The United States Olympic Museum, a new cultural facility recognized by the International Olympic Committee, celebrates American Olympic and Paralympic athletes.
Located at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado Springs, home of the United States Olympic Training Center, the 65,750 square foot museum takes its athletes as inspiration.
The design idealizes athletic motion by organizing its programs – galleries, auditorium, and administrative spaces – twisting and stretching centrifugally around an atrium space.
Visitors arrive at the ground level of the atrium, and then ascend to the top of the building quickly and gradually spiral down through a sequence of loft galleries, moving back-and-forth from the introspective atrium to the building’s perimeter and views to the city and the mountains.
The museum and the landscape are designed to form a new public plaza, nestling a distant view of Pikes Peak and an intersecting axis bridging downtown across the train tracks to the America the Beautiful Park to the west.
“It’s a rare opportunity to be part of a team that will bring the stories of U.S. Olympians, Paralympians, and the Olympic movement to the public in a building structure.
The challenge for the architecture will be to embody the elegance of form, dynamism, and strength so characteristic of the athlete, and the appearance of effortlessness and without an ounce of fat!” Source and images, Courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
