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.
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.
The museum has held a line against the protests, claiming that Bunshaft and landscape designer Lester Collins had both looked to Japanese gardens as inspiration, but the Landscape Foundation was adamant, saying Sugimoto's desire to add stacked stone walls would destroy the aesthetic unity of the modernist garden. Sugimoto had reportedly threatened to quit the project in the spring over the incorporation of the stone wall and his desire to control the project "100 percent."
Now, the museum will have to clear one last hurdle before moving forward with the plans as they originally were intended. Sugimoto's proposed design will expand on his previous renovation of the Hirshhorn's lobby and add around 50 percent more exhibition space to the campus. An expanded reflection pool and new plinths will feature prominently in the redesign; as will additional entrances, and the removal of a partition wall that will be replaced by the controversial stacked stone.
2 Comments
Those who opposed this project were totally right to do so.
Sugimoto's design reminds me of this:
Stacked rocks!
hah! Better to compare it with something by frank lloyd wright. Frank always said he was a modernist, so I guess it depends on what is meant to be canonical when it comes to "modernism".
Sugimoto does quite amazing work and is an old school modernist without a doubt. This project appears a bit less controlled than his other works somehow, (maybe? because he needs to deal with the existing building and it was watered down by committees). Its pretty straitlaced though. Not much to object to...
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