Not sure what to make of Randall Stout's design for the Taubman Museum of Art?

Think of the roof as a ridgeline. Imagine the walls as layers of stone angling into the earth. Imagine caves inside and that hallway past the galleries as a river gorge.

Still not sure? That's OK.

"It's a piece of art," said Georganne Bingham, executive director of the museum. "People respond very differently to art."

It also doesn't hurt to talk to Stout himself.

"He has a wonderful way of describing the elements of the plan that shows you it really belongs" in Roanoke, said City Manager Darlene Burcham when Stout's design was unveiled in 2005. "If you take time to really study it ... then it has great meaning to it."

Consider the way the walls tilt on the side of the museum beside the railroad tracks, like layers of rock shouldered upward by colliding continents. That's how these mountains were formed. The stainless steel with its swirled finish was intended to reflect the changing seasons, Stout said, and the changing sky, and even the dogwoods blooming in the spring. And that arch over the third-floor porch, looking out on Williamson Road? Those lines came straight from Natural Bridge.

Stout spent months exploring the area before starting work on his design. In his sketchbook, in drawings that at first glance seem abstract, a museum starts to emerge, and a metaphor: walls become rock ledges, hallways curve like riverbeds, the roof becomes a ridge line.

Stout knows others might see things differently. That's fine, he says. If the nature metaphor doesn't work for you, let it go.

"It's not like a Disney theme, where you're driving the point home to every person. It's a way to make beautiful things," he said.

Stout is an advocate for environmentally friendly buildings. The Taubman Museum uses recycled materials, and a water-based floor system for heating and cooling alters the temperature where it's required for human comfort, Stout said, and not 20 feet overhead.