Savannah College of Art and Design - SCAD Museum of Art - Savannah, GA

The North Shed up-freight train facility's earliest construction was in the 1838-1855 period when the Central of Georgia developed its terminal facilities for goods moving into and out of Savannah.

The load-bearing brick walls and wood roof trusses formed a striking structure that is more than 700 feet long. Without use or protection over the past two decades, the shed had lost most of its roof and much of the exterior wall had crumbled to ruin before SCAD acquired the property.

SCAD’s new project is a 96,000 sf multi-functional facility designed to further the mission of developing strong Fine Arts, Applied Arts and Architectural education programs. The new development is envisioned in two phases, the first of which opened in Fall 2011.  This important addition to SCAD’s city-wide campus embraces two main functions: Museum and Education. It also galvanizes an important student link from the College's west boundary student housing to other SCAD facilities in the City’s historic district. Construction for the new facility encompasses the stabilization of the historic masonry shed walls and insertion of a new modern building rising from within the historic footprint.

The Museum galleries, primarily housed on the lower street level, are designed to display SCAD’s growing permanent art collection including the Evans Collection of African American Art, as well as providing flexible and dynamic gallery space expanding the College’s ability to host temporary and traveling exhibit installations. The new facility is physically connected to the smaller historic Kiah Hall, which has housed the SCAD Museum of Art for several years. The new Museum wing more than triples the gallery square footage and creates a new Main Entry for the Museum punctuated by an 80-foot-tall glass tower. Additionally, the new building frames an exterior courtyard space with its adjacent sister shed building, also occupied by SCAD, which will provide a venue for much needed campus, student and public, interaction opportunities.

The Education function is integrated into the new facility with classrooms and studios on the upper level and a 275-seat, high-tech auditorium.  In conjunction with the Walter O. Evans Center for African American Studies, the auditorium hosts both educational and public events. All of SCAD’s 43 Art and Design programs will take advantage of the pedagogical synergies created within the new exhibition and event space.

Designed collaboratively by Sottile & Sottile and Lord Aeck Sargent, in association with Dawson Architects, the project capture's SCAD's concept for the redevelopment of this west boundary campus district while integrating it into the City fabric. The resulting architectural realization of this new iconic beacon is monolithic and contemporary, contrasting with the utilitarian historic masonry architecture of the train sheds and industrial nature of the district, creating a didactic subtext that speaks to the ever-evolving history of the site and the City.