Archinect - News

Reed Hilderbrand signs on for a $22 million sculpture park at Louisville's Speed Art Museum

2023-08-15T17:54:00-04:00

A new three-acre sculpture park design for Louisville, Kentucky’s Speed Art Museum has been unveiled by Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture in a preview of the project, which is expected to host some 500,000 visitors a year after it opens in 2025.

The firm’s $22 million Speed Outdoors makeover will recreate an area surrounding the museum with native flora, a water management system, and 150 new trees in coordination with the adjacent University of Louisville and with a 13-artwork bequest from local collectors.

Image courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture

The Museum’s Director, Raphaela Platow, said it will also instill Frederick Law Olmsted’s "dream of a Louisville connected by public parklands" while serving as a "welcoming forum for the whole community to connect with art, nature, and each other for generations to come."

Image courtesy of Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture

The sculptural work of Zaha H...

Herzog & de Meuron reveals plans for a dedicated Alexander Calder sculpture garden in Philadelphia

2022-09-07T17:25:00-04:00

The extraordinary work of late artist Alexander Calder will soon be displayed in his hometown of Philadelphia thanks to a dedicated new sculpture garden designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

The Calder Foundation has shared renderings of the forthcoming Calder Gardens project ahead of its anticipated fall groundbreaking on a 1.8-acre site located adjacent to other prominent arts institutions along the city’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Image © Herzog & de Meuron

The images appear to show a sunken structure with subterranean galleries that emerge into a dynamic 18,000-square-foot main building surrounded by gardens manicured by famed landscape designer Piet Oudolf. HdM says that the project "blurs the boundaries between architecture and the natural world" and is thus intended to "unfold as a choreographed progression that moves visitors from the quotidian city context to a more contemplative realm beyond the traditional museum experience" in order to "catalyze discovery and reflection."

Imag...

Storm King Art Center announces $45 million revitalization

2022-08-05T18:43:00-04:00

Storm King Art Center has announced a $45 million capital project that will see the creation of a new welcome area, the construction of a conservation, fabrication, and maintenance building, and the advancement of the Center’s endeavors in landscape stewardship and environmental sustainability.

The undertaking aims to creatively improve and preserve Storm King’s 500-acre site in New Windsor, New York. The museum is working with a global team of consultants, including project partners heneghan peng architects, WXY architecture + urban design, and landscape architecture firms Gustafson Porter + Bowman and Reed Hilderbrand.

The initiative responds to the need to support continued growth in visitation and programming at the Center. According to a project announcement, the overall design and vision are guided by three core values: "A Gracious Arrival, Support for Artistic Vision, and A Sustainable Future." The development hopes to refocus on staff, artists, and visitors.

The new "Welco...

D.C.'s Hirshhorn Museum gets the final go-ahead from the National Capital Planning Commission

2021-12-06T13:32:00-05:00

The end is finally here for the saga surrounding artist Hiroshi Sugimoto's reworking of the Washington, D.C. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden following an approval Thursday from the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC).

The NCPC go-ahead comes after another round of discord which began in March when Sugimoto allegedly threatened to quit the project over an amended plan which would have cut out his introduction of a stacked stone wall in Gordon Bunshaft’s original centerpiece water feature in the museum’s sculpture garden.

Image courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

The July proposal itself came with a bit of controversy as opponents of the plan were quick to point out that the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which governs any new Smithsonian development, was replete of any landscape architects as recently appointed by President Joe Biden.

“The art of our time is often immersive, interactive and ready to break free of walls, and we believe that a museum of the ...

Hiroshi Sugimoto's redesign of the Hirshhorn Museum sculpture garden is finally approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts

2021-07-19T12:34:00-04:00

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts has approved plans for artist and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto's redesign of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.

This vote clears way for the Smithsonian to go to the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) for their final approval. The NCPC previously gave preliminary approvals alongside the CFA in the spring of 2019.

Images courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

The plan had previously come under fire after the Cultural Landscape Foundation, a group that advocates the interests of historic landscape sites around the country, protested, claiming the artist's vision would harm original elements of the Hirshhorn campus designed by Pritzker Prize winner Gordon Bunshaft.

Images courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

The museum has held a line against the protests, claiming that Bunshaft and landscape designer Lester Collins had both looked to Japanese gardens as inspir...

Hirshhorn Museum: revised sculpture garden designs and Sugimoto threatening to quit

2021-03-17T13:27:00-04:00

The Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden announced today the completion of a sixth public consultation meeting for the revitalization of the Sculpture Garden by artist/architect Hiroshi Sugimoto. The public forum, held March 10 via Zoom, presented the goals of the project, the programmatic rationale and revised designs for the reflecting pool.

The Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden revitalization saga is entering a new chapter: while the museum recently released revised designs for the reflecting pool, the centerpiece of the sunken sculpture garden completed in 1974 by Gordon Bunshaft, during a March 10 Section 106 online meeting, the Cultural Landscape Foundation points out that the overhaul's designer, Hiroshi Sugimoto, had threatened to resign from the project over a key design element — the introduction of stacked stone walls in the current modernist landscape.

Hirshhorn Museum: sculpture garden revitalization remains contested

2021-01-13T14:20:00-05:00

Facing challenges from a federal planning authority and advocacy groups, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC is under pressure to revamp or justify elements of a significant redesign of its sunken sculpture garden.

The heated debate over Hiroshi Sugimoto's plans to revitalize the sunken sculpture garden at the Hirshhorn Museum, completed in 1974 by Gordon Bunshaft, is dragging on.

"At an online meeting on 3 December, the federal National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approved Sugimoto’s preliminary site development plans with the exception of the proposed changes to the reflecting pool and inner partition wall," reports The Art Newspaper.

Previously on Archinect: Advocates ready for battle over Hirshhorn Museum garden 'revitalization'

"Commissioners asked that the Hirshhorn explore an alternative to the expanded pool design that would retain the historic dimensions of the existing one. It also recommended that the Smithsonian find a way to make the new stacked stone walls more compatible with, while still distinct from, the material that Bunshaft used for his historic perimeter wall."

Meanwhile next door, the Smithsonian just scaled back elements inside the BIG-designed $2 billion Smith...

SWA Group makes progress on new mixed-use sculptural plaza in Guangzhou, China

2020-11-16T17:04:00-05:00

Landscape architecture firm SWA Group has completed all of the ground level work including several sculptural pieces for Jianhua Plaza in Guangzhou, China. The Plaza's 1.4-hectare landscape was developed as part of the Baiyun New City Plan.

SWA's landscape concept focused on developing a robust dialogue between the project's "ultra-modern" architectural forms and the landscape's softer, more organic geometries. The east portion of the site was completed and opened to the public in July this year.

The site consists of two towers. One tower will be the future headquarters for Jianhua Building Materials Group, and the other will be comprised of residential penthouses. A retail podium will create a central courtyard between the two towers.

New sculpture by Steven Holl installed at the Art Omi Sculpture and Architecture Park

2020-07-17T15:26:00-04:00

The new sculpture, called Obolin, uses cross laminated timber (CLT) to create three cutouts subtracted from a spherical geometry to mark the location of the sun's vector based on its Hudson Valley location at noon on the Summer and Winter Solstices, and at 2:00pm on the Equinox.

Obolin was fabricated from a single, 50-foot-long sheet of CLT, and was stack laminated and milled with a 7-axis robotic arm. This is the second sculpture by Steven Holl to be installed at Art Omi's Sculpture and Architecture Park. The first was One Two Five, a sculpture cut by CNC from a "21-million-year-old Lecce limestone" installed back in 2018.

Artist wants to transform Chicago dump site into sculpture garden for dismantled monuments

2020-07-13T11:48:00-04:00

Conceptual artist JB Daniel wants to transform a Chicago landfill site near the Calumet River into a sculpture park to house all of the toppled monuments from recent protests, reports The Art Newspaper.

The artist proposes the statues be installed in their topped states with their unoccupied pedestals nearby. According to The Art Newspaper, Daniel added that the park would educate visitors about the country's controversial past and would serve to inform future generations to come.

Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden to be redesigned by Hiroshi Sugimoto

2019-03-15T14:33:00-04:00

Seeking to raise its visibility and welcome more visitors, the Hirshhorn Museum plans to redesign its sunken sculpture garden to create an expanded entrance on the Mall and directly connect the artsy oasis to the museum’s main plaza.

"Following a successful renovation of the museum’s lobby by architect/artist Hiroshi Sugimoto, which has welcomed nearly a million visitors since its opening, the museum began working with Sugimoto to develop a concept design for the garden," reads the museum's announcement released earlier this week.

"Adjacent to the National Mall, the sunken garden is barely visible to both Mall and museum visitors. Sugimoto’s early concept calls for an enhanced entrance facing the National Mall, directly engaging the more than 35 million people who pass through each year. The new vision will create spaces for large-scale contemporary works and performances, as well as intimate spaces for the museum’s modern masterpieces. Initial concept designs also include reopening the underground passage, which has been closed for 30 years, but was an important element in architect Gordon Bunshaft’s original design, connecting the garden to the museum plaza."

Walker Art Center goes green in $75 million project

2015-03-30T15:37:00-04:00

Positioning itself as a neighborhood green space and cultural gateway, Walker Art Center will add a new glass-walled entrance pavilion, groves of trees and acres of new grass as part of a $75 million project to be announced Tuesday.

The Nasher and The Ant Bully

2012-04-23T13:57:00-04:00

“One of the things that may come out of the study is that the design of those cones [the north-facing oculi] may have inadvertently or in some other way, you know, turned out to actually have reflections coming in when Renzo sold you a bill of goods that said it wouldn’t.” That’s how Criswell remembers the exchange weeks later.... He is clearly proud that he stood up to Strick, a man who, he says, isn’t accustomed to having people talk back. And he’s proud that he insulted Renzo Piano."

Great story on the creation of the new Museum Tower in Dallas, which is baking the very district it's meant to be an anchor for...