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Rendering unveiled for a new Richard Serra sculpture building at the Glenstone Museum in Maryland

2021-07-13T17:14:00-04:00

A Richard Serra sculpture is coming to the Glenstone Museum, and today it has a new home.

The 15-year-old private collection has announced plans for a new dedicated 4,000-square-foot space that will house a forthcoming installation by the artist on its 230-acre location in suburban Maryland next year.

Thomas Phifer and Partners worked with Serra on plans for the new building that updates the museum’s original intent to have its collection displayed in an elevated way via separate individual viewing spaces that serve as guideposts on a journey undertaken by visitors navigating a central trail. The paneled envelope of the structure looms out of the wilderness upon approach, precast concrete and landscape combine to give the impression of a rock formation or bunker to onlookers who enter the structure through a single centered doorway.

Courtesy of the Glenstone Museum

“Creating another building for Glenstone’s extraordinary landscape while working with Richard Serra, without question ...

Pelli Clarke Pelli-Designed Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco to Reopen July 1

2019-06-11T19:40:00-04:00

Eight months after the discovery of cracked steel girders forced its closure, the Transbay transit center is safe to reopen, an independent panel of engineers and experts has concluded. The reopening is set for 6 a.m. July 1.

A five-member peer-review committee appointed by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission has approved a series of recently-completed structural repairs made to the Pelli Clarke Pelli-designed Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco.

Workers repair damaged structural beams at the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco, Image courtesy of Wikimedia user Frank Schulenburg.

A pair of cracked structural steel beams were discovered in one section of the building just after the transit center opened late last year. Months of independent investigation and testing discerned that the beams cracked because a series of welding access holes that had been made to the steel beams to allow for their installation.

The affected beams were replaced and now, as Therese McMillan, MTC's executive director tells The San Francisco Chronicle, “The steel structure is sound for continued service."

Photos of the completed $200m Glenstone expansion

2018-09-24T15:25:00-04:00

The $200 million expansion adds 11 rooms constructed of stacked concrete blocks that are connected by a glass-walled passage and surround an 18,000-square-foot water court. [...] The Glenstone addition also has a strong outdoor component, with 130 acres of meadows, woodlands and streams, designed by Adam Greenspan and Peter Walker of PWP Landscape Architecture. Among the sculptures integrated into the landscape are those by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ellsworth Kelly and Richard Serra.

“We considered the landscape as the inspiration,” said Thomas Phifer, architect of the five-year Glenstone expansion project. “The visitor’s arrival is choreographed through the trees and open fields, heightening your experience with the land and revealing the subtle qualities of the site. From your first moments at Glenstone, you experience a place with few distractions, the bustle of ordinary daily activities drops away, and your mind and soul prepare for an intimate encounter with art.”

Aerial of the Pavilions. Photo: PWP Landscape Architecture. Courtesy: Glenstone Museum.

Aerial of Pavilions. Photo: Iwan Baan. Courtesy: Glenstone Museum.

Water Court at the Pavilions. Photo: Iwan Baan. Courtesy: Glenstone Museum.

The Passage in the Pavilions. Photo: Iwan Baan. Courtesy: Glenstone Museum.

The Passage in the Pavilions. Martin Puryear, Big Phrygian, 2010-2014, painted red cedar, 58 x 40 x 76 inches (147 x 101 x 193 cm), © Martin Puryear, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery. Photo: Ron Amstutz...

Thomas Phifer-designed Glenstone expansion to open in October with impressive lineup

2018-07-20T19:57:00-04:00

The Pavilions, designed by Thomas Phifer of Thomas Phifer and Partners, is a 204,000-square-foot building providing 50,000 square feet of indoor exhibition space. That is more than five times the space available in Glenstone’s original building, designed by Charles Gwathmey (and currently installed with an impressive Louise Bourgeois exhibition, drawn from the collection).

The new 'The Pavilions' space by Thomas Phifer and Partners (with landscapes designed by Peter Walker and Partners) is scheduled to open on October 4 and will showcase pieces by big name artists like Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Marcel Duchamp, Richard Serra, and Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Photo: Iwan Baan/Glenstone Museum.

"Incorporated seamlessly into Glenstone’s 230-acre landscape, the Pavilions comprises 11 distinct rooms installed with artworks drawn exclusively from the museum’s collection, grouped around a lushly planted, 18,000-square-foot Water Court," explains the museum's announcement.

"At the time of the opening, the building will feature a number of spaces dedicated to single-artist installations, including major works by Michael Heizer, Roni Horn, On Kawara, Brice Marden, Lygia Pape, Charles Ray, and Cy Twombly, among others. In addition, a presentation of 65 works by 52 artists will occupy the largest room in the Pavilions, a column-free space of 9,000 square feet. The exhibi...