JULY 26, 2006 — (DENVER) – The Clyfford Still Museum announced today its selection of semi-finalist architects to design the future home of the highly anticipated Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado. The approximately 30,000 square foot museum facility will accommodate galleries for the legendary artist’s work, educational spaces, collection storage, a conservation laboratory, library/archive space, and public areas.

The Clyfford Still Museum Architect Selection Committee selected the following five firms to advance to the next round: Allied Works Architecture (Portland); David Chipperfield (London); Diller Scofidio + Renfro (New York City); Ohlhausen DuBois Architects (New York City) and SANAA (Tokyo).

With an estimated completion date of 2009, the Clyfford Still Museum Board invited 23 local, national and international firms to submit credentials by issuing a request for qualifications (RFQ). Firms were asked to provide information demonstrating their understanding of museum needs and an ability to create a building that presents the optimum viewing experience for Still’s art. The Selection Committee also requested that architects demonstrate their ability to deliver a building that is architecturally significant on an international scale.

The Clyfford Still Museum will be located within Denver’s Civic Center Cultural Complex on the east side of Bannock Street south of 13th Avenue. Denver’s Civic Center Cultural Complex contains some of Denver’s most significant cultural amenities, including the Denver Art Museum (North Building, designed by Gio Ponti, 1971; Frederic C. Hamilton Building, designed by Daniel Libeskind, 2006), the Denver Public Library (designed by Michael Graves, 1995), and the Colorado History Museum.

Three finalists will be selected following in-person interviews with the committee in September, and these three finalists will return to Denver for final presentations, as well as free public lectures, to be held at the Colorado Convention Center at 6:00 p.m. on November 6, 2006.

“The Clyfford Still Museum Architect Selection Committee is extremely pleased at the caliber and prestige of the firms selected for our short list of architects,” said Dean Sobel, Director of the Clyfford Still Museum. “Each firm selected demonstrated a strong architectural vision and creative passion to lead the design process as we look to build a world-class cultural museum for Still’s work.”

“Today’s announcement marks an important milestone for the future development of the Clyfford Still Museum,” said Christopher Hunt, Chairman of the Clyfford Still Museum Board. “Our ultimate goal is to select an architectural partner to design a forum to showcase Clyfford Still’s artistic brilliance and to advance Denver’s cultural and art community.”

Relevant projects for each semi-finalist include:

• Allied Works Architecture and its principle Brad Cloepfil are based in Portland, Oregon. Mr. Cloepfil designed the Contemporary Art Museum, Saint Louis; extensions to the Seattle Art Museum and University of Michigan Museum of Art; as well as the renovation of Edward Durrell Stone’s iconic Two Columbus Circle in New York, the new facility for the Museum of Arts & Design.
• London-based David Chipperfield Architects designed the acclaimed Des Moines Public Library and Figge Art Museum (Davenport, IA). David Chipperfield has also been the lead master planner for the Museum Island in Berlin. Other Chipperfield projects include the Anchorage Museum of History and Art (AK), the Anthony Gormley Studio (London), and the Museum of Modern Literature, Marbach, Germany.
• Diller Scofidio + Renfro of New York have provided the design for the new facility for the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, opening in September of this year. They are also working with New York’s Lincoln Center for the Arts on key renovations and additions to various facilities, including Alice Tully Hall and The Julliard School. Diller + Scofidio were the first architects to receive the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (the so-called “genius prize”).
• Ohlhausen DuBois Architects have worked extensively in New York City, the base of the practice formed by Rolf Ohlhausen and Mark DuBois. Among their most acclaimed designs are the Gatehouse performing arts space at Aaron Davis Hall; the Cooper Union Residence Hall; Danese Gallery; and the renovation of the John L. Tishman Auditorium at New School University, all in New York, as well as the Klein Residence in Santa Fe, dubbed “among the finest American homes built for art.”
• SANAA is the Tokyo-based collaborative office of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. They have received international acclaim for their designs of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa and the so-called N-Museum and O-Museum, all in Japan. They  are also designing a satellite museum for the Musée du Louvre in Lens, France. Their first U.S. projects are a new facility for the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art, both currently under construction.

The Clyfford Still Museum will house the entire Still estate – approximately 2,200 of his artworks bequeathed to the City of Denver in 2004. The estate was formed upon the artist’s death in 1980. Still’s artwork has been sealed off from both public and scholarly view while awaiting an American city to step forward to build permanent quarters to house his work — what is now understood to be 90 percent of the artist’s total output — as

well as his extensive archive. For more information about the Clyfford Still Museum, please visit www.clyffordstillmuseum.org.