| At the heart of downtown Roanoke, the new 81,000 square foot Taubman Museum of Art proves an arresting landmark for visitors arriving from US I-581. As Roanoke's most contemporary structure, it provides an analog for the city's evolution from industrial and manufacturing town to technology-driven city. The building's forms and materials evoke both the drama of the surrounding mountainous landscape of the Shenandoah Valley and the lyrically gritty industrial-era building culture of the great early 20th century railroad boom, when Roanoke came to prominence as a switchpoint city of the new South.
The finish on its undulating, angel hair-finish stainless steel roof forms reflects the rich palette of colors found in the sky and the seasonal landscape. Inspired by mountain streams, translucent glass surfaces - some brilliantly clear and others frosted to filter and modulate interior daylight - emerge from the building's mass to create canopies of softly diffused illumination over the public spaces and gallery level. As it rises to support the stainless steel roof, a layered pattern of angular exterior walls surfaced in shingled, patinated zinc gives an earthen and aged quality to the façade. |
