Crested Butte, Colorado
New Construction
Design Architect
Steinberg HartNew York, New York
Associate Architect
Andrew Hadley ArchitectCrested Butte, Colorado
Sheet Metal Contractor
Black Dragon DevelopmentCrested Butte, Colorado
Copper Panel Manufacturer
Ettel & Franz Roofing Co.Saint Paul, Minnesota
Center for the Arts serves as a cultural hub for Crested Butte, a historic town nestled in the Elk Mountains of western Colorado. Sited adjacent to the town’s main park, the center has become one of the town's most visible and identifiable buildings, thanks in part to interlocking copper panels that highlight its facade. The metal panels give the exterior a dynamic quality through the course of a day as the light moves across the building. From late morning through midday, daylight across the south elevation casts sharp shadows across the copper. In the early evening, the rays of the sun setting over the western mountains emphasize the metal's warm, orange coloring. And at night, the metal panels reflect nearby electrical lights.
Architects Steinberg Hart and Andrew Hadley led the project with contractor Black Dragon Development, working with fabricator Ettel & Franz Roofing on the copper elements. Established by a local non-profit arts group in conjunction with the Town of Crested Butte, the center comprises three significant elements. An all-copper central volume located at the southwest corner of the building marks the center’s two main entries: one at the upper street level and the other from the lower parking area. Larger volumes clad in wood that’s stained deep blue contain the theater, as well as multiple dance and art studios.
Inside, a glass-faced, double-height lobby offers mass timber framing with two copper-faced bars. The warm color and texture of the faceted copper panels define the entry volume's interior surfaces and clad the upper and lower entry vestibules, heightening the experience of entering the Center through a warm and inviting copper volume. During the day, the metal on the rounded shape of the upper vestibule picks up daylight from the high windows. At night, the copper-faced curved ceiling creates a warm glowing surface above the entry canopy that enhances the view of the Center as a warm, welcoming community space in the heart of Crested Butte.
