Archinect - News

Snøhetta previews new Omaha Children's Museum in Nebraska

2024-10-25T10:48:00-04:00

Snøhetta will follow up on its recent Joslyn Art Museum project with the design for the new Omaha Children's Museum in Nebraska. The project was updated this week and includes a 175-seat performance room, a cafe, and a play-workshop. Rubberized mounds placed in its forecourt will activate additional space, "inviting visitors to climb and play before experiencing everything the museum has to offer inside." Snøhetta also recently completed the 70,000-square-foot El Paso Children's Museum (aka La Nube) and Far Rockaway Library in Queens.

Image: Tegmark

Take a look inside Snøhetta's newly opened Joslyn Art Museum expansion

2024-09-10T15:40:00-04:00

The Joslyn Art Museum celebrates its grand reopening today following a $100 million Snøhetta-led expansion project that established the new 42,000-square-foot Rhonda & Howard Hawks Pavilion on its campus in Omaha, Nebraska.

Photo © Nic Lehoux, courtesy Joslyn Art Museum

Founding partner Craig Dykers shared: "Our goal has been to provide a harmonious place for guests, art, and gathering that will become a vessel for inspiration and creativity to flourish."

Photo © Nic Lehoux, courtesy Joslyn Art Museum

The restoration of the museum's 1931 Art Deco Joslyn Building was another key aspect of the project. Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture was integral to the design and execution of the new pavilion, which joins the Joslyn Building with Norman Foster's 1994 Suzanne & Walter Scott Pavilion via an atrium.

Photo © Nic Lehoux, courtesy Joslyn Art Museum

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Snøhetta's Joslyn Art Museum expansion teases first photos ahead of September opening

2024-08-09T11:39:00-04:00

Work on Snøhetta's Joslyn Art Museum expansion in Omaha, Nebraska, is wrapping up ahead of an anticipated September 10th opening. Since our last update, the new 42,000-square-foot Rhonda & Howard Hawks Pavilion has finished construction. Founding partner Craig Dykers says it will “become a vessel for inspiration and creativity to flourish.”

Bird's-eye view rendering of the completed Joslyn Art Museum expansion. Rendering courtesy of Moare.

The project is part of a multi-billion investment into downtown Omaha to which the Joslyn serves as a key cultural anchor. The existing 1931 Art Deco Joslyn Building was also renovated through the project, which is valued at $100 million. Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture is involved as a design partner.

Here are two more teaser photos the museum just released, showing details of the facade and the interior.

Image: © Nic Lehoux, courtesy of the Joslyn Art Museum.

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Snøhetta's Joslyn Art Museum expansion set to open in September

2024-02-26T14:06:00-05:00

The Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, has shared new renderings and construction photos to go along with the announcement of the impending completion of a two-year, $100 million expansion project designed by Snøhetta and Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture.

The design establishes the new Rhonda & Howard Hawks Pavilion on campus while adding another 40% worth of gallery spaces to house the museum’s fast-growing collection. Joslyn’s CEO Jack Becker complimented the firms’ "sensitive and imaginative approach" in planning the 42,000-square-foot extension, which is one part of the broad-ranging reinvestment the state and other private entities are making into downtown over the next decades.

Rendering courtesy of Moare

A pink-colored aggregate was added to pre-cast panels on the pavilion’s exterior, referencing the marble materials used in the facades of the Joslyn’s other existing structures from 1931 and 1994. This trio of buildings welcomes the public via a new entrance made at Da...

Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum selects Snøhetta to lead ambitious expansion

2018-10-18T14:22:00-04:00

The Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha has selected the architecture firm Snøhetta for its recently announced expansion. The ambitious plans will add a new building to join the original Art Deco museum, built in 1931, as well as a later 1994 addition designed by Norman Foster.

Snøhetta's extension will add new galleries to the site, allowing Joslyn to better display and further expand its 12,000 piece permanent collection. In particular, the Museum plans on growing its collection of contemporary art, having been generously gifted over 50 high-profile works by the Schrager family last year. The new addition will further help propel the museum to a new position on the international stage.

"The Museum is one of Nebraska’s greatest assets," remarked Joslyn's CEO Jack Becker. On the selection of Snøhetta, he added that the firm behind the SFMOMA Expansion and the Sept. 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion is "a perfect fit for this project, not only for their visionary design, but also for their commit...

Omaha is building a Tri-Faith campus with a church, a mosque and a synagogue (no joke)

2015-12-29T14:35:00-05:00

A mosque, a church and a synagogue go up on the site of an old Jewish country club ... It sounds like the setup to a joke — but it's not. It's actually happening in Omaha, Neb. The Tri-Faith Initiative may be the first place in history where these three monotheistic faiths have built together, on purpose, with the intention of working together. [...] Similar initiatives are underway elsewhere. One in Berlin would house all three religions in a single building.

Similar tri-faith building initiatives are also germinating in other parts of the world: A church-mosque-synagogue, in Berlin

Omaha to improve its Metro (for free!)

2015-05-27T20:22:00-04:00

At the end of May, Metro will debut its FORWARD plan: a fully reconfigured bus network that emphasizes more frequency, better night and weekend service, direct lines through high-ridership corridors, and grid-style access to many parts of the city. The top five routes will now all get 15-minute peak service... Rather than lobby for more taxpayer funding or jack up fares, Metro looked for more efficient ways to use its existing resources.