Archinect - News

Message In a Bottle In Sainsbury

2024-08-29T21:36:00-04:00

The false columns in the foyer were part of the intended spatial sequence, conceived as a procession from shadow to light, inspired by the entry to an ancient church. Visitors would enter this crypt-like lower level, proceed up a grand staircase, and arrive in the airy galleries above.

Call it a reactionary's revenge if you want, but "a message in a bottle" was found inside one of the Sainsbury Wing's pilasters during the demolishment activity. It is said to have been written as a time capsule by one of the major donors of the Museum, Lord John Sainsbury.

While the message's author goes as far as to say, “I believe that the false columns are a mistake of the architect (VSBA) and that we would live to regret our accepting this detail of his design. Let it be known that one of the donors of this building is absolutely delighted that your generation has decided to dispense with the unnecessary columns.”

The Guardian's architecture critic Oliver Wainwright has the last piercing words for the client and their architect doing away with the old design; "More than 30 years later, Sainsbury’s view is shared by the National Gallery’s current administration. Director Gabriele Finaldi has said it is the “heavy grey architecture” and “forest” of thick pillars on the ground floo...

Annabelle Selldorf in Vogue: 'I aim to do no more than what needs to be done, but no less either'

2024-08-05T15:24:00-04:00

Until I worked with Ian Wardropper at the Frick, I don’t think I made it clear to myself that I’m a practical person. I’m a visual person. I think about how things go together. I have very strong opinions about what is beautiful, but at some point I realized it’s about something bigger than that. Architecture is such a real profession, and we can imbue it with all kinds of theoretical thinking, but it’s pretty basic when you’re working in the public realm.

Annabelle Selldorf is working remotely from her summer home in Maine these days, she tells Vogue. Among the projects covered are her debated Sainsbury Wing redesign (“Many years down the road, this will be remembered as a Venturi, Scott Brown building and not as a Selldorf building [...].”) and the completed residential component of the One Domino Square redevelopment on the Williamsburg waterfront. The new Frick Collection expansion gets even more of the quotes, centering on the highlight 220-seat Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium before its anticipated debut towards the end of this year.

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for an open Fall 2024 Architectural Intern position in its New York office.

Denise Scott Brown says she's not pleased with Selldorf Architects' Sainsbury Wing redesign

2022-11-28T15:19:00-05:00

A considerable row has sprung up concerning Selldorf Architects' controversial revamp of the National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing after one of its original co-designers, Denise Scott Brown, made comments over the weekend indicating a disagreement and lack of support for the currently under-review proposal.

"She’s making our building look like a circus clown," Scott Brown told The Guardian's James Tapper without elaborating on which specific elements the already widely-opposed plans she has an issue with. "There are elements of tragedy – circus clowns are made up to look happy, but they’re not. This is a circus clown wearing a tutu."

Selldorf had previously mentioned in an April New York Times preview of her MOCA San Diego makeover and in another Architects Journal update from August that she had spoken with Scott Brown about both projects. During our coverage of the Sainsbury Wing in October, Seldorf said, "she has been counseled by the wing's original co-architect Denise Scott Brown ...

Selldorf unveils revised Sainsbury Wing plan in response to critical backlash

2022-10-21T09:00:00-04:00

Selldorf Architects has released a revised plan for the controversial overhaul of the Sainsbury Wing at London’s National Gallery following a torrent of criticism that has grown online after their initial designs were unveiled this summer.

The Architects’ Journal is reporting on the revisions, which appear to have entailed the retention of certain ground floor elements in the lobby and changes to the originally proposed placement of existing structural columns, as well as to the materials used in the balustrade and lobby walls.

Image courtesy Selldorf Architects

"I don't think of these changes as a compromise. I see them as a welcome development," Annabelle Selldorf told AJ. "In the resubmitted plans, much more of the existing fabric will remain, creating a clearer dialogue with the original building. And yet the original goals remain intact."

Image courtesy Selldorf Architects

"I took from this reaction hat people truly care about the building. And when when you perceive that, you ha...

Rowan Moore issues a blow to the Selldorf-led Sainsbury Wing redevelopment

2022-06-23T09:00:00-04:00

The problem is that the proposed new work is something else altogether to Venturi and Scott Brown’s playfulness and personality. It has curving glass balustrades, white walls and oak-clad pillars, and expanses of plain paving outside. It is an architecture of near-emptiness, the default style of international art-world good taste.

Moore ran through the litany of changes Annabelle Selldorf is making in replacement of the current iteration’s “bum notes,” which the critic pinned on a rift between the original expansion's benefactors and what was then called Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates.

This is now the second Denise Scott Brown-designed museum that Selldorf has laid her (very capable) hands-on after the recently opened Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego revamp, which she said engendered a “greater clarity across the history of all the building types.” Moore, seizing on the difference in intrusion levels between the two similar projects, said “there could be more rapport between the current and the proposed and more cleverness and wit” before making a surprising turn to his own long-distant past.

Moore concluded, “by refusing to align themselves with any one architectural camp, trad...

Selldorf Architects reveals first round of designs for National Gallery's Sainsbury Wing redevelopment

2022-02-18T17:38:00-05:00

An important update has been issued to one of the most-watched cultural projects in the UK this afternoon after Selldorf Architects released their initial plans for the redesigned Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery of Art in London.

The firm was tapped in July to lead a multidisciplinary design team that includes Purcell, Vogt Landscape, and Arup.

A proposed loop connection of the Sainsbury Wing. Image courtesy Selldorf Architects.

As part of a public consultation phase that was unveiled today, the firm put forth its NG200 proposal for the overhauled award-winning Venturi, Scott Brown building, which is meant to increase accessibility in advance of the museum’s upcoming bicentenary celebration.

The initial batch of renderings appears to show a more opened-up foyer that welcomes visitors from a revamped entrance and newly-created public realm leading into Trafalgar Square. Improved lighting and wayfinding are to be emphasized throughout, including a new walking path meant to conn...

The National Gallery has tapped Selldorf Architects for its bicentennial upgrade

2021-07-14T19:41:00-04:00

London’s National Gallery has announced the architect for its upcoming renovation that’s part of a bicentennial celebration planned for the museum in 2024.

Selldorf Architects will be in charge of the renovation tied to a planned competition called the NG200 Project.

Selldorff beat out Chipperfield Architects and four other UK-based firms for the commission said to be the institution’s largest in two decades. The firm is coming off of a recent successful renovation of New York’s Frick Collection, and will now look to another high-profile museum project with the potential for tremendous institutional impacts at a critical juncture for culture writ large.

The £25-30 million project will upgrade the museum’s Sainsbury Wing as well as some public spaces around its Trafalgar Square entrance.

A five-member panel had previously raised the shortlist cap to include a sixth entry after announcing the competition in February.

The Grade-I Listed building will be getting a new foyer and resea...

National Gallery in London to pursue £25m renovation

2021-02-16T11:22:00-05:00

London’s National Gallery is embarking on a £25m-£30m project to upgrade its building, to be partly completed in early 2024 to celebrate its 200th anniversary. There will be three key elements: upgrading the lobby of the Sainsbury Wing, creating a new research centre and improving outdoor space on the edge of Trafalgar Square.

The Sainsbury Wing, designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, will have obvious limitations to what work can be done, given its Grade I listed status. According to The Art Newspaper, the work will be phased over five years. The first step will be to select a design team, which will be led by an architectural firm. A call for interested design teams is due to be sent out today, after which five teams will be shortlisted, reports The Arts Newspaper.

Sainsbury Wing by Venturi, Scott Brown wins 2019 AIA Twenty-Five Year Award

2019-01-08T20:27:00-05:00

After no one received the prize last year, there was a more positive outcome for the AIA's Twenty-Five Year Award for 2019. Today, the AIA announced Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates' Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery in London as this year's recipient. Established in 1969, the annual award distinguishes a building that has gracefully stood the test of time over the last 25-35 years and “continues to set standards of excellence for its architectural design and significance”.

An extension to the historic National Gallery, the 120,000 square-foot Sainsbury Wing houses one of the world's most visited collections of early Italian and Northern Renaissance paintings. Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown's practice was selected to design the project after they won the second iteration of an international competition in 1985-86. Completed in 1991, the new Sainsbury Wing sparked heated debate among modernists, postmodernists, and the general public. Some critics thought its facade wa...

Robert Venturi, Prince Charles & that false Corinthian column

2015-05-05T13:53:00-04:00

Today it houses one of London’s best permanent collection displays, but the 1991 Sainsbury Wing extension to the National Gallery in London was almost scuppered when Prince Charles and the other trustees opposed the architect of the new building, Robert Venturi. The row was over a false Corinthian column that the US architect wanted as a decorative feature on the Trafalgar Square façade of the new extension.