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.
Reflecting its undulating backdrop on the Berkshires mountain range, the design coalesces five individual volumes in a linear arrangement that's topped with a shingled aluminum roof. Two clusters of galleries and educational classroom spaces radiate outwardly from the main lobby at either north or south orientation, surrounded on the outside by porches and other gathering areas. A central courtyard and garden connect the design, which is made accessible via one of two main entrances at either the south or west corner of the building.
Mass timber and "carbon-conscious masony" are the materials used to achieve a sustainable design that relies on only 30 percent of the current baseline energy usage for a comparable art museum or cultural institution.
Speaking to the challenges inherent to designing the expansion, which is SO – IL's second college or university museum commission after the new Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis, founding partners Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg said: "Designing a college art museum is one of the most exciting tasks we as architects can imagine. Orchestrating synergies between the past, present, and future enables us to create a home where students, faculty, community, and collection converge."
"We believe space is as much a teacher as the programs it houses, so we are thrilled to partner with WCMA in designing a building in which different modes of art study and appreciation can intersect, coexist, and reinvent one another," they continued. "Walls do not confine the concept of this museum, but rather the inviting gesture of an overarching roof that delineates spaces for these interactions to take place. Contributing to this beautiful landscape, we hope the building will become a welcoming beacon, situated sensitively between campus and the world beyond.”
Elsewhere in New England, Peterson Rich Office is working to complete another college museum extension for Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Snøhetta's expansion of the Hopkins Center for the Arts at Dartmouth College is also being readied for 2025, and HGA has completed a mass timber student center for Bowdoin College.
SO – IL has an extensive portfolio of art spaces and recently obtained a B corp certification in May of last year.
3 Comments
Pretty... pretty... pretty... meh...?
very nice
Williams did well by not hiring Steven Holl for this.
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