Why you should visit the Martin Building.
The Martin Building isn’t just an extension of the Denver Art Museum, it’s a resurrection. Once known as the North Building, this striking architectural icon has been reimagined into a living bridge between Denver’s artistic past and its creative future. Its gleaming glass welcome center and restored geometric facade embody the soul of the city itself: modern, resilient, and ever-evolving.
Inside, the Martin Building opens like a time capsule. Galleries flow with an intentional rhythm, from Indigenous and Western American art to contemporary installations that blur the lines between tradition and innovation. The play of light across Gio Ponti’s signature tilework reminds visitors that art doesn’t only hang on walls; sometimes, it is the walls.
What you didn’t know about the Martin Building.
Originally designed by Italian modernist Gio Ponti in 1971, the Martin Building was Ponti’s only completed project in North America, a masterpiece of mid-century minimalism reborn for the 21st century. After a meticulous three-year renovation, it reopened in 2021, honoring both Ponti’s original vision and Denver’s cultural renaissance.
Few realize that much of the structure’s original materials were preserved, from its façade panels to its rhythmic grid windows, each reflecting the Rocky Mountain light in a slightly different hue. The renovation also introduced the Anna and John J. Sie Welcome Center, a sleek, glass-domed entryway that connects the Martin and Hamilton Buildings in one seamless flow. Together, they form a conversation across generations of design, proof that art and architecture age best when they evolve side by side.
How to fold the Martin Building into your trip.
Start your visit here before exploring the rest of the Denver Art Museum. Enter through the Sie Welcome Center and look up, the skylit ceiling frames the sky like a canvas. Then move through the reimagined galleries, where Ponti’s clean lines meet bold curatorial storytelling.
Pause at the seventh-floor terrace for one of the best city views in Denver, then wander through the Indigenous Arts of North America and Western American Art collections, which feel right at home in this architectural landmark. End your visit at the Ponti restaurant, a nod to the building’s namesake, where local ingredients meet modern design. Whether you come for the art, the architecture, or the atmosphere, the Martin Building stands as Denver’s ultimate fusion of heritage and reinvention, a space where creativity has quite literally been rebuilt from the ground up.
Hear it from the Foresyte community.
The building looks like it crash-landed in downtown and decided to stay. Inside, it’s wall-to-wall creativity without feeling pretentious.
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