Blog

By Emily Clott, Class of 2012

Three months ago Jen Masengarb—our beloved friend, co-worker, teacher, and mentor— bid adieu to the position she held at CAF for 17 years, to the people she loves, and the city she called home. In early May, I met Jen at the almost-ready-to-open new Danish Architecture Center (DAC) in Copenhagen which, like CAF, was poised for its grand opening in a new location.

Jen gave my husband and me a tour of the new DAC facility. Designed by Rem Kool-haas/OMA, it is sited on the harborfront in a stark, contemporary, mixed-use building called BLOX. According to inexhibit.com: “Koolhaas and Realdania developed the project, from a conceptual stage to the final design, between 2007 and 2013. On-site works started in May 2013. Encompassing six stories, one of which partially underground, the building by Koolhaas is composed of an array of boxes of blocks (hence its name) stacked on one another to form an articulated and “porous” cluster. A 20 meter-wide covered passageway throughout the ground floor of the building, flanked by the main entrances of all functions, creates a direct connection between the city and the old port of Copenhagen, and emphasizes the BLOX’s character of ‘urban activator’ open to all.”

The DAC is an important tenant of the building, featuring a main exhibition hall, a double-height gallery, an auditorium, special event space, offices, meeting rooms, a bookshop, and cafe.

When we visited Jen at DAC, it was a beehive of activity in preparation for the grand opening. Festivities would begin with Queen Margrethe II cutting the ribbon. Following, an audience of 1500 invited guests attended a panel of architecture center leaders from around the globe (including CAF’s President and CEO Lynn Osmond) who discussed the role of such centers in 21st century cities. All shared similar missions: a focus on dialog and discussion to elevate the understanding of architecture. Citizens who understand the impact of architecture and design can participate more fully in the development of their own built environment.

When the Center opened to the public, an estimated 10,000 people attended events inside the building and in its outdoor plaza. Food trucks and music helped celebrate the opening that was 10 years in the making. The site had been vacant for 60 years, and people had been waiting and watching as BLOX construction proceeded somewhat fitfully over the last decade.

Critics visiting DAC prior to its opening were not kind in their appraisal of the building. Jen explained that the Koolhaas/OMA design felt foreign to the Danish eye—more European than Danish. (Koolhaas and his firm are Dutch.) Critics found the building stark, dark, and austere. DAC’s response to the criticism was to double efforts to welcome visitors and ensure they felt at home.

Recently Jen and I spoke via FaceTime, and she updated me on her work. DAC’s first major exhibition is called “Welcome Home”, and one of Jen’s first assignments was to train a group of DAC staff and architecture students as paid Exhibition Hosts. They work about 10 hours a week to welcome guests and ask and answer questions as guests navigate their way through the Center.

One of the challenges with the new DAC is that its spaces are interspersed throughout the building that it shares with co-working companies (similar to WeWork here in Chicago) and other entities. Jen has devised a system that tracks how visitors use the space. Because people don’t necessarily move about as expected, Exhibition Hosts document each shift by recording the number of guests, the weather, the vibe, tech issues, best and worst experience of each day, etc. This information enables Jen to compile qualitative and quantitative data that helps DAC to understand what works and what needs to be tweaked for the best possible visitor experience.

Jen has been creating DAC’s first regularly offered English language walking tour, an Architecture Walk Through Time. As Copenhagen is a good bit older than Chicago, this tour will feature buildings from the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries! The 75-minute tour will allow visitors to drop into iconic buildings like the Parliament, a major bank, a department store, and a theater. Each building represents design in Denmark during the period of its completion. This tour was tested late in June with journalists as guests.

Regarding the transition to our own new home, Jen observed that while spaces and programs are designed for the public, they are actually used in ways we cannot fully predict. She cautions us to exercise self-control, to really listen to our guests even if what they are saying is not what we want or expect to hear. The public will use the ex-periences and spaces in their own way, and that’s ok because they are for the public, not for us.

Architecture and culture in general vary greatly from place to place; for travelers to real-ly experience that difference, nothing is more important than connecting to a local per-son. We docents and volunteers are that connection. Jen advises us: “Be proud and know that our work is of terrific importance!”