Archinect - News

Kimbell Art Museum announces the Renzo Piano-designed pavilion will open on Nov. 27

2013-05-03T14:11:00-04:00

The highly anticipated expansion to the Kimbell Art Museum, designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) and Kendall/Heaton Associates, opens to the public on Wednesday, November 27, 2013. Renzo Piano’s colonnaded pavilion stands as an expression of simplicity—glass, concrete and wood—surrounded by elms and red oaks, some 65 yards to the west of Louis I. Kahn’s vaulted, luminous museum of 1972.

Similar in scale to the Kahn building, the 300-foot-long, 22-foot-high building is composed of two parallel wings stretching from north to south, connected by two glass passageways. To the rear, the west wing will have a green sod roof, which appears to rise out of the ground with berms on either end and concrete retaining walls on the sides. The front, east wing is topped by a glass, steel and wood roof system. The wafer-thin top layer of this system, which features louvered photovoltaic cells, hovers above the east wing's most prominent feature: enormous laminated wood beams that appear to float above the concrete and glass walls and which are held aloft by square concrete columns.

The plan and elevation of the east wing, which faces the Kahn building, is tripartite, which mirrors the tripartite plan and elevation of the Kahn building. This is the most overt of the Piano building’s numerous echoes of its esteemed predecessor. The facade’s central, 100-foot-long recessed glas...

UC Davis selects SO – IL to design art museum

2013-05-01T18:30:00-04:00

UC Davis today announced that it has selected an emerging New York-based design firm, SO – IL, to design the campus’s planned art museum, envisioned as a regional center of experimentation, participation and learning. The firm will work with team members Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, a prominent architectural firm with offices in San Francisco, Seattle and Pennsylvania, and contractor Whiting-Turner, a national construction firm...

The new museum advances the way museums and architecture are approached in the 21st century.

Designed by SO - IL in partnership with Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, and built by Whiting-Turner, the design incorporates a 50,000 square foot steel structure that floats atop a series of interconnected interior and exterior spaces. The gallery space will be 29,000 square feet.

In describing the building, the architects state:

Davis is an ideal setting for a museum that will sow new ways of thinking about the experience of art. The Central Valley breathes a spirit of optimism. Whether one is influenced by the sweeping views over the flat plains beyond to the horizon, or the sense of empowerment one feels when being able to cultivate and grow freely—the spirit of this place is of invention and imagination. It is precisely this spirit we capture in our architectural proposal for the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

As an overarching move, the design proposes a 50,000 s...

LACMA taps Zumthor for $650-million new look

2013-05-01T14:08:00-04:00

At the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, an acclaimed Swiss architect is hoping to pull off what an acclaimed Dutch one could not. Next month LACMA will publicly unveil a $650-million plan by Pritzker Prize winner Peter Zumthor for a dramatic new museum building along Wilshire Boulevard.

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Rales

2013-04-29T11:48:00-04:00

Before Mr. Phifer, the architect, began designing the new building, he used a stack of about 80 flash cards or “inspiration boards,” as he called them, to get a sense of the Rales’s tastes and vision. There were pictures of Shaker villages and ancient art, rock gardens and a floor sculpture by Carl Andre.

Carol Vogel visited Glenstone, home of the semi-public, art collection of Mitchell and Emily Rales in Potomac, Md. Currently housed in a sleek 25,000-square-foot museum by Charles Gwathmey, the owners have plans for a major expansion designed by Tom Phifer. As proposed the project consists of a series of interconnecting pavilions for permanent installations, each devoted to a single artist, as well as a large gallery for special exhibitions.

Motion Picture Academy unveils Renzo Piano's design for LA film museum

2013-04-16T15:25:00-04:00

Italian architect Renzo Piano, Los Angeles architect Zoltan Pali and officials from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled preliminary designs Thursday for a $300-million film museum at Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. The architectural centerpiece of the 290,000-square-foot complex, just west of the campus of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, would be a giant glass-enclosed dome, which Piano refers to as the "sphere" and the "soap bubble."

National Maritime Museum Entry for Tianjin by HAO + AI

2013-04-15T17:51:00-04:00

Along with three other teams, the collaboration of HAO / Holm Architecture Office and Archiland International (AI) has been invited to compete in the architectural competition for the new National Maritime Museum near the city of Tianjin in northern China.

LEGO taps BIG and RAA to design the LEGO Brand House, a public LEGO museum and experience center, in Denmark

2013-03-12T18:27:00-04:00

“It is one of our great dreams at BIG that we are now able to design a building for and with the LEGO Group. I owe a huge personal debt to the LEGO brick, and I can see in my nephews that its role in developing the child as a creative, thinking, imaginative human being becomes ever stronger in a world in which creativity and innovation are key elements in virtually all aspects of society,” says Bjarke Ingels, founder and partner, BIG.

Architect Jim Olson, of Olson Kundig Architects, to design Museum of Art

2013-03-07T20:21:00-05:00

The award-winning firm of world renowned Seattle architect Jim Olson has been selected to design the new Museum of Art at Washington State University.

Piraeus Museum for Underwater Antiquities - The Competition Winners

2013-02-22T19:29:00-05:00

Just a few days ago, results were announced in the international architectural competition Piraeus Cultural Coast - Museum of Underwater Antiquities. Now the organizers also released images of the five winning projects and nine honorable mentions. The brief calls for the conversion of an existing industrial facility in the port of Piraeus, Greece into a museum of underwater antiquities with redesigned open public spaces for outdoor activities.

Piraeus Antiquities Museum Entry by Sériès et Sériès / Studio Touraine / Tajima Open Design Office

2013-02-19T20:20:00-05:00

French-Californian outfit Sériès et Sériès has shared with us its entry to the international architectural competition "Piraeus Cultural Coast - Museum of Underwater Antiquities" in Piraeus, Greece. The scheme was designed as a collaborative effort with Studio Touraine, Tajima Open Design Office, and ARUP.

Piraeus Antiquities Museum Entry by PAR & ARUP

2013-02-08T14:17:00-05:00

Results have just been announced in the international architectural competition "Piraeus Cultural Coast - Museum of Underwater Antiquities" in Piraeus, the ancient Greek port city right outside of Athens. The design proposal by Los Angeles firm Platform for Architecture + Research (PAR), in collaboration with ARUP, didn't quite make it among the top prize winners, but we're excited to feature it here.

SFMOMA posts a video about their upcoming Sn

2013-01-10T20:39:00-05:00

We're building our future, with a new expansion to open in early 2016. Open, engaging, welcoming, and embracing, the expansion represents a transformative vision of the museum, offering new opportunities for diverse audiences to experience modern and contemporary art. Hear about what's in store for SFMOMA and our audiences in 2016 and beyond from Director Neal Benezra, artist Richard Serra, and other members of the SFMOMA community.

Big Name Teams Shortlisted for Museum and Educational Center in Moscow

2012-12-19T14:44:00-05:00

Six international teams have been selected for the second stage of the architectural design competition for the Museum and Educational Center of the Polytechnic Museum and Lomonosov Moscow State University.

The shortlisted design teams are:

Project Meganom (Russia) and John McAslan & Partners (UK)
Mecanoo International B.V. (The Netherlands) and TPO Rezerv (Russia)
Farshid Moussavi Architecture (UK) and Rozhdestvenka Architectural Bureau (Russia)
Massimiliano Fuksas Architetto (Italy) and Speech (Russia)
3XN A/S (Denmark) and Asadov Architectural Studio (Russia)
Leeser Architecture (USA) and ABD Architects (Russia)

In case one of the selected finalists decides to drop out of the competition, the consortium of COOP Himmelb(l)au (Austria) and Architecture Bureau Atrium (Russia) was chosen to replace it.

Blaffer Art Museum, designed by WORKac, opens in Houston

2012-12-10T19:15:00-05:00

WORK Architecture Company's dramatic new addition and renovation of the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston, Texas has opened to the public with a twenty-year survey dedicated to influential American sculptor Tony Feher.

Founded in 1973, the Blaffer Art Museum is a preeminent contemporary art museum without a permanent collection set in the midst of University of Houston’s enormous central campus. With high-profile exhibitions that are free and open to the public, as well as extensive educational programs, the museum has the potential to act as a gateway between the university and the city. However, its visibility and identity were previously hampered by the fact that its entrance was hidden and accessible only through an internal courtyard. Within, its galleries were excessively impacted by circulation, including a stairway in the middle of two galleries, and another gallery only accessible by a hallway through the administrative offices.

The project represents an important sh...

Louvre-Lens: helping a mining town shed its image

2012-12-05T15:01:00-05:00

The €150m satellite of Paris's Louvre museum shimmers like an apparition on the raised plane of the former coalmine, looking down over streets of pitch-roofed miners' houses, dotted with the occasional chip shop. The building is formed from a series of long, low-slung walls that fade in and out of view as the changing light dances over its surface – or as clouds of drizzle engulf it entirely in the wintry gloom.

Morphosis-designed Perot Museum of Nature and Science to open this Saturday in Dallas

2012-11-29T12:03:00-05:00

Museums, armatures for collective societal experience and cultural expression, present new ways of interpreting the world. They contain knowledge, preserve information and transmit ideas; they stimulate curiosity, raise awareness and create opportunities for exchange. As instruments of education and social change, museums have the potential to shape our understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live.

As our global environment faces ever more critical challenges, a broader understanding of the interdependence of natural systems is becoming more essential to our survival and evolution. Museums dedicated to nature and science play a key role in expanding our understanding of these complex systems.

The new Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Victory Park will create a distinct identity for the Museum, enhance the institution’s prominence in Dallas and enrich the city’s evolving cultural fabric. Designed to engage a broad audience, invigorate young minds, and ins...

Los Angeles Gets a New Renzo Piano-designed Museum

2012-11-19T20:31:00-05:00

In 2016, if all goes according to plan, Los Angeles will have a new architectural showpiece and yet another place of pilgrimage for movie buffs—the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Created by the organization thanked in Oscar acceptance speeches, and designed by Genoa-based architect Renzo Piano and Los Angeles–based architect Zoltan Pali, the museum is envisioned as a place to celebrate both the history and future of film, with galleries, screening rooms, and an interactive education center.

The Walrus Magazine discusses Safdie's Walmart-funded art museum

2012-11-19T12:44:00-05:00

Moshe Safdie has designed buildings around the world for almost fifty years but doesn’t have an identifiable style. His latest work, an Arkansas art museum funded by Walmart heiress Alice Walton, illustrates why it doesn’t matter

Urban Planning Museum by Henn Architekten Opens in Nantong, China

2012-10-29T19:53:00-04:00

German practice Henn Architekten recently celebrated the opening of its latest China project: Nantong Urban Planning Museum in the Eastern Chinese city of Nantong, just north of Shanghai.

Suburban Kansas Dream: Museum of Suburbia

2012-10-11T23:23:00-04:00

Museum officials in Johnson County, Kan., propose spending $34 million to create the National Museum of Suburbia, a faux suburb where visitors could wander through a model ranch-style home, wonder at an exhibit of lawn furniture and topple pins on a re-created bowling lane.

"Let's Build a Goddamn Tesla Museum" - Initiative gets funded on Indiegogo

2012-10-11T13:54:00-04:00

We're trying to raise money to buy back Nikola Tesla's old laboratory, known as the Wardenclyffe Tower, and eventually turn it into a museum.

Tesla fans are celebrating the successful funding of their plan to buy back Tesla's laboratory. According to their website:

Even though we've already hit our goal, I plan on letting the campaign run the full 45 days. Every extra penny we earn will go toward restoring the property, building exhibits, and turning this land into something worthy of Tesla's awesomeness. The original goal of $850k was enough money to bid on the property, but it's going to take a lot more to turn it into an actual museum.

The non-profit behind this endeavor is beginning the process of working with the realtor to make a bid on the property.

Winners of the National Museum of Afghanistan Competition

2012-10-04T18:11:00-04:00

In the international architectural ideas competition for the new design for the National Museum of Afghanistan, the entry by Spanish team AV 62 Arquitectos was selected for the First Prize. The Afghan Ministry of Information and Culture and the US Embassy recently announced the results at an awards ceremony in Kabul.

National Art Museum of China Entry by MAD

2012-09-27T22:38:00-04:00

Only a few more weeks, and we will officially find out who has won the prestigious competition for NAMOC, the new National Art Museum of China in Beijing. Below is the entry of one of the twenty firms that were invited by the competition organizers to submit designs, Beijing-based firm MAD.

Previously: Jean Nouvel Said To Edge Gehry, Hadid For Beijing Museum Job

Amos Gitai sets up Israel's first architecture museum in memory of his father

2012-09-20T16:39:04-04:00

Famed filmmaker dedicates Haifa space to his father Munio Gitai Weinraub, a 'Bauhaus refugee' who single-handedly changed the city's landscape.

Tianjin Samaranch Memorial Museum - Construction Update

2012-08-09T17:27:00-04:00

Danish/American practice HAO / Holm Architecture Office has sent us latest renderings and constructions photos of their Samaranch Memorial Museum project for former Olympic president Juan Antonio Samaranch in Tianjin, China. The initial design scheme has undergone some adjusting and fine tuning since HAO won the international competition in collaboration with Archiland Beijing last year [...]. The museum is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.

Cooper-Hewitt Selects DS+R as Exhibition Designer and Local Projects as Media Designer

2012-06-28T14:13:00-04:00

Diller Scofidio + Renfro were announced today as designers of the gallery and visitor experience for the reopening of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. New York exhibition specialists Local Projects will act as participatory media designer and develop engaging ways to access digital content at the museum and remotely. The museum campus is scheduled to reopen in 2014.

Zaha Hadid frontrunner to buy London’s Design Museum

2012-06-15T14:36:00-04:00

Zaha Hadid emerged this week as the favourite to buy the Design Museum in London after impressing with her plans to turn it into an architecture museum.

London’s Horniman Museum Gardens Open with New Pavilion by Walters & Cohen

2012-06-05T17:59:00-04:00

The Horniman Museum and Gardens in London just reopened its 16.5 acre gardens to the public after a major £2.3M ($3.5M) redevelopment. [...] The most prominent part of the redevelopment is the new Gardens Pavilion designed by London-based practice Walters & Cohen. The firm's partners, Michál Cohen and Cindy Walters, recently topped a shortlist of strong competitors to win the coveted AJ Woman Architect of the Year Award.

Zaha Hadid’s Riverside Museum Wins European Museum Academy Micheletti Award 2012

2012-05-07T14:01:00-04:00

The Zaha Hadid Architects-designed Riverside Museum in Glasgow, Scotland has been named the most innovative museum in the fields of technology, labor and social history by the European Museum Academy. Riverside competed against museums in 12 other European countries to win the 17th annual Micheletti Award.

With the UK entering a double-dip recession, let's just hope the Riverside Museum enjoys a better fate than Hadid's Maxxi Museum in Rome (previously on Archinect).

Städel Museum's Underground Contemporary Wing by schneider+schumacher Opens

2012-02-28T17:50:00-05:00

The venerable 200 year old Städel Museum has just reopened after a major 3 year remodeling which, from the exterior, is a no more than a modest if not unique pokadotted lawn. Frankfurt’s hometown architecture firm schneider+schumacher used a subterranean program to provide 3,000 square meters of space for post war and contemporary art. Like massive portals the 195 circular skylights connect the underground space directly with sky creating a tension between landscape, form and light.