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Take a look inside Allied Works' Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State ahead of June opening

2024-04-11T12:15:00-04:00

Allied Works’ collaboration with Reed Hilderbrand for the new Palmer Museum of Art at Pennsylvania State University is closing in on its June 1st opening. The firm has shared new photos previewing its work ahead of the inauguration, which will culminate a two-year construction period for a cost of $85 million.

The 73,000-square-foot building is defined by interlocking sandstone-clad pavilions contained within double-height volumes. These allow for unique spatial variations in each of the 20 new galleries, highlighting the diversity of its collection to visitors.

Image: Jeremy Bittermann/JSBA

An overhead skybridge — the new Dr. Keiko Miwa Ross Gateway — links both wings while establishing panoramic vistas of the university's Arboretum and H.O. Smith Botanic Garden outside. —

Image: Jeremy Bittermann/JSBA

Small exterior courtyards are created by the design, which is similar in concept to Allied Works' 2008 Dutchess County Guest House in upstate New York and the firm's shortlisted compet...

Art and science come together as a comprehensive whole in EskewDumezRipple's new Bruce Museum expansion

2024-03-07T13:00:00-05:00

The Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut, has shared photos of its recent expansion project that was completed by EskewDumezRipple in April of 2023 at a cost of $67 million.

Drawing inspiration from coastal New England granite quarries, the project added a total of 42,000 square feet via the new William L. Richter Art Wing. The expansion was undertaken to allow the museum’s art and science holdings to expand and be better interpreted as a coherent whole.

The design also created an easier access point to its grounds, replete with an additional landscape component from Reed Hilderbrand.

Photo: Tim Hursley

"We can host the community in a way we’ve never been able to before," the Bruce Museum's Executive Director, Robert Wolterstorff, who is also trained as an architectural historian, explains. "In the past, we had no permanent collections galleries. By adding these spaces, the museum is able to showcase works that local collectors have generously donated, providing...

Allied Works' Palmer Museum of Art is set for a 2024 opening at Penn State

2023-12-14T14:21:00-05:00

The Allied Works-designed Palmer Museum of Art expansion project at Pennsylvania State University has shared new photos of its construction progress to go along with an announced opening date of June 1 next year.

Reed Hilderbrand is coordinating with the firm to deliver the landscaped portion of the LEED Silver-certified design. The project doubles the museum’s existing footprint by adding a new 73,000-square-foot building with 20 new galleries, a café, education, research, and events spaces situated amongst the 370-acre university Arboretum and serviced by a sculpture path and outdoor terraces.

Dale Chihuly’s site-specific sculptural commission, “Lupine Blue Persian Wall,” will be debuted as an anchor that welcomes visitors to the main access point and is framed by the museum’s feature staircase.

Photo by Jeremy Bittermann/JSBA, courtesy of Allied Works.

Locally quarried sandstone cladding produces a naturalistic effect on the exterior of each of the building’s interlocking pavilio...

Reed Hilderbrand signs on for a $22 million sculpture park at Louisville's Speed Art Museum

2023-08-15T17:54:00-04:00

A new three-acre sculpture park design for Louisville, Kentucky’s Speed Art Museum has been unveiled by Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture in a preview of the project, which is expected to host some 500,000 visitors a year after it opens in 2025.

The firm’s $22 million Speed Outdoors makeover will recreate an area surrounding the museum with native flora, a water management system, and 150 new trees in coordination with the adjacent University of Louisville and with a 13-artwork bequest from local collectors.

Image courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture

The Museum’s Director, Raphaela Platow, said it will also instill Frederick Law Olmsted’s "dream of a Louisville connected by public parklands" while serving as a "welcoming forum for the whole community to connect with art, nature, and each other for generations to come."

Image courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture

The sculptural work of Zaha H...

Storm King Art Center announces $45 million revitalization

2022-08-05T18:43:00-04:00

Storm King Art Center has announced a $45 million capital project that will see the creation of a new welcome area, the construction of a conservation, fabrication, and maintenance building, and the advancement of the Center’s endeavors in landscape stewardship and environmental sustainability.

The undertaking aims to creatively improve and preserve Storm King’s 500-acre site in New Windsor, New York. The museum is working with a global team of consultants, including project partners heneghan peng architects, WXY architecture + urban design, and landscape architecture firms Gustafson Porter + Bowman and Reed Hilderbrand.

The initiative responds to the need to support continued growth in visitation and programming at the Center. According to a project announcement, the overall design and vision are guided by three core values: "A Gracious Arrival, Support for Artistic Vision, and A Sustainable Future." The development hopes to refocus on staff, artists, and visitors.

The new "Welco...

Gary Hilderbrand appointed new chair of landscape architecture at Harvard GSD

2022-03-23T14:37:00-04:00

One of the landscape design world’s leading names will be stepping into a new role this summer as Reed Hilderbrand founding principal and partner Gary Hilderbrand has been announced as the new chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard GSD.

Hilderbrand has been on the faculty at Harvard for over 30 years and will step into the role vacated by Anita Berrizbeitia after seven years at the helm of what is the oldest landscape architecture department in academia.

A statement from GSD Dean Sarah Whiting praised Hilderbrand’s “sensibilities as a teacher and as a practitioner,” stating that the two “are one and the same.”

“His unyielding efforts to reconcile imminent, often intractable forces of urbanization with ecological sustainability, cultural history, vegetative regimes, and thoughtful kindness are central to his pedagogy and practice both,” she continued. “I could not be more delighted he has accepted this appointment, and I am excited for what is to come under ...

Allied Works reveals plans for its expansion of the new Palmer Museum at Penn State

2021-07-31T21:22:00-04:00

Final plans for the new LEED-certified museum expansion at Penn State have been unveiled this week after years of anticipation for a project with an ultimate price tag of $85 million.

The project, announced by the school’s board of trustees in 2019, will significantly improve physical spaces for the nearly 50-year-old Palmer Museum of Art, which has been plagued by water damage and an antiquated heating and air system for a number of years.

Palmer Museum Rendering, View from Overlook Pavilion Arboretum. Rendering by MIR

Allied Works will partner with designers from Reed Hilderbrand to create a site-specific expansion on the university’s campus that responds to the local environment in Happy Valley via enhancements to an existing arboretum and a duo of walkway-linked pavilion-style buildings made of stone from local quarries.

The new buildings will allow the museum’s collection to be exhibited in more natural surroundings to the over 10,000 student visitors it hosts every year.

The...

The National Bonsai and Penjing Museum blurs the boundaries between landscape and architecture

2020-11-18T12:31:00-05:00

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts has approved a new Concept Design for the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at the U.S. National Arboretum. Designed by Reed Hilderbrand and Trahan Architects, the new design builds on the concept of an immersive and cohesive garden experience, heightening the connectedness to the museum's extensive collection of some of the finest trees and viewing stones from across the globe.

The museum's program will be organized around a central court to orient the visitor to a network of paths that lead to the four exhibitions, expanded classroom, and administrative services. Instead of buildings, each exhibition was conceived as separate gardens that sit within the larger surrounding landscape of the museum.

"The legacy of global cultural exchange through horticulture takes on an important meaning today in Washington," said Founding Principal of Reed Hilderbrand Douglas Reed, FASLA, RAAR in a statement. "We have sought to elevate a world-class collection, mak...