Crystal Bridges starts work on new entrance

Project adds access on northern side

A construction crew works on excavation Friday for the new north entrance to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. The project is set for completion in the spring.
A construction crew works on excavation Friday for the new north entrance to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville. The project is set for completion in the spring.

BENTONVILLE -- The thought of construction equipment returning to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art left Scott Eccleston with a bit of a knot in his stomach.

photo

Special to the Democrat-Gazette

This artist rendering shows the new entrance and 68-foot elevator tower under construction on the north side of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville.

photo

Rod Bigelow, executive director of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville.

photo

NWA Democrat-Gazette file photo

Scott Eccleston Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art director of operations is shown in this file photo.

photo

NWA Democrat-Gazette file photo

Architect Moshe Safdie walks through Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art on Wednesday, June 25, 2014, in Bentonville during a tour of the Global Citizen exhibition.

Eccleston, Crystal Bridges' director of operations, said the feeling harkened back to the painstaking process involved in constructing the 201,000-square-foot museum, which opened in 2011.

"We went through construction for so long," Eccleston said. "So for us that had worked on this building, you were almost like, 'No. Don't touch it. Don't even think about building on.'"

Eccleston said his jitters eased as work on the first structural addition to Crystal Bridges in nearly five years began last week. Crews started digging out the hillside at the northeast corner of the museum in preparation for a new entrance that officials believe will provide better access to the lawn and walking trails on the north side of the museum's 120-acre campus.

The entrance will include a 68-foot elevator tower to help guests get to the north lawn or into the galleries. The elevator also will provide access to a 100-foot-long pedestrian bridge that connects to the Rock Ledge and Dogwood trails on the museum's northeast side.

The multipurpose project is expected to be completed next spring, and Crystal Bridges Executive Director Rod Bigelow said once it's finished it will fit with the museum's mission of fusing art and nature.

"Crystal Bridges was founded on the concept of access to all," Bigelow said. "One of the things we've learned after living in the building for almost five years is that we have a great asset in the grounds. To provide greater access to, basically, almost half of the site that's north of the building has become really important to us. It should be a very easy access point."

Bigelow and Eccleston said access has been a challenge. The museum has main and south entrances, but no easy way for guests on the northern end. That has resulted in few people enjoying the museum's largest lawn area.

The 3½-acre North Lawn is home to Mark di Suvero's Lowell's Ocean. Eccleston said most guests now see the sculpture only from the Early 20th Century Art Gallery bridge.

Museum officials thought it was important to find a way for people to get out and take a closer look at the sculpture, and for people using the surrounding trails -- including the Crystal Bridges Trail that runs on the west side of the campus -- to be able to enter the museum.

"We want you to engage into all aspects of Crystal Bridges," Eccleston said. "To fully do that, you have to enjoy architecture, enjoy art and enjoy nature. It's not good enough from the gallery. It wasn't good enough. We needed a real tangible, on-the-forest-floor feeling."

Officials took those thoughts to Moshe Safdie, who designed Crystal Bridges. Safdie agreed to work with the museum to come up with a plan to expand access points to a museum, which has had more than 2 million visitors since it opened.

It also was vital to maintain the "integrity of the building," Bigelow said. The new structure will consist of copper, which also is featured on the roof of the Early 20th Century Art Gallery and Eleven Restaurant.

"It is wonderful to continue our work with Crystal Bridges," Safdie said in a statement. "We are delighted that the building needs adjustment and adaptation due to its growth in attendance."

In addition to Safdie Designs, Rogers-based architecture firm Hight Jackson Associates is working on the project. Flintco Constructive Solutions was hired as the contractor.

Crystal Bridges declined to reveal the projected cost of the project, but Bigelow said the north entrance is being funded through a long-term capital endowment provided by the Walton Family Foundation.

Improved access will give the museum another opportunity to be "creative" with programming, Bigelow said. There is more open space on the building's north side than in other parts of the museum grounds, so school events and other gatherings are among possibilities for its use. Bigelow said a yet-to-be-announced "art experience" will be incorporated in the North Lawn, as well.

"It just shows how hard they're working to engage the community and to make Crystal Bridges and its contents as available to the general public as it possibly can," said Troy Galloway, Bentonville's director of community and economic development.

"It's a world-class American art museum and the contents -- the pieces, the paintings that are contained within -- are fantastic. But the site, its situation in that valley with the bodies of water and with the trails, that to me is what really makes Crystal Bridges. I think the beauty of the outdoor areas will be made even more available with this north entrance," Galloway said.

Much of the construction will be visible to guests as they roam through the galleries. In fact, a few visitors watched through windows as construction crews began clearing the site Wednesday. Eccleston said the goal is to have the structure completed in December, with landscaping and other work finished by the end of March.

The work has required the museum to close the grounds on the northern end and close the Rock Ledge Trail. The Dogwood Trail also is closed as it undergoes improvements. Some residents have complained about the trail closures, but Eccleston said it will be worthwhile as Crystal Bridges creates its "new front door."

"Closing an artery or a trail system, yeah, it's painful. It's a tough decision," Eccleston said. "But like I tell everybody, it will just blow their socks off when they see it.

"It is going to be a real integration of art and nature. It's going to be something else."

SundayMonday on 06/26/2016

Upcoming Events