PAU has shared details of its expansion project of the I.M. Pei-designed Rock & Roll Hall of Fame museum in Cleveland ahead of next month’s anticipated groundbreaking.

The initiative will add a triangular structure to Pei’s iconic original glass pyramid design, featuring a new entrance lobby, education center, offices, and a 6,000-square-foot multipurpose space that’s meant to increase its overall footprint by 33% while activating public space along a currently underutilized section of the city’s Lake Eerie waterfront.

The total 50,000-square-foot design evokes the museum’s architectural lineage within the new addition, where solid shapes pronounced as asymmetries serve as the visual markers of the building’s various programmatic elements combined under a tilted angular roof and façade composed of steel and granite in further reference to the region’s industrial character. 

A new interior atrium resolves the confluence between the new structure and existing pyramid. Field Operations, Cooper Robertson, DLR Group, L’Observatoire International, and Cleveland-based Robert Madison International are also included in the project team. The expansion is being realized thanks to a $135 million fundraising campaign. PAU says it will eventually yield “a contemporary counterpoint to Pei’s design.”

PAU's Founder and Creative Director, Vishaan Chakrabarti, added: “This transformation will expand the Rock Hall’s iconic structure to meet the demands of its evolving mandate: To showcase the past, present and future of rock & roll as the defining sound of each generation’s youth. Our design welcomes visitors by pulling the forces of the City, the Lake, and Pei’s Pyramid together into a new triangular composition that centers on a dynamic, aural, and inclusive public interior that flows from the streets to the waterfront — a destination that declares this must be the place.”

A press announcement said they expect the expansion project to be completed by the end of 2025.

This is the studio’s first American museum commission. PAU was also contracted recently to design an update to Pei's midcentury air traffic control tower prototypes for the FAA.