THE HEARD MUSEUM MAKEOVER

the OUR WORLD CLASS SHOWCASE new OF INDIAN ARTS AND CULTURE

All world-class museums possess attributes in common. They exude an aura of grandeur. They dominate the area that surrounds them. Their architectural bravado stuns all who come within view. Great museums dazzle the eye. These characteristics make them easy to remember but impossible to describe.

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The Heard Museum already known the world over for its fine Indian art - took its final step to greatness earlier this year with an $18.1-million expansion. The project created an additional 50,000 square feet, nearly doubling the museum's size. There are three new galleries, affording greatly expanded exhibits; a 400-seat multipurpose auditorium complex; an Education Center with three classrooms; an expanded Museum Shop and Bookstore; and a cafe with indoor and outdoor seating.

A working studio also was added, allowing visitors to watch and converse with the Indian artists as they create.

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the new heard museum

Before this expansion, more than 250,000 people visited the Heard annually, most of them tourists. This number is expected to multiply.

The expansion has already succeeded in the most challenging area of all, its design. The original Heard Museum was built in 1929 by Dwight B. Heard and his wife, Maie Bartlett Heard. An intimate place with a lot of windows, its entrance faced a treelined side street. The architectural wizardry of the Langdon Wilson firm managed this time to create a new Central Avenue entrance without losing its charm. Set back from busy Central Avenue, a long grassy area and a recessed amphitheater first catch the eye.

Think for a moment of other public buildings that dominate their space so completely: The Louvre on the banks of the Seine, The Uffizi Gallery in Florence, The Getty Museum, high on a hill in Los Angeles. The expanded Heard has now moved into this league. And it did so without expanding to an unmanageable size.

The museum's incredible collection of Indian art and artifacts now revels in a breathtaking setting.

A glimpse behind the scenes: Edward "Bud" Jacobson, a life member of the Heard's Board of Trustees, tells of a meeting several years back that made the whole thing possible. In real life, Jacobson is a big-time lawyer and partner at Snell and Wilmer, one of the state's most powerful law firms. He doesn't walk. He bustles. His cultivated voice reminds you of actor Peter O'Toole. He doesn't just talk. He also draws you little pictures on note paper to illustrate his point.

"There was an Israeli gentleman who owned the land now fronting our new museum," Jacobson said. "He wanted to build (PRECEDING PANEL, PAGE 14) Architect John Douglas' treatment of the Heard expansion echoes the Spanish Colonial style of the museum's original buildings. DAVID H. SMITH Fronting Phoenix's Central Avenue, the new building seems to gather in visitors, welcoming them to landscaped courtyards and newly designed interior spaces.

(LEFT) The museum's fountain provides the centerpiece for the interior courtyard, adding an oasislike touch to the area soon to benefit from the delicate shade of an overarching canopy of ironwood trees.

(RIGHT) George Morrison's sculpture Red Totem adds an exclamation point to the Crossroads Gallery and its neoclassical balustrade. ALL BY RICHARD MAACK 'My favorite thing,' Winters said, 'is what we call the Tom Caine Memorial Fountain. Made of dark gray concrete, it defines the entire courtyard. It's such a peaceful place.'

the new heard museum

the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Winters did the interior design of the expanded gift shop, worked on the galleries, and worked with the curators for exhibitions in each space.

"My favorite thing at the Heard," Winters said, "is what we call the Tom Caine Memorial Fountain. Made of dark gray concrete, it defines the entire courtyard. It's such a peaceful place."

But who was Tom Caine?

"He was a beloved figure," said Ann Marshall, the Heard's director of research. "He was the first person hired to run the museum after Mrs. Heard died. Tom and his wife, Ginny, were at Arizona State together. He taught anthropology, and she worked in the research library. When Tom came to the museum, the staff was much smaller, and he did everything."

All this talent, working together, created the best possible atmosphere. Nearly twice its former size, the museum provides Indian artists with a wonderful home that will excite and inspire visitors from around the world.

And there will be no need to call upon the advice Frank Lloyd Wright once offered mistake-prone architects: "A doctor can bury his mistakes," Wright said, "but an architect can only advise his client to plant vines."

No vines need be planted at the new Heard.

WHEN YOU GO

The Heard Museum is located at 2301 N. Central Ave. in the heart of central Phoenix, north of downtown.

Hours are daily except major holidays from 9:30 A.M to 5 P.M.

General admission is $7; seniors, $6; children four-12, $3. Members, children under four, and Indians with proof of tribal enrollment, free.

Year-round tours, offered daily in the morning and afternoon, are included with admission.

Visitors can now watch and speak with artists at work in a fully equipped artist's studio. On many weekends, visitors also can enjoy special performances of Indian music and dance.

For information call: (602) 252-8848, recorded information; (602) 252-8344, museum shop and bookstore.

Fountains in the center running into four pools of water that dazzle both children and adults. Douglas designed them. He also picked the ironwood trees that shade visitors without becoming so thick with leaves that they block the view.

"H.H. Green was known for his Spanish Colonial Revival style," Douglas said. "It stems from both the Renaissance and the 1920s. Walk into the Sandra Day O'Connor Gallery here and study the highly stylized fireplace. That's typical Green. His buildings are full of interesting touches like that."

As a schoolboy in Chandler, Douglas became fascinated by Frank Lloyd Wright, who, among many other triumphs, designed the famed San Marcos Hotel there. Reading about Wright's travails prepared Douglas for how hard life can be for architects.

"I spent my first two years after graduation painting houses," Douglas said.

"Nobody wanted architects in those days. Contractors just put up four walls as fast as they could."

Sullivan hired the firm of Langdon Wilson to design the overall project and redirect the entrance to Central Avenue. This architectural planning group designed the original Getty Museum in Malibu, California, as well as Phoenix City Hall. They are now finishing the new Phoenix Federal Courthouse.

"I'm proud of the way the Heard turned out," said Jack Black, 38, Langdon Wilson's architect in residence. "We weren't sure how to execute the project at first, but now it's a place filled with interesting spaces. It has genuine character."

Whenever you talk to people about the Heard's renovation, the name of Kevin Winters pops up. Winters heads the Heard's design department. Before the Heard, he worked at the St. Louis Museum of Art and