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Located on the corner of Nebraska and Third Streets in Sioux City, Iowa, the Sioux City Art Center’s new facility opened to the public in 1997. The building offers 10,000 square feet of exhibition space, a 131-seat lecture hall, the Atrium Gift Gallery, the Junior League Hands On! Gallery, progressively-designed classrooms, an Artist-in-Residence studio, a fully equipped dark room and ceramics studio, and an environmentally controlled vault for the housing and preservation of the Art Center’s permanent collection.
A central three-story rotunda anchors the complex. The glass rotunda becomes a glowing beacon at night and contrasts with the solidity of the flanking wings. SOM clad these structures in locally manufactured “Siouxland” brick, used in the town’s other public buildings, and is similar to the horizontal brick favored by Prairie School architects.
The close collaboration between SOM’s architectural and engineering disciplines is reflected in the high quality of the exposed structural concrete finishes, and in the design of the rotunda’s crown, which contains the Art Center’s HVAC and smoke evacuation equipment.
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is an architecture partnership founded in 1936 to provide complete professional services in the fields of architectural design, planning, and engineering. Since then SOM has undertaken a variety of projects in the United States and in more than forty countries throughout the world. The firm’s unique combination of highly qualified personnel and comprehensive services has resulted in many important innovations in design and technology.
For more than 67 years, SOM has been a faithful and enthusiastic supporter of the arts. Across the nation and around the world, the private sector and governmental agencies have entrusted SOM with new projects, restoration and renovation to develop centers where creation and appreciation of art can be nourished.
SOM’s commitment to advancing the arts is evidenced by their long list of projects for performance complexes, concert halls and museums. Their Chicago office is directly across the street from the renowned Art Institute of Chicago. SOM has successfully served the Art Institute and its School for more than 30 years, and continue to work with them today. SOM has further served greater Chicago by developing a master plan for the Field Museum of Natural History; renovating and expanding the Chicago Civic Opera House (Lyric Opera); creating and implementing the master plan for Ravinia Festival, the summer home for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and expanding and renovating the Symphony Center of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, all of which have won recent design awards.
SOM’s dedicated support of the art community extends far beyond Chicago. One of SOM’s most noteworthy projects is the Sioux City Art Center. Another distinctive project is the LG Kangnam Arts Hall, a new state-of-the-art multi-purpose facility in Seoul, Korea. Other noteworthy commissions include: the Istanbul Culture and Art Center, Istanbul ,Turkey; the Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, Illinois; the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, Massachusetts; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; the Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., and the Renaissance Center, Kobe, Japan. Currently, the firm is working on the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, Texas and the Virginia Beach Performing Arts Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
The American Institute of Architects recognized SOM with the highest honor given to architectural firms, the 1996 Architecture Firm Award for distinguished architecture. SOM was the recipient of the first Architecture Firm Award in 1962 and is the only firm to win this award a second time. SOM’s unyielding commitment to excellence results in the completion of visionary, functional and noteworthy buildings. Throughout its history, SOM has been recognized with more than 850 awards for quality and innovation, 125 of which have been received in the past 10 years.
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