s work stood out as a clear, enthusiastic, and unanimous choice. I have every confidence that Shigeru Ban’s new plan for the Aspen Art Museum will be nothing short of perfection and will offer a truly stunning venue for experiencing contemporary art.”