Challenging Museum in a Ravine Opens on Time
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.
