Archinect - News

Inside the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s new $75 million expansion

2024-11-18T07:20:00-05:00

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM) has opened its $75 million NHM Commons expansion to the public. Designed by Frederick Fisher and Partners, with landscape architecture by Studio-MLA and exhibition spaces by Studio Joseph, the NHM Commons comprises approximately 75,000 square feet of renovated and newly constructed space.

Image credit: Benny Chan

The centerpiece of the design is a transparent glass façade, creating a visual connection between the museum and Exposition Park. Inside, the Commons Theater and various multipurpose spaces have been built to accommodate an expanded slate of community-centered programming. The new spaces facilitate engagement with science, culture, and nature, including areas for those visiting without a ticket.

Image credit: Benny Chan

Outside, Studio-MLA has developed a community plaza in collaboration with Native American advisors, featuring sustainable planting, Tongva-inspired mortar i...

Tadao Ando on 'Youth' and optimism for museum design

2023-06-28T08:00:00-04:00

I believe that a museum is the light of hope [...] A place where people can obtain the ‘nutrients for the soul’ necessary for living a rich and fulfilling life.

Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Ando says: “I always struggle with where to draw the line between nature and artificiality as I proceed with design,” telling the interviewer Edwin Heathcote (who says his 2013 Museum SAN in South Korea illustrates “the crisis in contemporary architecture”) that his goal for the project was to create “one big garden” before remarking on the Bourse de Commerce in Paris, the necessity of adaptive reuse, personal health challenges, and legacy.

The final leg of the 81-year-old icon’s touring retrospective Tadao Ando: Youth exhibition culminates at Museum SAN and will remain on view until July 30th of this year.

Explore photos of OMA and Cooper Robertson's newly opened Buffalo AKG Art Museum expansion

2023-06-23T13:58:00-04:00

OMA has shared photos of the newly-reopened Buffalo AKG ARt Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox Gallery) following a special ribbon-cutting ceremony that was held on June 12 in Buffalo, New York.

The culmination of more than three years of construction yielded the renovation of two existing structures and the addition of a new glass-canopied Jeffrey E. Gundlach Building and Ralph Wilson Town Square designed by Shohei Shigematsu in collaboration with Cooper Robertson.

The Buffalo AKG campus looking east along Elmwood Avenue. Image © Marco Cappelletti.

Overall, the renovations add an additional 50,000-square-feet of exhibition space, five studio classrooms, a restaurant, and 350-seat auditorium. The project was funded by a $230 million capital campaign said to be the largest in the region’s history. New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul, who was born and raised in Buffalo, said "The new building and campus are a dramatic work of art that will attract visitors and support the regional touri...

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County's $75 million NHM Commons expansion tops out in Exposition Park

2023-05-30T13:05:00-04:00

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has just celebrated its topping out for the new 75,000-square-foot NHM Commons expansion led by LA mainstays Studio-MLA and Frederick Fisher and Partners.

The project creates a new wing and community hub on the southwest side of the museum’s campus in Exposition Park and will be open to the public by the end of next year following a multi-year construction phase.

The museum describes: “The indoor/outdoor NHM Commons spaces will enable NHM to expand its community-centered, co-created programming, thereby further connecting the public with science, nature, culture, heritage, and community, while creating opportunities for people to come together to experience NHM, with or without a ticket.”

NHMLAC President and Director Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga. Photo by Wade Hammond, courtesy of NHMLAC.

At last week’s special beam signing ceremony, NHMLAC President and Director Dr. Lori Bettison-Varga added: “This transformative expansion will be a dynam...

National Air and Space Museum Holds Architecture Challenge for Architecture Students and Young Professionals

2023-03-17T15:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum

The Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum recently announced its Student Architecture and Design Challenge for the design of an element for its new Bezos Learning Center. Through this challenge, teams of architecture and design students and early-career architects will be challenged to design an architectural element for the exterior structure that visualizes and communicates scientific, aviation, astronomy or aerospace concepts in an effective way. It is free to both apply and participate in this challenge.

The competition invites students to propose a new design that will sit next to the current museum. Image courtesy of The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

ELIGIBILITY

As a team challenge, all entries must be composed of teams of two or three people. Teams can consist of a mixture of design and/or architecture students, recent graduates, and professionals with experience of five years or less.

Not s...

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles shares updates on new community-focused NHM Commons and collaboration with Native American community leaders

2022-12-09T17:09:00-05:00

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has announced updated plans for a Studio-MLA and Frederick Fisher and Partners-led expansion that is now taking shape for the year 2024.

New renderings of the 60,000-square-foot project appear to add interior details to the previous announcement, which showcased a unique transparent "curated facade" meant to exhibit pieces from the museum similar to a giant display case or vitrine.

As part of the effort, the museum has formed two new advisory groups, the NHM Commons Native American Advisory Council and the NHM Commons Advisory Coalition. The groups will advise the design team (which now also includes New York-based Studio Joseph) as to how best to determine "ways to build a sense of welcome, acknowledgment, and respect for Native people who enter this space and opportunities to remind, express to and educate visitors that Los Angeles is on Native land."

Renderings by Frederick Fisher and Partners, Studio MLA, and Studio Joseph. Courte...

Explore SANAA's Art Gallery of New South Wales expansion ahead of its grand opening

2022-11-30T15:35:00-05:00

Sydney's highly anticipated Art Gallery of New South Wales expansion will open its doors on Saturday, December 3, expecting the arrival of 15,000 people who have already registered to visit.

Designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning duo Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA, the new project is set to be the city's largest "cultural development since the dramatic opening of its Opera House nearly 50 years ago," as reported on Archinect back in May 2022 when updated project renderings were released.

Image © Iwan Baan/Courtesy of SANAA | The Art Gallery NSW.

Sejima and Nishizawa expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to work on the project. They shared with the press, "It has been a wonderful honor to design such an important public building in Sydney. Working closely with the Art Gallery of New South Wales team, we aimed to design an art museum building that is harmonious with its surroundings, one that breathes with the city, the park, and the harbor. We hope it will be a sp...

OMA and Cooper Robertson's Buffalo AKG Museum will officially reopen in May 2023

2022-11-24T12:00:00-05:00

An opening date has been set for the restored Buffalo AKG Art Museum following the announcement of the additional $20 million in funding to complete the three-year OMA and Cooper Robertson-led project.

Since Archinect's reporting of the museum's design was shared back in June 2018, the formerly named Albright-Knox Art Gallery will officially open its doors on May 25, 2023. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul signed off on the remaining monies made necessary by pandemic-related overruns to what she called a “transformative project that will provide a significant boost to Buffalo’s future.”

When it opens, visitors will be enthralled by Shohei Shigematsu’s glass curtain design for the new Jeffrey E. Gundlach building that connects via a transparent pedestrian bridge to the refurbished 117-year-old Elisabeth Wilmers Building, designed in the neoclassical style by influential local architect...

Obama Presidential Center Director, Louise Bernard, discusses the site's progress

2022-06-22T11:51:00-04:00

The construction will take place holistically at once. Except for our athletic facility, whose timeline is little bit later. And there is all the landscaping work that will commence once the construction is further along. The vision of what the center will be is firmly understood. The drawings are complete and ready to be executed upon. The concrete work will be the next phase. People will begin to see the construction coming out of the ground beginning in the summer.

Bernard told ARTnews she wants the 19-acre TWBTA-designed library and parks complex to “serve as an example” for other developments in the city. The Director also described the museum's four-floor gallery layout, which is topped by a "Sky Room" feature in addition to a 5,000-square-foot special exhibits gallery located on the building's lowest level. When discussing the space she shared, "we will delve into topics that we only touch upon in the core exhibit.”

The museum will also include a replica of the oval office, and core galleries consisting of mostly donated objects filtered through the focal point of the historic 2008 Presidential election, with the curatorial direction being “not just to be about him but about the people who made his presidency possible.”

Maya Lin discusses her new Museum of Chinese in America design in PBS special

2022-06-13T16:42:00-04:00

The famed Vietnam Wall Memorial designer and 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient took a studio visit with PBS correspondent Jeffrey Brown to discuss her designs for the new Museum of Chinese in America following its partial destruction due to fire in January of 2020.

“I don’t think you can be an Asian-American in 2022 and not be acutely aware of the anti-Asian sentiment,” Lin said at the outset, speaking of the appalling rash of hate crimes that have tormented communities both large and small, from coast to coast as part of our constantly deteriorating social fabric over the past two-plus years since the pandemic.

Personally, I found the concept for the expanded museum rather promising in spite of the criticisms that were wielded against it following the publication of the first batch of project renderings in early April.

The museum's structure gives a simultaneous nod to the universal task of ...

For International Museum Day, here are 10 of our favorite cultural projects set to debut in 2022

2022-05-18T20:07:00-04:00

The large museum commission is one of the most coveted project types for architects to pursue professionally. The past year alone was further evidence of this age-old ambition, with major cultural sector stories gracing our pages frequently, spearheaded by the new M+ Museum by Herzog & de Meuron, Frank Gehry's LUMA Arles, and the (oft-derided) Munch Museum in Norway from estudio Herreros taking top billing alongside many other superlative designs.

2022 has seen even more major developments in the industry, led by the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s decision to replace David Chipperfield with Frida Escobedo as the architect of its new $500 million contemporary wing, the announcement of an important $34 million Tate Liverpool overhaul, and welcomed revival of HdM’s amended Vancouver Art Gallery expansion effort once thought to be long dead.

As Archinect celebrates International Museum Day today, here are a few of the more prominent openings and expansion projects to make their debut thi...

Foster + Partners complete pyramid-like museum in Datong, China

2022-01-06T14:28:00-05:00

The Datong Art Museum has opened to the public in northern China, having recently been completed by Foster + Partners. The firm describes the new museum as a “landscaped terrain with a series of interconnected pyramids emerging from below the earth.”

Image by Yang Chaoying for Foster + Partners

The scheme’s four interconnected roof pyramids increase in height and fan outwards towards the four corners of the surrounding plaza. A clerestory between each volume combines with roof lights at the apex of each pyramid to allow natural light to flood the interior during the day, while creating a “unique beacon for the new cultural quarter” at night.

Image by Yang Chaoying for Foster + Partners

The roof’s design has been informed by the need for large structural spans, allowing a flexible column-free volume for the galleries. The roof is clad in naturally oxidized curved steel plates, with panel sizes proportioned to suit the large scale of the museum, and a linear arrangement to accentuat...

Photos: First V&A East building tops out in East London ceremony

2021-12-15T13:42:00-05:00

Exciting news in the museum world as the first site of the long-awaited Victoria & Albert Museum’s East extension has officially topped out as of this week.

The new V&A East has been years in the making. After overcoming roadblocks which threatened its existence beginning with sharp public criticism at its inception in 2016 and lasting all the way until this past fall, when it was announced that a much-heralded partnership with the American Smithsonian institution had to be called off thanks to unforeseen circumstances caused by the pandemic.

The O'Donnell + Tuomey-designed building is one of two slated to transform East London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park into a premier destination for the city’s artistic community.

The building was inspired by an x-ray of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s 1956 silk taffeta dress and will house a slate of progressive exhibitions and an employment program which includes the newly-established V&A East Youth Collective along...

The biggest splash: Renzo Piano’s masterwork Academy Museum opens as one of Los Angeles’ newest landmarks

2021-09-29T14:57:00-04:00

When it finally opens on Thursday, the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will do so in a similar vein to so many of this year’s star-studded fall releases. The $484 million museum’s first act will be as a barometer for an industry looking once again to pack theaters and captivate audiences as the tumult of the covid era gives way to Hollywood entrances and red carpet debuts.

Photo by Joshua White, JWPictures/© Academy Museum Foundation

No museum has been so anticipated in the recent history of the city. None in North America have ever been so dedicated to film culture and to moviemaking as this dazzling new magnum opus. It is precisely the vehicle the industry needs to promote itself as it emerges from a fraught decade and one that looks inevitably to the future using the past as prologue and film as a lens through which we experience ourselves and the world.

Renzo Piano’s blockbuster new cinematic arts shrine expands from an old Streamline Moderne department store at the corner...

Kengo Kuma turns literary fantasy into an exciting spatial experience with the new Hans Christian Andersen Museum

2021-03-12T15:08:00-05:00

Kengo Kuma & Associates' new design for the Hans Christian Andersen Museum is underway. Pulling reference from Andersen's tales Kuma and his team bring the famed author and his writings to life in an exciting spatial experience. "The museum will provide a unique artistic experience, which combines landscape, architecture, and modern exhibition design, and it will offer new perspectives on one of the most beloved and creative thinkers in world history," shares the museum team.

The firm was selected for the museum project after winning first prize for the international design competition in 2016. Slated to open Summer 2021, visualizations of the project's dreamy outdoor landscapes complement Andersen's fantastical tales. The 60,277 square foot (5,600 square meters) museum site contains a children's house and an underground museum that intertwines with the garden.

Kuma was inspired by the author's fairytale "The Tinderbox" which tells the story of a soldier who learns of a magical un...

Virtual museums may not be the answer for post-pandemic success

2020-09-21T14:59:00-04:00

Creating an entirely virtual museum is already one approach for the future, but it’s a slippery slope. Museums might be enticed by the idea of having their entire collections online in order to avoid the possible transmission of disease, but then what happens to the buildings...With everything online, a museum building would morph into something that’s more or less just storage.

With self-quarantining, social distancing, and the closure of businesses and public venues, what happens to institutions like museums and their relationship with the public? While exhibitions can be seen online, does that solution defeat the purpose of a museum itself?

According to Smithsonian Magazine writer Jennifer Billock, "how will people experience museums 10 or 20 years down the road, when proactive design changes to curb the spread of disease have been put in place?" Museum closures and online exhibitions have been an answer for some while others plan to reopen in order to revive the museum experience.

Archinect's previous coverage on museums as they respond to COVID. Photo: Wikimedia Commons user BRENAC/CC-BY-SA-3.0.

Architect Bea Spolidoro, principal of FisherARCHitecture, shares with Billock that new design solutions should not "substitute the true experience." In addition to in-person experiential loss, Spolidoro expresses that maintenance costs are another factor to kee...

Brooks + Scarpa to design Mennello Museum of American Art expansion

2019-10-15T14:01:00-04:00

Brooks + Scarpa gave a first glimpse of their commissioned design to expand Orlando's Mennello Museum of American Art. Collaborating with locally based KMF Architects, Brooks + Scarpa will add 40,000 square feet to transform the current 12,000 square-foot building into a more inclusive, welcoming space.

The $20 million expansion will allow the museum to add more public programs, amenities, and multi-functional event spaces to better serve their growing number of visitors.

Image courtesy of Brooks + Scarpa.

Lawrence Scarpa describes their vision as “futuristic and timeless. The design mirrors the objective of the artwork inside: It tells a story and furthers the Museum’s mission to be a place of education, culture, and inspiration. [...] The building is organized as a series of highly engaging spaces where the Museum’s mission of using art to connect people to the world around them c...

Model of future LACMA campus now on display

2019-06-28T19:27:00-04:00

The newest design for the LACMA campus, masterminded by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, has received more criticism than your average museum expansion. LA Times writer Christopher Knight had some choice words about the futile nature of the proposal while Kate Wagner has dismissed it as little more than "a museum that benefits nobody and satisfies none of the needs of the art in its collection, nor of the public that will view it."

Model of Lacma Campus on display at LACMA. Photo by author.

In response, LACMA has dedicated a space to the exhibition of the new plan with a 15-foot model built in Zumthor's studio. The site model is a single slab of molded cement, reproducing several blocks of the Miracle Mile with abstracted precision to focus attention on an all-white volumetric model of the LACMA addition.

Model of Lacma Campus on display at LACMA. Photo by author.

The exhibition is held in a space formerly reserved for Art Catalogues in the part of the campus that will soon be demolish...

First glimpse of Daniel Libeskind's design for Ngaren: Museum of Humankind in Kenya

2019-05-14T17:12:00-04:00

Studio Libeskind unveiled their design for the proposed Ngaren: Museum of Humankind in Loodariak, Kenya. Commissioned by Dr. Richard Leakey, a renowned Kenyan paleoanthropologist, conservationist, and politician, the museum will be the first center of its kind that is dedicated to the research, discovery, and exploration of over 2 million years of human history. It'll also showcase Dr. Leakey's life work of fossil discoveries that have helped reveal the history of human evolution.

Working with local Kenyan architects, Studio Libeskind is overseeing the design and construction of Ngaren. The museum will emerge from within the dramatic landscape of Rift Valley, where Kamoya Kimeu — a member of a team led by Dr. Leakey — first made the significant discovery of Turkana Boy, which is the most complete early-human skeleton ever found by far.

Image courtesy of Studio Daniel Libeskind.

Described by Studio Libeskind as a vertical stalactite, the museu...

Canadian-based architecture firm KPMB Architects showcase how architects design for art

2019-05-14T13:52:00-04:00

Museums and galleries all over the world house some of the most valuable and sought after art pieces. Not only do these structures house art, but they also create the environment for art to live and be experienced with its surroundings. Canadian-based architecture firm KPMB Architects collaborated with Régis Côté et associés and Architecture49 to help transform and build two new museum experiences in Canada. With an emphasis in exhibiting and developing a new building for prominent art pieces and collections, KPMB and Régis Côté et associés worked on the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) expansion and Arts Court Redevelopment. The new mixed-use building functions as a museum as well as a cultural, civic center in the heart of Ottawa. According to the design team, the goal of the project was to "create a destination for patrons of the arts as well as provide an identity for the OAG and the other arts organizations currently housed in the Arts Court."

Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) Expansion and Ar...

Studio Libeskind to redesign Museo Regional de Tarapacá for Chile's Regional Anthropological Museum of Iquique

2019-03-21T19:46:00-04:00

Studio Daniel Libeskind released a few images of their proposed design of the new Museo Regional de Tarapacá for the Regional Anthropological Museum of Iquique in northern Chile. The project is part of a larger development plan led by Mayor Mauricio Soria Macchiavello and his team.

Dubbed by the studio as “El Dragon de Tarapacá”, the new 3,760m2 building will replace the old museum built in 1892, which can currently display only 20 percent of their collection. Featuring the signature sharp, angular forms of a Libeskind building, the new museum's design was inspired by the Atapaca Desert's stark landscape and Iquique's urban dune, the “Cerro Dragon”. Exhibitions in the new building will display 6,000 years of northern Chilean history.

Courtesy of Studio Libeskind.

A sloped garden will lead up to the building's entrance hall, which will be topped by a cafe that overlooks the Southern coastline. Three pairs of parallel vertical walls shape the major space...

OPEN Architecture completes cave-like UCCA Dune Art Museum

2018-11-15T14:58:00-05:00

Carved into a sand dune along a quiet beach in the port city of Qinhuangdao, the new Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Dune Art Museum debuted its first art exhibition last month, after three years of construction.

Aranya commissioned Beijing-based OPEN Architecture to design the museum, which is operated by the UCCA. The architects gave the museum a pared down aesthetic that features organic forms and cave-like spaces. The 930 square-meter museum contains 10 galleries and a cafe.

Photo: Wu Qingshan.

“Its interconnected, organically shaped spaces echo those of caves—the earliest form of human inhabitance, whose walls were once home to some of man’s first works of art,” OPEN Architecture explains.

Cafe. Photo: Wu Qingshan.

Gallery skylights. Photo: Wu Qingshan.

The building features multiple openings of different sizes and orientations to provide natural lighting into the space as well as offer views of the changing sky and sea throughout the day. Local workers in Qinhuangdao — some o...

Diller Scofidio + Renfro and O'Donnell + Tuomey unveil designs for V&A East project

2018-11-02T16:43:00-04:00

London's Victoria & Albert Museum unveiled the anticipated design plans for the V&A East project in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Scheduled to open in 2023 as part of the £1.1 billion East Bank development, the project comprises of two interconnected sites: a new 5-story museum at Stratford Waterfront designed by Dublin-based O'Donnell + Tuomey Architects, and the new Here East collection and research center designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with support from British architecture firm Austin-Smith:Lord.

V&A collection and research center at Here East

Interior rendering of the new V&A collection and research center at Here East, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Pictured above is a marquetry ceiling from the now-destroyed Altamira Palace near Toledo, Spain, c.1490. © Diller Scofidio + Renfro, 2018.

Flexible display space in the new V&A collection and research center at Here East, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro. © Diller Scofidio + Renfro, 2018.

Rendering of Edgar J. Kaufm...

Studio Daniel Libeskind's MO Modern Art Museum in Vilnius opens to the public

2018-10-18T02:00:00-04:00

The Studio Daniel Libeskind-designed MO Modern Art Museum in central Vilnius opened its doors to the public today. At 3,100 m2, the building — which is also Lithuania's largest private museum — houses nearly 5,000 never-before-seen works by Lithuanian artists from the mid-20th century to the present. Studio Libeskind teamed up with locally based Do Architects and Baltic Engineers for the project.

Located in historic Vilnius, the museum's design pays tribute to its past and present. Its rectilinear exterior facade is clad in luminous white plaster as a reference to local materials in the city, according to Studio Libeskind. The minimalist facade is contrasted with a dramatic open staircase that intersects the building on a diagonal axis.

The staircase leads to a stepped open-air terraced roof that serves as a gathering space for public performances and events. A 5-meter fully glazed, cantilevered wall provides views o...

Cooper Robertson emphasizes Universal Design in new Gateway Arch Museum

2018-10-03T15:40:00-04:00

In redesigning the Gateway Arch Museum that opened in July, Cooper Robertson — along with James Carpenter Design Associates and Trivers Associates — made it a priority to integrate Universal Design, which goes beyond ADA regulations to create buildings that can be equally accessible to people of all abilities. The redesign adds 45,000 square feet of new museum area and over 100,000 square feet of reconfigured galleries, public education facilities, and visitor amenities.

A gently sloping plaza, architecturally integrated ramps, and engaging exhibitions allow everyone to experience the building in the same way. The redesign doesn't just “simply provide accessible ‘alternatives’,” said Cooper Robertson's Scott Newman in a statement. And for the first time, a special exhibition in the tram lobby allows visitors to experience the top of the Arch through live webcam feeds from the observation deck.

“The Gateway Arch Museum reflects a fundamental shift in the public sector and the design ...

I.M. Pei's first museum scheme, the Everson in Syracuse, turns 50

2018-10-02T15:43:00-04:00

The Everson Museum in Syracuse, NY, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, was renowned architect I.M. Pei's first museum design. Opening in 1968 to rave reviews, the architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable described at the time that the structure was "the architecture of today as art history will eventually record it...it does its own thing."

The 60,000 square foot facility is constructed out of concrete blended with local granite—an example of American brutalism that achieved a level of refinement and luxury sometimes lacking in the attitude of its peers. Pei's plans for the small-museum were quite unique at the time; his obsession over small details and his iconic circular staircase helped to make it a success.

Take a look at the landmark building.

Courtesy of the Everson Museum.

HGA’s renovation and expansion unifies the Walker Art Center

2018-01-30T14:10:00-05:00

As part of their 75th anniversary, the Walker Art Center unified its 19-acre campus with renovations by HGA. The new museum design features a bold new entry pavilion, a renovated lobby, and improved access points throughout the museum.

Walker Art Center, located in Minneapolis, renovation by HGA. Image: Paul Crosby Photography.

HGA's design focused on an understated exterior to fit with the existing buildings. Design principal Joan Soranno stated, “Architecturally, the buildings are very different from each other. The Walker didn’t want a third architectural expression. Our expansion had to be compatible and harmonious with what was already there.”

Walker Art Center, located in Minneapolis, renovation by HGA. Image: Paul Crosby Photography.

The Walker Art Center now boasts easier navigation throughout the museum, a design hiding the mechanical guts, and "destination-worthy" dining.

Wal...

South Africa’s new contemporary art museum opens in Cape Town’s former grain silo

2017-09-16T14:46:00-04:00

The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA), the world's largest museum of contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora, will open to the public on September 22. Zeitz MOCAA is located in a former grain silo at the V&A waterfront in Cape Town, South Africa.

Zeitz MOCAA Picture Iwan Baan

Atrium at Zeitz MOCAA. Picture Iwan Baan

Architects Mat Cash and Stepan Martinovsky are the project leaders from Heatherwick Studio. The new design transformed the existing building, creating a honeycomb shaped interior. The concrete tubes of the silo are topped with laminated glass, allowing natural sunlight to enter the building.

Atrium at Zeitz MOCAA. Picture Iwan Baan

Zeitz MOCAA is a new non-profit cultural institution with a mandate to collect, preserve, research and exhibit contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora. Established in 2013, it is the first major institution dedicated to contemporary art in Africa.

Built in 1921, 57 meters tall, the silos processed hundreds of thou...

Michael Maltzan's renderings of the expanded Hammer Museum reveal cautious, yet possibly ebullient design

2017-01-26T14:42:00-05:00

After transforming from a cramped adjunct space to a fully fledged L.A. cultural hotspot in just a few decades, the Hammer Museum is expanding again thanks to Michael Maltzan, who has been gradually increasing and renovating the Hammer over the years via The Billy Wilder Theatre, the expanded public courtyard (featuring Heatherwick Studio's ever delightful spool chairs), and the John V. Tunney Bridge. Based on his past work for the museum, he's able to create aesthetically powerful spaces in fairly constrained circumstances. The new renderings, while not mind-blowing in of themselves, promise a continuance of his detailed, culturally attuned work.

Perhaps the most exciting element of the new design is the pronounced pedestrian entrance on Wilshire Boulevard. Currently, museum goers often enter through the frankly unimpressive subterranean parking garage, or the staircase-heavy entrances on Lindbrook or Wilshire. This nod toward greater accessibility will hopefully not only perk up th...

Robert Konieczny/KWK Promes and Hayball among big winners in 2016 World Architecture Festival

2016-11-18T18:44:00-05:00

The 2016 World Architecture Festival has come to a close. After a final round of presentations and jury critiques for the Day One and Two category winners, the National Museum in Szczecin in Poland made it to the top as the ninth recipient of the coveted World Building of the Year. Designed by Robert Konieczny/KWK Promes, the museum joins previous winners like The Interlace by OMA/Ole Scheeren in Singapore and a21studio's The Chapel in Vietnam.

During the Friday awards gala dinner, other winning announcements included South Melbourne Primary School by Hayball for Future Project of the Year, while the Kopupaka Reserve in Auckland, New Zealand by Isthmus scooped Landscape of the Year. Last but not least, the Chinese University of Hong Kong School of Architecture won Small Project of the Year for their ZCB Bamboo Pavilion.

WORLD BUILDING OF THE YEAR: National Museum in Szczecin, Poland by Robert Konieczny/KWK Promes

Jury chair David Chipperfield cited the National Museum as an “optimistic...