SAM propels Seattle

In all the episodes of Seattle's still-young history, the latest, the Philanthropy Age, is perhaps the most enjoyable and rewarding.

Three months ago, Seattle Art Museum launched its dazzling Olympic Sculpture Park, an innovative outdoor showcase of sculpture and scenery. Here comes SAM again, unveiling another big addition to the cultural landscape, a major expansion of its downtown building.

Such investments are reflective of a maturing city, of civic and business leaders with a remarkable combination of vision, wealth and generosity. The opening of the new building, combined with SAM's 75th anniversary next year, resulted in gifts of nearly 1,000 works from more than 40 collections.

It all comes together in the new, dramatically expanded museum, which more than doubles public and exhibition space. The opening of the new, improved museum is bigger and more fantastic in many ways than the move of the original museum 16 years ago from Volunteer Park to First Avenue and University Street.

Seattle is getting used to — OK, spoiled by — many stellar new buildings: the stunning downtown public library, symphony hall, opera house and SAM museums, plural. American Style magazine just named Seattle one of the top five big-city arts destinations, behind more obvious picks, New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

When future citizens look back on this era, they will be blown away by the energy and investment that propelled the city forward.

The excitement is not focused on the look of the new SAM building, because, from the street, the ribbed-steel and blue-glass structure seems a little cold and nondescript. The building looks, well... like the office tower — the world headquarters of Washington Mutual (WaMu) — with which it is entwined.

SAM officials are understandably insecure that the building itself is not a stand-alone statement of art such as the Frank Gehry museum in Bilbao, Spain. But the very-much-in-demand architect, Brad Cloepfil, of Portland, Ore., seamlessly blended old and new. The project puts more effort into displaying the works inside, which is the point of a museum, anyway.

SAM made a tradeoff: a bigger building with more space that grows vertically two floors at a time, instead of a signature building on its own footprint. Whether this tradeoff is completely worthwhile is not clear — it takes time for a building to fully reveal itself.

No matter. The art world is buzzing about the activities inside.

The grand forum at the new First and Union entryway is filled with a spectacular aerial series of white Ford Tauruses, with streams of multicolored electric light shooting out. One critic fussed that Cai Guo-Qiang's "Inopportune: Stage One" is tacky. Not really. It is uplifting and peppy. One might wonder more how they will fill this boxy, enormous space when this exhibit leaves in two years.

Head up to the rooms of exhibits, which look better because there is more space, and in some cases, more natural light.

One marquee piece, "Some/One," by Do-Ho Suh and made of military dog tags, can be viewed from different vantage points.

The new SAM reflects the tastes of local collectors who have gathered amazing works from around the globe. Naming only a few from a huge list, one comes away pondering a contemporary piece called "Mann und Maus," Constantin Brancusi's abstract "Bird in Space" sculpture and a Botticelli on loan.

The museum board has done a fantastic job raising money, about $200 million. But it is fair to ask: Did it really make sense to open two large projects in fewer than four months? Is the operating budget sufficient? Did they expand too fast?

For now, Seattle is pushing forward, becoming a force in art because a group of people got together, crafted a vision, reached deep into private collections and worked like crazy to create a terrific new gathering space. The place is a treasure trove in the truest sense of the term.