Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Three of the museum buildings' roofs have glue-laminated arches supported on cables.
Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
The buildings are open, but the creek has yet to be filled with water.

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened to the public on Nov. 11, 2011. The complex was completed on schedule, according to Bill Greek, senior vice president of Linbeck Group LLC, which led the joint venture that built the project. Construction of the 201,000-sq-ft museum—a collection of 10 linked buildings—was challenging, thanks to its setting over and alongside a stream in a blasted-out ravine in Bentonville, Ark., and its Moshe Safdie architecture, full of asymmetrical and non-repetitive, curved forms. Work even required damming Crystal Spring, building two weirs and constructing three cable-supported roofs. Though the museum is open to the public, the creek has not yet been filled with water. That is expected later this month.