DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA—"It all started with a column I wrote for the Duke Chronicle back in 1942," quips Ray Nasher, the demure namesake of the new Nasher Museum at Duke University. As a unique project sixty-three years in the making, it's not surprising that patience was the virtue repeatedly noted throughout the day's celebrations, of a collector whose singular dedication to sculpture has resulted in one of the finest private collections of modern and contemporary works—and now a landmark university art museum.

"The Nashers have been brilliant at negotiating all the conflicts that have come up throughout the years, and maintaining their conviction, their goal of building this museum," noted architect Rafael Viñoly. Stepping into the sunlight filled piazza of Viñoly's building—its roof structure an object lesson in formal brilliance-cum-function—or strolling through the myriad highlights of the unique Nasher collection on view, everyone was sure glad he was patient.

The Nasher Museum replaces the University's previous museum, housed in a former science building, which Nasher describes as a "good start, but inadequate to the ambitions of the institution." The long wait for this new museum involved finding the perfect site, a sprawling park setting, both centrally and symbolically located between the University's two campuses. Besides the ongoing conversation about building requirements, and the need for a perfect, permanent site, there were the weeds to consider. "There were weeds on the site that were part of a doctoral thesis, so we had to wait," Nasher smirked.

Five 'platonic' pavilions arrayed around a central courtyard bathed in natural light—with no direct formal entrance—the Nasher Museum's permeable form follows the contour of the site, transforming the building into a kind of continuation of its garden setting, designed by the Olmsted brothers. "The museum, like a gang of people independent from each other—totally square as they say — but dancing in the middle of the garden," says Viñoly of his new building.

The result is a museum that emphasizes the Nashers' goal of providing a gateway for the arts, a mission they have pursued not only through collecting, but through the use of their real estate developments as suburban village greens. Nasher was one of the first real estate developers in the U.S to place art in commercial complexes. "Where else in Texas could you see a Borofsky sculpture, but in one of Ray's mall squares…on the highway?" noted one ebullient Nasher board member. In 2003, Nasher also launched the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.

Viñoly's design for the museum is a combination of purpose, function, and structural brilliance, combining the strict architectural requirements of a museum with a material embodiment of its civic function for Duke and the community. "Smart and successful," said one visitor.

But the design is much more than a job of the architect as translator. The Nasher also has its own distinct architectural gesture, in the interplay between the precast concrete boxes in a landscape—fusing indoor and outdoor — and the expanse of the 13,000 square foot Mary D.B.T. Semans Hall.

The static elements of the pavilions are counterpointed by the seemingly eccentric but actually rigorous form of the piazza, the skylight free of any supporting columns. Viñoly's design was created by appropriating an ingenious device--derived from 'chinese sticks'--in which each beam of the structure is supported only on one end, while the free floating end is supported by another beam. "It makes a rotational structure allowing for an enormous span with practically no structure being perceived," Viñoly notes. And even the eccentric glass 'caprice' which covers it is actually related to a functional element: the draining of rainwater, and the different heights of the pavilions.

This light-filled, vast open space creates a unique public space for the University. "We wanted to create a space where the students have the opportunity to be exposed to innovation, aesthetic, beauty etc, the nature of the arts, which then will follow with them throughout their lives," Nasher explained.

The museum is also the perfect venue to show the type of sculpture that defines his collection. "You could easily teach the history of 20th century sculpture from this exhibition," notes Nasher director Kim Rorschach, of the Evolution of the Nasher Collection exhibition, a nine-month peek into Ray and Patsy Nasher's remarkable collection, many items of which have never left their home. Tracing their remarkable cache of sculpture, the exhibition is arranged in the order the Nashers collected, outlining their developing passion and deep involvement with some of the significant artists of the century, including Henry Moore, Noguchi, Matisse, Warhol, and Basquiat.

Surprisingly, the Nasher collection started not with a sculpture, but with a rare Ben Shahn painting of tennis players. But sculpture eventually became their great passion. "We started with limited funds, and sculpture was about 10 to a 20th the price of paintings," Nasher notes.

The Nashers' interest began with pre-Columbian art. "Until 1970, pre-Columbian was the area we could afford. But that's where we got our great love and interest in sculpture," Nasher explained. "We'd go on vacation and dig and find a couple of stray pieces once in a while, but then we got to know the diggers, the dealers, and the archeologists, and starting collecting."

The first piece of modernist sculpture acquired by the Nashers — Jean Arp's Torso with Buds — was given to Nasher by his late wife, Patsy. "Patsy's eye was truly magnificent. She could go into a gallery and there would be ten Jasper Johns, or Matisse's, or Stella's, and she could within minutes determine which one of those were really the most important." The Nashers, who "won't buy a piece of art unless it gave them butterflies," said one curator, have proved to be prescient and dedicated collectors, their collection now including work by Mark di Suvero, Jeff Koons, Anthony Caro, David Smith, Carl Andre, and Giacometti.

Besides the survey of the Nasher holdings, the museum is also running an exhibition entitled The Forest: Politics, Poetics and Practice, which explores the theme of the forest, with works by Petah Coyne, Kiki Smith, Joseph Beuys and Wolfgang Staehle. The Nasher will also now host the permanent collection of the university.

"This is a space for Duke and for the community of Durham," Nasher added. "It's set to become truly one of the most important university art museums in the country." By the looks of the Nasher Museum, he may not have to wait very long for that.