An expected temporary closure for the oldest art museum in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area has many vying for the not-too-distant debut of what promises to be an instant architectural icon.

The Gilcrease Museum began demolition of its existing building Tuesday in order to make room for a new 91,300-square-foot facility designed by SmithGroup. The museum closed to the public on July 5th and will reopen again sometime in late 2024. 

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The Gilcrease is undergoing a major expansion project funded by a publicly-supported $65 million capital project called Vision Test. The 73-year-old institution also received an additional gift from a private donor that brought the total to $75 million for the ambitious multi-year effort.

Tulsa as a city is in the process of adding several key pieces of cultural infrastructure to its skyline over the next several years as part of an overall effort to rebrand the city as a regional arts hub. The new Gilcrease is part of an existing network that includes the Philbrook Museum, renovated Greenwood Cultural Institute, and forthcoming Greenwood Rising memorial and history museum from the local firm Selser Schaefer.

“These buildings don’t speak well with one another, and (they) have about 36 different separate roofs, and all of them can decide to leak on any given day,” Gilcrease Executive Director Susan Neal said of the old buildings, some of which date back to 1937. “So once we learned everything we needed to learn, it wasn’t as hard a decision as I thought it would be.”