A prime Downtown bluff site offers much more than river views to influence the design of the future Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

And the parking that is to replace the existing, 468-space garage doomed for demolition need not be dark and ugly.

That’s what the European architect in charge of the project suggested to an overflow crowd this week at the Hohenberg Auditorium in Brooks’ longtime home in Overton Park.

Late-comers to the 250-seat hall sat in the aisles and stood against the back wall.

They came to hear Ascan Mergenthaler speak on “The Architecture of Herzog & de Meuron,” the esteemed Pritzker Award-winning firm based in Basel, Switzerland. Mergenthaler is a senior principal there.

They weren’t disappointed, judging by the stout, 14-second ovation after he concluded with, “That’s it. Thank you for your patience.”

The audience frequently “oohed” and “aahed” as Mergenthaler projected large photos of the stunning spaces his firm has designed for the Tate Museum in London, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, Parrish Art Museum on Long Island, Perez Art Museum in Miami, the Elbphilharmonie concert hall in Hamburg, Germany, and the still-to-be-built Vancouver Art Gallery.

His theme that carried through each project was that Herzog & de Meuron architects don’t adhere to a certain style, do think outside the box and, and most importantly, create designs that respond to the location.

That’s why, for example, Herzog & de Meuron has never accepted a project in places “that don’t have that connection,” Mergenthaler said.

He mentioned the “desert countries,” apparently referring to nations rich with oil, their cities teaming with skyscrapers. His firm has never designed projects in those places because “there’s no context,” he said.

The firm exploited the huge turbine room in London’s former power plant to create a monumental gallery space that can double for activities.

It designed Hamburg’s airy – lots of glass and white – concert hall high atop a harbor warehouse because the brick building was built for heavy loads and because the foundation of Hamburg’s wealth was harbor work, Mergenthaler said.

The firm raised Miami’s Perez Art Museum galleries high off the ground because so many of the coastal buildings there are built on stilts to avoid flooding.

Herzog & de Meuron, teaming with local firm archimania, has been researching the Memphis site and the city for three months now. The firm will continue to take time for what Brooks director Emily Ballew Neff describes as its “relentless research.” A first draft of a design won’t be shown until February.

What’s the most important thing the firm has learned about the location that may influence the design?

“I think there’s not one most important fact we learned,” Mergenthaler responded in the Q & A portion of his presentation. “(But) maybe there was the most surprising fact…’’

The site’s proximity to the river and its amazing river view has always fascinated the firm. But when the architects “zoom in” to look closer at the site, they were surprised to discern the four very different “orientations,” Mergenthaler said.

Front Street with its Cotton Row is historic and offers qualities that “we Europeans like about American cities: Old buildings, new buildings. You can already see the cafes and restaurants. A lot of potential and (it) reads like a pure, downtown quality. Various scales. Very beautiful,” he said.

Union Avenue is even more historical, smaller in scale and pedestrian friendly, but only on the south sidewalk, he said. That south sidewalk – which is wider and has tree shade and is lined with businesses and residences – is across Union from the future museum site where the Fire Department headquarters and parking structure now stand. The sidewalk beside the Fire Department is narrow and lifeless.

“So we were wondering if that’s something we need to react to and improve the situation because we feel that is really one of the most important links down to the river,” Mergenthaler said of the block between Union and Riverside.

The block of Monroe lining the site also is distinctive, he said. “Somewhat like a cultural plaza” in part because the historic Cossitt Library branch is on the other side.

“And then, of course, there’s Riverside overlooking the Mississippi River, he said.

“So we think that we might need to react to this in one way or the other way. We were surprised to find (the four sides) were so distinctive and have so much character. … It’s not just the side on the river,” Mergenthaler said.