Flowing with the Albuquerque Museum Addition
By Neal Singer

Entering the three-quarters- completed, 39,000-sq.-ft. addition of the Albuquerque Museum near the city's Old Town plaza, is like entering a picture.

A fan-shaped naked steel canopy overhangs an informal flagstoned amphitheater. Sandstone accents, large glass windows, and huge cement columns create an unusually lively visual flow, yet hold together like the fingers on a glove. Simple perpendicular walls are hard to find, as are right-angled intersections.

External stairs and corridors flow together through turns and rock accents that reflect the Old Town neighborhood of adobe corridors and twisting streets. Within the building, large rooms open into each other without the hindrance of conventional doorways. Stone walls sometimes extend from one room to the next to offer the eye a visual continuity.

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The new addition doubles the size of the museum. The museum has been a long-time favorite of Albuquerque residents, who enjoy the artwork and traveling exhibits. The original museum was designed by Antoine Predock.

Museum director Jim Moore said the museum's complex design, achieved by architect Mark Rohde of Albuquerque-based Rohde, May, Keller, McNamara Architecture and built under the direction of project manager Dennis Towne of Bradbury Stamm Construction, - has fooled visiting architects, who have guessed the addition cost $22 million. The cost is actually $7.3 million, paid for mostly by general obligation city bonds and by a capital-funding campaign conducted by the museum.

Towne said that despite the complexity of the design, "This is the smoothest job I've ever worked on." His firm is based in Albuquerque.

"My estimate is that Mark took the first six months interviewing everyone to make sure he knew what was wanted before he drew a line," Towne added.

"By the time we had a set of drawings to build from, we had something that would work. Construction was a little difficult because of the [unconventional] angles but the trade-off was a high amount of buy-in by our subs because the job was more difficult than most. "

The architects gained ideas and disarmed any potential community resistance by interviewing local groups about how a relatively large addition to the neighborhood would blend in.

"Neighbors have a unique perspective because they live or work here," Rohde said. "We as designers can't presume we know what they do."

To avoid the aesthetic disharmony of visible ducting hanging in the large entry gallery, as well as to minimize vibration from a climate-control HVAC system working steadily to maintain 50 percent humidity, the ducting (as well as piping) was laid under the museum slab. >>

An over-excavation made to a depth 5 ft. below footings was brought up to pad height with processed fill, then trenched for ductwork, which then was encased in cement. The pad was poured over it.

"That's not something you see very often," Towne said. "I've seen it here and there, but never an entire building's pipes and ducts." The bulk of the building's heating will come from under the slab.

If something goes wrong, the slab will come out hard, but nothing will go wrong," Towne added.

Sixteen 28-ft.-tall concrete columns, on the other hand, are visible throughout the 8,000- sq.-ft. Grand Hall. Each was formed in a single pour, using a product from LaFarge Materials called Agilia, which allowed the concrete to self-consolidate without being vibrated, Towne said. The result, formed without a single cold joint, is smooth to the touch.

The electrical system for the galleries also has its conduits partially buried in cement. "In almost 40 years, I've only done one other dimming system [as complicated as] this," said Ted Von Gedda, superintendent for Salero Contractors of Albuquerque. Five rows of conduit, each 4 in. in diameter, are installed in a control room beneath the museum.

"[Electricians] took their time and made it look nice even thought it's a behind-the- scenes area," Von Gedda said.

The system controls 194 fixtures by sections. These will be programmed so that museum personnel upstairs can change lighting arrangements from a computer station. "The museum has to name each row of lights so it recognizes what it's changing," Von Gedda added.

China's building boom set the museum project back six weeks when "we couldn't buy rebar in Albuquerque, but that was only for a minor change order," Moore said. The bulk of needed materials had been secured in advance.

Unaffected by the Chinese boom were the travertine sandstone accents from Albuquerque-based Rockscapes of New Mexico, mined about 50 mi. away in Belen. "So much stone makes the job more expensive, but it's quarried locally so the hauling expense is less," Towne said.

The roofing system is a lightweight concrete deck with a fully adhered membrane for water run-off.

Exposed structural steel will be painted and left as a finished product. An entry canopy, its steel members as large and vivid as a dinosaur's bones, will be fitted with a glass system to protect patrons against rain. A j-shaped upper balcony, maintaining the interior's signature triangular motif, forms an additional viewing area for the outdoor amphitheater.

The project used 150 tons of structural steel and 38 tons of roof joists. About 1,147 yds. of concrete were used for the building as well as 300 yds. on the external site.

>A Soaring Project
>Flowing with the Albuquerque Museum Addition
>Art for the Masses in a Massive Project