The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland (MSN Warsaw) is Thomas Phifer and Partners’ first project built in Europe and the Museum’s first permanent home since its founding in 2005, when it was established as a collecting institution focused on art created since 1989.
                                          
The 213,000-square-foot building is located in Plac Defilad (Parade Square), the largest public square in Europe and a gathering place for Varsovians since the 1950s. Framed by the Soviet-era Palace of Culture and Science on one side and an arcade of shops and malls on the other, the Museum anchors the revitalization of the plaza and serves as a center for new art and ideas in the nation’s capital. (The square also will house the future TR Warszawa theatre, also designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners).

Design Highlights:

The three-story MSN Warsaw building is organized horizontally and composed of two rectangular forms, in contrast to the verticality of the Palace of Culture and Science. The museum’s distinguishing façade, composed of white, cast-in-place concrete, hand-crafted by skilled local craftspeople, expresses the institution’s ethos and offers a lasting and timeless presence.

A monumental, classically inspired, double-symmetrical staircase at the heart of the Museum is flooded with natural light, offering a space for social interaction. The openness of the ground floor creates a central meeting point and offers generous views of the city and through the museum. The center space also organizes the entrances to the main suites of interconnected galleries on the two upper floors. Each suite of galleries on the two main exhibition levels features windowed “city rooms” lined in European ash that offer places for pause and reflection and framed views of the city of Warsaw.

Fixed galleries, ranging in height from 4 meters (13 ft) to 7.5 meters (25 feet), are different sizes and proportions. A system of louvres and scrims modulates natural light and activates the galleries throughout the day. The roof—referred to as the building’s “fifth facade”—offers continuous diffused daylight into the galleries. The galleries feature elegant but durable terrazzo floors.

A one-meter-high horizontal slot surrounds the entire façade and contains clerestory windows for the research galleries and daylight windows for the administrative office level. A continuous arcade on the ground level serves as a transitional space between the city and the Museum, setting the stage for the experience within.
 
The ground-level exterior is lined with newly planted honey locust trees that lightly enclose the forum.