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SO – IL presents designs for their new Williams College Museum of Art expansion

2024-03-08T13:48:00-05:00

SO – IL’s plans for an extension of the Williams College Museum of Art in western Massachusetts have been made public as the institution prepares to house its important collection in a free-standing and purpose-built new home for the first time in its 100-year history.

The project will enhance the museum’s mission as an on-campus educational resource while creating a new gateway between the college and the community of Williamstown.

SO – IL says they envision their plan to culminate in 2027. When it does, the project will yield a total of 15,000 square feet worth of new gallery spaces in a three-story structure that houses a 6,400-square-foot study center, auditorium, art studios, and a café. Reed Hilderbrand will be included to complete the project's landscaping. The project was announced in 2021 following a two-year programming study that was made in consultation with TenBerke through the pandemic.

Image credit: Jeudi.Wang, courtesy SO–IL and the Williams College Museum of Art

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SO – IL becomes the latest architecture firm to achieve B Corp certification

2023-05-05T14:04:00-04:00

Brooklyn-based SO – IL has announced that it has attained B Corp certification. SO – IL is one of 69 B Corporation architecture firms certified across the U.S., and 167 worldwide, recognizing businesses that balance financial success with positive social and environmental impact.

“We are proud to be one of them allowing for company structures built around transparency, accountability, and inclusion,” SO – IL said when announcing the news. “We will continuously strive to do better and use business as a force for the good.”

The B Corp certification is conferred by the nonprofit B Lab, which assesses companies based on standards of transparency, accountability, and performance. The B Corp framework encourages organizations to prioritize the welfare of all stakeholders, including employees, the community, and the environment, rather than solely focusing on maximizing profits for shareholders.

“As leaders in the movement for economic systems change, B Corps reap remarkable benefits,” ...

SO – IL's Florian Idenburg pens an op-ed opposing the boarding-up of museums

2020-07-06T18:13:00-04:00

Rather than fancy restaurants and gimmicky stores, lobbies could host outside organizations to convene and organize. The museum might act as a partner and participant, catalyst, and amplifier. Here, there are no bananas stuck to the wall, but ample meaningful information for an active audience. Guards would protect patrons over property. And during the next protest, lobbies could open up and transform into staging grounds, sanctuary spaces, and broadcasting stations for citizen journalists.

Architect Florian Idenburg offers alternative uses for boarded up museum fronts in New York City during the social uprising and protests and questions the corporate policies now running the museum's public interface on city's sidewalks.

"Amid the stream of information about systemic racism and demands for societal change filling my Instagram feed, a recent series of posts by my friend Lucie Rebeyrol stood out. She shared images of the glass-enclosed lobbies of three leading New York City museums—the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the New Museum—hermetically boarded up with countless sheets of plywood."