Bellevue Arts Museum

The Bellevue Art Museum focuses on education and outreach rather than collecting. In fact the museum maintains no permanent collection but rather collaborates with local arts and educational institutions to provide innovative arts programming and changing temporary exhibitions. As an “art garage” open to the street, the museum provides a new pedestrian city scale at the center of Bellevue as well as an active workshop for new art projects.

CONCEPT: Tripleness is the organizing concept for the building. A non-dialectic openness of experience, thought and contact give character to space on three levels, in three galleries, with three different light conditions and three circulation options.

TRIPLENESS (non-dialectic openness):
-3 gallery lofts
-3 light qualities
-3 actions – see/explore/make (art, science, technology)
-3 main levels
-3 circulation directions
The spirit of openness of the Bellevue Art Museum is expressed in the three main lofts which are each slightly warped and gripped by the end wall structures. The outer walls in a special “shot crete” construction support the inner lightweight steel framework. The three distinct lighting conditions of the three gallery lofts are analogous to three different conditions of time and light. Linear Ongoing Time is expressed in the evenness of the light in the north loft. Cyclic Time has its parallel in the arc of south light gallery. Its plan geometry corresponds roughly to the arc of the sun at 48° north latitude. Fragmented or Gnostic Time is reflected in the east-west skylights of the studios loft.