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[Narrator] Four stories of sleek glass panels may defy the traditional image of an historic building, but it's what the Figge Art Museum holds, preserves and champions for future generations that makes it a landmark of cultural history in Davenport. Construction of the Figge began in 1999, and the museum opened to the public in 2005. However, planning for a museum began decades earlier, with an art collection in need of a permanent home.

[Joshua Johnson] The museum started in 1925 with an initial gift by C.A. Ficke, who was a former mayor of Davenport, a real estate developer who was able to make, you know, a small fortune, and through that fortune was able to collect 334 paintings and works of art that he eventually donated to the Davenport, what would become the Davenport Municipal Art Gallery. When he donated those works to the city of Davenport, it was with the understanding that they had to find a place to house all these works and that they had to care for them and exhibit them into perpetuity. So, from there, they were originally housed in a renovated armory building in downtown. Later down the line, they ended up moving up to what is referred to as Museum Hill up by the Putnam, and they would become the Davenport Museum of Art. And then from there, they would stay on the hill until they outgrew that building.

[Narrator] In the late 1990s, the city formed a committee of community leaders to explore new possibilities for the housing and showcasing of Davenport's growing art collection. The team decided new construction was the best path forward and began soliciting proposals from architects around the world. British architect David Chipperfield and his international portfolio of modern minimalist designs caught the committee's attention and imagination.

[Johnson] They really came to the understanding that David Chipperfield's design and vision for the museum was going to be the one that best integrated what the community needed and also their hope to revitalize the downtown.

[Narrator] With the architect selected and planning underway, the art collection itself became guiding voice in how the building took shape.

[Johnson] When David Chipperfield was considering the design for this building, he needed to satisfy the place. He needed to satisfy the museology. So, the idea of how these things are being housed in a way that's safe and being displayed in a proper and aesthetic format, and also best for their continued conservation. Proper temperature and relative humidity and relatively low exposure to natural light are all considerations that he had to think about. [Narrator] The Figge Art Museum is home to an impressive range of collections spanning Spanish and European masterpieces to influential works by 19th and 20th century American

artists. Beyond its galleries, the museum serves as a cultural hub, offering workshops and forging partnerships with the Quad City Symphony, Ballet, Quad Cities and Quad City Arts. It is also the repository for 249 works and personal items from Iowa's most iconic and celebrated painter, Grant Wood.

[Johnson] David Chipperfield is a remarkably kind of conscientious architect. So, he is considering every facet of the needs of the people who are going to use this building, the community it serves, its relationship to the kind of urban environment, its relationship to the

natural environment with the Mississippi River. And so, as he was considering how these spaces would be used, he was really delving in deep into what our collection had and what the potential was for the collection to grow. Really, when this museum was constructed, you know, this was a probably a larger museum than the community needed. What that has done is forced us to kind of grow into the museum. He referred to this building as kind of a loose fit.

So, he was thinking of it as being a malleable building that would kind of grow with the institution and grow with the community. Something that wasn't so bespoke that it wouldn't be able to change and evolve as the collection and the Quad Cities changed.

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[Narrator] Encompassing 115,000 square feet along West River Drive, the Figge's interior space is only part of its story.

[Johnson] He also was very conscientious that the double panes of glass on the exterior of the building were going to not only reflect the surrounding sky and ambient light, but also was going to kind of absorb it in a way and almost make the building, at some points, depending on the natural light, disappear and then glow. So, while it is architecturally very different, it blends very well with the natural landscape, so it doesn't feel as jarring.

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[Johnson] Whenever there's something new, it sometimes takes people a minute to acclimate. And I think while there may have initially been some naysayers, overwhelmingly the community has grown to love this building and see it as kind of the cultural hub of the Quad Cities and kind of the heart of the downtown Davenport community. 

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[Narrator] The Figge Building, like the ever-evolving collection it houses, was envisioned as a living, luminous presence along the riverfront. It was imagined not only as a museum, but as a lantern of culture. Its veil of panels softly lit, glowing against the night and the city it serves. Early plans to illuminate its skin were dimmed by budget constraints, but the light was never lost.

[Johnson] Fast forward to ten years later, the executive director at the time, Tim Schiffer, was on the lookout for a lighting artist to really make this building all that it can be. He identified Mexican American artist Leo Villarreal. He has done projects everywhere and has also worked on David Chipperfield buildings in the past as well. So, he was a perfect fit. So, in the same way that David Chipperfield was very interested in this building being so specific to the place, Leo Villarreal is doing the same thing. He is going to respond to the atmosphere, respond to the lighting, respond to the people that inhabit this museum and this community. This building wasn't only about the people who visit the museum. It was about revitalizing this area and downtown. And while not all of that, of course, can be contributed to the construction of this building, a lot of it, I think, can. The idea of this civic pride in the downtown that in some ways was started by this initial gift by the Figge family. And then it got the ball rolling with this kind of urban development and creating a wider sense of place for this community centered around this museum. And in that way, I think this building did all of that and more.

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[Narrator] The Figge Art Museum, a structure housing history while writing its own story. Boldly modern, yet deeply rooted in the legacy of a city shaped by art, industry and the future. Becoming not just a repository for masterpieces, but a living, breathing chapter in the ongoing story of Davenport itself.

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