He still likes drama and sunlight in his buildings. Visitors will enter the three-story museum through an atrium with a domed glass ceiling rising 81 feet to a peak, featuring a wide staircase to second-floor galleries that "in itself is a dramatic piece of architecture," museum spokeswoman Kimberly Templeton said.

Some 240,000 visitors are expected the first year, and Bingham is eager for them to see what the museum has to offer.

"I think they're going to be very surprised to find out that we have something going on inside the building that makes the program worthy of the building," she said.

The 81,000 square feet of space will give the museum four times the exhibit area that it has in its current building — room to display much more of the permanent collection as well as special exhibits. Patrons also might be surprised at how different the artwork looks once it is moved from the museum where lighting is difficult to control, Bingham said.

The museum now displays less than 6 percent of its permanent collection, which includes works of 19th and 20th century American art by Thomas Eakins, Norman Rockwell, John Singer Sargent and Winslow Homer and contemporary works by Jacob Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Sally Mann.

Nearly $52 million has been raised for the museum, including $12 million in government money.

Among 175 donors, the largest gift has been $15 million from Nicholas and Eugenia Taubman, for whom the new building will be named. Nicholas Taubman, a Roanoke native, is U.S. ambassador to Romania.

While the building departs from tradition, Stout pays homage to Roanoke's roots. On one side of the building, passing Norfolk Southern trains are visible on nearby tracks. Balconies on the opposite side give bird's-eye views of the H&C coffee pot and Dr Pepper signs.

"If we can help people celebrate who they are and what they are and what their role has meant," Bingham said, "then we'll feel like we are accomplishing a lot of our goal."