The McNichols Building, the 1910 architectural landmark in Denver’s Civic Center, will close for about a year as a $6 million renovation begins Saturday.

Plans call for a new, more graceful entrance to the historic, city-owned structure, eliminating the current front door, set below ground in a pit on the building’s north side.

Other upgrades include greater handicapped accessibility and a new freight elevator, which will allow the building to carry out two of its current functions as an art gallery and one of Denver’s most popular event spaces for catered parties and public meetings.

“The building was a library originally, with a lot of little books that didn’t require a freight elevator,” said Brian Kitts, marketing director for the city’s Arts & Venues department, which occupies the first floor.

The McNichols is one of Denver’s few neo-classical wonders, borrowing style elements from both ancient Rome and Greece. It is most recognized for the row of two-story Corinthian columns that surround it on three sides.

Designed by New York architect Albert Randall Ross, the structure was among 2,500 libraries across the world funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, whose major cause was literacy.

The building closed as a Carnegie Library in 1956, and its expansive rooms were carved up for use as a city office building for the next five decades.

A 2010 renovation, costing about $2 million, opened up the interior spaces, and the building was developed into a hot spot for social and cultural events. It has twice housed major exhibits for Denver’s Biennial of the Americas.

The building shows both its age and experience, through a mix of attributes. Inside, it displays a bit of industrial chic with an unfinished ceiling exposing beams and duct work. Those will be left as is for the upcoming renovation.

The most visible change will be the entrance, where the pit will be replaced by a half-oval plaza which steps down gradually to the first floor. Stairs and ramps can double as inviting seating areas, which Civic Center currently lacks.

Kitts said Arts & Venues hopes the building is back online by the end of summer 2016. The Denver architectural firm Humphries Poli is leading the redesign.

Most of the construction budget, $5.5 million, comes from money left over from Better Denver bonds approved by voters in 2007. The cash was originally part of a $38 million ballot measure designated for an overhaul of Boettcher Concert Hall, a project that was supposed to be co-funded by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

The CSO failed to raise its $30 million share, and the funds were divvied out to a few dozen nonprofit cultural institutions and city agencies.

Arts & Venues, which funds itself through profits from Red Rocks Amphitheatre and other venues, is putting in the remaining $500,000. The agency will relocate its offices to Boettcher Concert Hall during the renovation.

Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540, rrinaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/rayrinaldi