Dozens of people gather on East 13th Avenue to watch as workers with Mammoth Moving and Rigging begin to move the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio from its location at1311 Pearl street to a new location at 12th and Bannock on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Brian Nunez, of Comcast, gets ready to lift their wiresd so the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio can continue down East 13th avenue from its location at1311 Pearl street on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Denver police officer Tony Montoya, left, clears the street as workers with Mammoth Moving and Rigging, continue driving the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio down the hill between Sherman and Lincoln streets on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
People gather on Pearl street to watch as workers with Mammoth Moving and Rigging prepare to move the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio from its location at1311 Pearl street to a new location at 12th and Bannock on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Rebecca Sposato and her daughter Evelyn, 3, gather with dozens of people on East 13th Avenue to watch as workers with Mammoth Moving and Rigging prepare to move the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio from its location at1311 Pearl street to a new location at 12th and Bannock on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Workers with Mammoth Moving and Rigging watch as the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio, lifted on dolly wheel system and centered onto Pearl Street, gets prepared to move onto East 13th avenue on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Susie Lee, middle, gathers with dozens of people on East 13th Avenue to watch as workers with Mammoth Moving and Rigging prepare to move the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio from its location at1311 Pearl street to a new location at 12th and Bannock on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Dozens of people gather on East 13th Avenue to watch as workers with Mammoth Moving and Rigging begin to move the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio from its location at1311 Pearl street to a new location at 12th and Bannock on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Katie Mohr and her boyfriend Justin Brandenburg watch as the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio passes by their apartment on East 13th avenue on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Dozens of people gather on East 13th Avenue to watch as workers with Mammoth Moving and Rigging begin to move the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio from its location at1311 Pearl street to a new location at 12th and Bannock on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Workers with Mammoth Moving and Rigging move the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio down East 13th avenue from its location at1311 Pearl street on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Katie Mohr and her boyfriend Justin Brandenburg watch as the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio passes by their apartment on East 13th avenue on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Bill Davis, middle, owner of Mammoth Moving and Rigging, takes great care to clear the streets as his workers continue driving the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio down the hill between Sherman and Lincoln streets on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Workers with Mammoth Moving and Rigging carefully turn the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio from East 13th avenue onto Broadway on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Workers with Mammoth Moving and Rigging carefully turn the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio from East 13th avenue onto Broadway on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post
Workers with Mammoth Moving and Rigging carefully turn the 106 year old Kirkland Art Studio from East 13th avenue onto Broadway on November 6, 2016 in Denver, Colorado.
Denver’s 13th Avenue, normally a drowsy thoroughfare early Sunday morning, was crowded with heavy equipment, construction workers, police and onlookers, as a rigging company began moving the 13,840-square-foot Vance Kirkland studio to a new location.
“We can’t wait to see it going downhill,” said Todd Johnson, 47, who was at the corner of 13th Avenue and Pearl Street with his family, as movers loaded the 105-year-old building onto six sets of articulating wheels.
Crews are making preparations to move the Kirkland Studio building West on 13th Ave and then to the museums new home. pic.twitter.com/gvYqTK5pq5
The estimated 150-ton studio was supported by a patchwork of steel beams positioned below, and an operator controlled the wheels remotely, slowly guiding it through the streets to the location of the new Kirkland Museum at 12th Avenue and Bannock Street.
Traffic lights along 13th Avenue that would have blocked the building’s progress were detached from the poles that hold them aloft and swung to the side.
“We enjoyed the logistics of raising the light poles,” said Mandy Vink, 33, of Boulder.
Pole holding traffic light that normally faces 13th Ave. unlocked from pole and swiveled to move Kirkland studio. pic.twitter.com/un77WOOxgq
Chris Ayres, 34, brought his 6-year-old son, David, from their home in Lone Tree to watch the move. “This guy loves watching big things move,” he said of the boy.
Mammoth Moving & Rigging, and Shaw Construction prepared the studio, detaching it from the museum. They were loading it onto the movers early Sunday to be transported eight blocks.
By noon, workers had moved the brick structure so that it was sitting on Pearl Street perpendicular to 13th Avenue, and a white, Kenworth truck cab waited nearby to be attached to the building and begin hauling it to its new location.
Making that turn onto the avenue was expected to be the most difficult part of trip, said Bill Mascarenaz, the move’s project manager. “This tight turn is what is making it difficult.”
Hydraulics controlled each set of wheels, moving them up or down to compensate for different elevations of the streets on which they would travel, Mascarenaz said.
Once the studio was on 13th, the trip was expected to take seven or eight hours.
Workers will be monitoring the building as it moves. “The building will tell us how fast to go,” Mascarenaz said. “If it gets a little creaky, we will slow it down.”
The studio was built in 1910 for artist Henry Read’s Students’ School of Art. From 1932 to 1946, Kirkland, who is among the most important Colorado artists, ran the Kirkland School of Art at studio at 1311 Pearl St.
“Moving the studio was integral. If we couldn’t have moved it, I don’t think we would have built the new museum,” said Maya Wright, Kirkland spokesman.
The Kirkland Museum’s new facility near the Denver Art Museum and the Clyfford Still Museum in is on schedule to open in fall 2017.
The Kirkland Museum has worked closely with the historic preservation community to ensure that the move is safe, and the three-room studio arrives at its new location in good condition.