Archinect - News

A world-class encyclopedic art museum, complex re-opens in New Haven

2012-12-15T18:22:00-05:00

Balance. For decades we’ve had an art culture that tries to wow us with too muchness — blockbusters, biennials, bank-breaking museum buildings no one needs — and that ends up delivering way too little. Could it be that the day of just enough is upon us, and that Yale’s just right museum is a bellwether?

Holland Cotter reviews the final results of the $135 million renovation and expansion of Yale’s museum complex. The entire refurbished complex — a block-and-a-half-long stretch that is itself a museum of changing architectural styles — officially re-opened two weeks ago. Consisting of the 1953 Kahn building and two adjacent buildings on Chapel Street — the so-called Old Yale Art Gallery, a 1928 neo-Florentine Gothic building and Street Hall, a Ruskinian Gothic structure from 1866 — the renovations and additions have combined to give the respected institution an "aura of a destination'. The paper also recently published a profile of Jock Reynolds, director of the Yale University Art Gallery, by Charles McGrath. Therein McGrath explored the successful tenure of the sculptor turned director who has "caused hundreds of millions of dollars...to pour into Yale’s coffers" or to put it another way "He makes money rain on the place".

Fixer-Upper With Unique Challenge

2011-10-06T13:40:35-04:00

The architects recognize that the armory as an exhibition space is a far cry from conventional “white cube” galleries, or what Mr. Herzog called “egocentric, architecturally driven museums.” But he said the spaces are likely to inspire artists, not limit them. “Artists have increasingly started to like strange places to put their art,” he said. “The specific conditions are unique and interesting and every artist is challenged to put his paintings or performances in such historic conditions.”

Bucky's Fly's Eye Dome Now Fully Restorated

2011-05-26T14:41:13-04:00

Restoration work on one of Buckminster Fuller’s most iconic structures, the 24 foot Fly’s Eye Dome, was completed yesterday, and the restored dome was unveiled to the public at Goetz Composites in Bristol, RI.

Patented in 1965, Fuller created two prototypes of this structure – a 24 foot and 50 foot dome. Fuller writes in his seminal book, Critical Path that “the Fly’s Eye domes are designed as part of a ‘livingry’ service. The basic hardware components will produce a beautiful, fully equipped air-deliverable house that weighs and costs about as much as a good automobile. Not only will it be highly efficient in its use of energy and materials, it also will be capable of harvesting incoming light and wind energies.”

The 24 foot dome has undergone extensive restorations in an effort to return the dome to its original condition by the renowned Bristol, RI-based Goetz Composites, fabricators of some of the most successful race boats in the world including three of today’s m...

'De Nieuwe Liefde' by Wiel Arets Architects

2011-05-02T20:11:00-04:00

Wiel Arets Architects have shared with us a recently completed renovation/restoration of a former wine storage warehouse located on the edge of Amsterdam’s 17th century UNESCO canal ring.

De Nieuwe Liefde (‘The New Love’) is a theatre and community centre located in a monumental white building on Amsterdam’s Da Costakade that was originally constructed in 1904 as storage space for a local wine company. After falling into disrepair, and in accordance with the last tenants leaving the property in 2007, the De Liefde was completely rebuilt by Wiel Arets Architects and renamed De Nieuwe Liefde. The reconstruction transformed the existing building into a series of new spaces composed of a main hall with seating for 230, a conference room with space for 60, a choir space for 50, a library, a separate restaurant-café and a grand foyer that decompresses into a central circulation void.

Prior to the renovation the building retained many of its original Neo-Renaissance and Art N...