The Tacoma Art Museum has a chronic case of Cone Envy.

Everyone knows about The Cone – the unparalleled, distinguished stainless steel Museum of Glass landmark that tilts 17 degrees to the north.

Julie Pisto, spokeswoman for the Museum of Glass, described The Cone’s value as “priceless” – not only as a symbol for the museum but for Tacoma.

The Cone shows up in nouveau postcards. You see it as the backdrop for Seattle television reporters. When Ford unveiled its 2009 Lincoln MKS promotional campaign, where does the luxury car first drive into view? In front of The Cone. Toyota’s national television advertisements for the 2009 Venza end with the sleek crossover car parked in front of The Cone.

So far, TAM’s exterior hasn’t served as an attraction for anything – except, perhaps, has a viewing platform for that blasted Cone. You can see The Cone from TAM’s concrete plaza, from TAM’s parking lot and through TAM’s grand picture window.

And The Cone’s omnipresence eats at the psyche of TAM, which lacks any distinguishing external features.

That will change.

The museum just celebrated its sixth anniversary at 1701 Pacific Ave., and its board of trustees simultaneously launched an estimated $3 million remake of the building’s drab plaza, main entryway and lower parking entrance with a goal to make a bolder, profound, visible statement worthy of a first-class museum occupying a prominent downtown intersection.

Something i-cone-ic, perhaps.

IN THE BEGINNING

How it will look will depend on the results of an open competition for artists, architects or anyone with a creative idea to submit redesign proposals by June 5.

“People are really proud of the copper dome at the courthouse, they’re proud of the cone at the Museum of Glass. We want them to be equally enamored with us,” said Rock Hushka, TAM’s curator and project manager for the redesign.

When asked to describe TAM’s exterior, Hushka paused. Then, after searching for the politically correct term, he said, “austere.”

He wants to sound respectful and polite. Because the man who designed TAM – world-renowned and award-winning architect Antoine Predock – didn’t set out to build a flashing neon statement.

Predock didn’t present a design concept to the expert panel of architects that chose him for TAM in 1998. Instead he showed a wall-sized collage of Northwest images and snippets of writing – a “crazy quilt,” he called it – representing our geography, history and culture.

The man from the New Mexico desert would design something that reflected us. How did it turn out?

“Predock saw in Tacoma’s misty, muted light a great opportunity to design a building that almost disappears, much like Mount Rainier fades and appears depending on the light and weather,” according to TAM’s own history. “The building’s stainless steel skin pays homage to its industrial, port-city surroundings as its silver patina glistens in the Northwest’s watery light.”

Predock designed TAM to blend in. He succeeded.

THE PROBLEMS

Consequently, TAM has recorded and published a series of problems in need of fixing:

 • Undistinguished street visibility along Pacific Avenue.

 • No protection on the plaza from the elements.

 • The building turns its back on the city.

 • The museum appears closed and monolithic from the outside.

 • The plaza feels empty.

 • The plaza appears like a drive-by space.

 • The plaza feels stark, cold.

 • The plaza contains no artwork.

TAM gave Predock’s firm the first crack at a fix. But after a recent private presentation to a task force of museum trustees, it became apparent Predock’s firm just didn’t get it, said Steve Barger, chairman of the museum’s plaza redesign task force.

“Let’s just say we were underwhelmed,” Barger said.

Maybe you can’t go back to Leonardo Da Vinci and ask him to make Mona Lisa a blonde.

TAM needs to make its plaza entrance an active, covered community space with some visible art feature or features and tie it to the lower parking level, Barger and Hushka said.

But the redesign must do more. At least 95 percent of museum visitors come through the inauspicious back door – parking under the building and riding a small, slow elevator to the side of the lobby.

“The whole parking experience is a pain in the ass,” said Barger, vice president of business development at Northwest Cascade.

In addition, a likely fix will involve replacing the smoked glass windows so passers-by can see activity inside.

“The difficulty, if you’re driving by on 705 or on Pacific Avenue, it’s not a recognizable space and you don’t even know if it’s open,” Barger said. “There’s no art that signifies it’s an art museum.”

Blending in has never worked for TAM. How long did it take for museum operators to figure that out after the 2003 opening?

“About a month,” Hushka said.

And it took about that long for Cone Envy to set in.

Dan Voelpel: 253-597-8785

dan.voelpel@thenewstribune.com

Make the museum say, ‘Hey, you – Over here!’

Project: Redesign the plaza, entryway and parking lot access for Tacoma Art Museum

Who can submit: Anyone with an effective, creative concept

Total Project Cost: Up to $3 million

Redesign goals: Improve museum’s visibility and prominence from Pacific Avenue and I-705, improve the entry on both the plaza level and lower parking level, be welcoming/inviting/dynamic, museum must appear open and engaging from outside, interact with the city, serve as a gathering space/public programming space/fundraising space, be seen as the heart of Tacoma, offer protection from the elements/year-round use, showcase a public art program that will encompass three to five works.

Proposal Submission: PDF format, up to three pages including conceptual sketch/rendering, written description of key features, summary of submitter’s qualifications

How to submit: E-mail to plaza@tacomaartmuseum.org by June 5.

For more information: TacomaArtMuseum.org or TacomaArtMuseumPlaza.blogspot.com