The Momentary

A new adaptive reuse project by Wheeler Kearns Architects turns a former Kraft Foods cheese plant into a palace of modern art and culture. The Momentary, featuring much of the original Kraft building infrastructure and a range of new structures, is a contemporary art satellite to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, AR. Among the most striking new architectural features on the site, an 80-foot-tall projectable glass rainscreen by Bendheim wraps around a cast-in-place concrete stair and elevator tower. The customized glass facade attaches directly to the concrete to eliminate costly steel supports and the shadows they cast when back-lit or projected on. The translucent glass panels are held in Bendheim’s Wall-F compression clips. The patented clips eliminate the need for drilling holes in the glass, allowing fast fabrication, installation, and maintenance.

The elegant cladding features four (4) unique glass design motifs with varying levels of translucency. They meld into a homogeneous display when back-lit or projected on, but present a more varied and textural appearance during the day. Our Lumi Frit™ Surface #1 fritted glass is ultra-durable, with the designs permanently fused to the glass at 1,200° F (680° C). The ultra-white glass is also bird-friendly, diffusing sunlight and reflections. It lends the tower a brilliant, clean, and bright aesthetic during the day. At night, spectacular art projections and performances enliven the entire complex and “activate the public space.” The opening night at the museum was celebrated with an enigmatic dance on top of the glass facade by the group BANDALOOP, a pioneer in vertical performance art.