Inspired by the current site condition as well as stories about star-crossed lovers, this project is a museum of theatrical arts and storytelling. It is a reaction to the current programming of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a narrative of time, procession, separation, and connection.

The museum extension would challenge how we exhibit performing arts, which is a more dynamic and ephemeral art form than visual arts, through combining static and dynamic formats of presentation as well as having the amphitheater as a magnum opus of the visiting experience. The horizontal circulation curates the museum chronologically and connects the two separated bodies. Gallery spaces are accompanied by library and studio spaces that would integrate the learning experience of viewing exhibitions with research and making. The vertical circulation addresses the stories of star-crossed lovers by creating moments of the Juliet's balcony experience with the staggered openings in the floor. The weathering of the Corten steel on the outer skin gives a sense of time and resistance. The blood and tears of the bleeding steel imply the pain of separation.