Hasta La Ideas

Construction is now underway on a Zaha Hadid-designed cultural complex on the edge of a lake in Changsha, China (+ movie).

The project, which broke ground in October, features an 1800-seat theatre, a contemporary art museum and a smaller multi-purpose venue. Each building is planned as a grouping of petal-shaped volumes that curve around one another to create a central plaza and a series of connecting lawns, terraces and pathways.

Zaha Hadid Architects won a competition in 2011 to masterplan the site, which sits opposite Festival Island on the edge of Meixi Lake. As part of the project, the architects will add two pedestrian bridges leading over to the island.

The Grand Theatre will be the largest of the three buildings and will positioned at the entrance to the site, while the smaller 500-seat venue is to be positioned opposite and will open out to a sunken courtyard lined with shops and restaurants.

The museum is planned for the edge of Meixihu Road and will feature a central atrium that separates to form three wings. On one side, the gallery will lead out to an external plaza for use as a sculpture exhibition area or as a temporary event space.

Zaha Hadid Architects has been working on a number of other projects in China. The firm completed the mixed-use Galaxy Soho complex at the end of 2012 and is also racing to complete the Wangjing Soho complex before a rival developer that has pirated the design.

Other recent masterplans by Zaha Hadid Architects include a cluster of towers in Bratislava’s city centre and the redevelopment of an old textile factory in Belgrade. See more architecture and design by Zaha Hadid.

Other radical proposals for Changsha include a shape-shifting “transformer building” and plans to construct the world’s tallest building. See more architecture in China.

Here’s some extra information from Zaha Hadid Architects:

Changsha Meixihu International Culture & Art Centre

The International Culture & Arts Centre embodies a unique variety of civic nodes and spaces: A Grand Theatre, a Contemporary Art Museum, a Multipurpose Hall and supporting facilities. The central plaza is generated by the relative position of these separate buildings and offers a strong urban experience whereby the flow of pedestrian visitors that come from all sides of the site intersect and meet. In parallel it also stretches outwards to the neighbouring streets with unfettered and phenomenal views across Meixi lake with access towards Festival Island.

The Grand Theatre is the focal point of the Changsha International Culture & Arts Centre. It is the largest performance venue in the city with a total capacity of 1800 seats. Designed to host world-standard performances the building contains will contain all the necessary front of house functions, such as lobbies, cloakrooms, bars, restaurants, and VIP hospitality, as well as the required ancillary functions, such as administration, rehearsal rooms, backstage logistics, dressing and make-up rooms, and wardrobe.

The Museum’s composition of three fluid petals around its internal central atrium, juxtaposes of the various patchworks of gallery spaces in a truly seamless fashion. With outward views and balconies to its exteriors, it aims to engage the site’s unique location and surrounding views into some of its gallery spaces. An external plaza which faces Meixi Lake Road allows for outdoor sculptures, exhibitions and events to be extended to an expansive outdoor space.

The Small Theatre (Multipurpose Hall) is characterised by its flexibility. With a maximum capacity of 500 seats, it can be adapted and transformed to different configurations. It can therefore accommodate a broad range of functions and shows that span from banquets and commercial events to small plays, fashion shows and music. A commercial attraction, this venue shares seamless public access to retail areas and restaurant facilities, which are seated in an open and gently sunken courtyard linking visitors to and from the basement level.

Although these civic institutions are uniquely defined and separate, they supply each other in all respects within its setting with plazas offering visitors a tapestry-like sequence of urban ambiances that relate to the different institutions, inject the site with urban vitality. The working hours of the different venues also overlap to ensure continuity during the full 24 hour cycle; Operated during the evening, the Grand Theatre becomes active as the Museum begins to conclude its day-time operations whilst the Small theatre and retail/restaurants would be commercially available day and night. In this regard, they benefit from each other’s vicinity, ensuring that the site is lively 24 hours a day. This dynamic composition further establishes a powerful relationship with its surroundings, which confers monumentality to the ensemble.

Embodying values of functionality, elegance and innovation, the Changsha Meixi Lake International Culture & Arts Centre aims to become the new cultural and civic node for the city of Changsha, and well as global cultural destination.

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London’s Battersea Power Station is transformed into a museum of architecture and surrounded by a giant roller coaster in these competition-winning proposals by French studio Atelier Zündel Cristea (+ slideshow).

The conceptual plans were awarded first prize in the international competition coordinated by ArchTriumph, which invited applicants to suggest how the crumbling brick landmark could be used as an exhibition centre dedicated to architecture.

“Our aim was to imagine a new cathedral to architecture, a building that will challenge its sister structure, the Tate Modern, for international acclaim,” said Atelier Zündel Cristea, explaining how they looked to Herzog & de Meuron’s renovation of the Bankside Power Station for inspiration.

A curved scaffolding structure would weave in and around the building, creating a network of pathways between the exhibition spaces and providing the tracks for the roller coaster running along on top.

“We conceived of a double-faceted project,” said the architects. “On one hand, a calm and contemplative interior, dedicated to the collection’s display; on the other, an exterior opening upon the surrounding landscape and providing breathtaking views.

Designed by architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, Battersea Power Station was constructed in the 1930s and spent over 50 years generating electricity for London. Over the years since its decommissioning, the building and its surrounds have invited dozens of development proposals and the site is currently earmarked for a mixed-use complex of apartments, shops, offices and a theatre.

Past proposals for Battersea Power Station include Rafael Viñoly’s plans for a 300-metre tower and an “Eco-Dome” and Terry Farrell’s idea to convert the building into a park. There was also an offer to convert it into a football stadium. Read more about Battersea Power Station.

Another extreme proposal for an iconic building released recently was a plan to extend the Guggenheim Museum in New York by continuing the spiral upwards.

Here’s a detailed description from Atelier Zündel Cristea:

Battersea Power Station London

The Site

London stands on the River Thames, its primary geographical feature, a navigable river which traverses the city from the southwest to the east. The city is home to numerous museums, galleries, libraries, sporting events and such cultural institutions as the British Museum, National Gallery, Tate Modern, British Library, Wimbledon, as well as over 40 major theatres.

The Battersea Power Station, which was built between 1930 and 1955, is situated a few miles south of Marble Arch on the south bank of the Thames, facing the borough of Chelsea. The decommissioned station is one of the best known landmarks in London and an excellent example of Victorian architecture. It is also the largest brick building in Europe, notable for its original Art Deco interiors and decor.

The area surrounding the site is characterised by a mix of residential, commercial, and industrial uses, with the presence of warehouses as well as rail infrastructure. Battersea Park, situated on the banks of the Thames towards the west, is an important element in the makeup of the neighbourhood. Like the power station, Battersea Park has its own fascinating history, from the Fun Fair which began as the Pleasure Gardens of the 1951 Festival of Britain, to the new century’s Millennium Arena.

A Temple of Power

The Battersea Power Station was built, due to the proximity of the cooling presence of water, on a 61,000m² plot of land situated on the south banks. From its inception, the station was very popular. It symbolised progress, industry, and a new type of power: the Power of the People.

The structure is made of a steel frame with brick cladding, similar to the skyscrapers built in the United States around the same time. The building’s large dimensions measure 160 metres by 170 metres, with the roof of the boiler house extending to over 50 metres high. The four chimneys are made of concrete and reach a height of 103 metres.

After being in operation for 40 years, the two wings have both ceased generating electricity, A station in 1975, B station in 1983. Over its seventy year history, the station has taken on iconic status, having been represented in many forms of popular culture, from films to music videos to video games.

A New Site for Architectural Pleasures

Our project envisions the regeneration of the Battersea site within a new park combining leisure and architecture, in creating a popular spot welcoming to all, dedicated to the pleasures of mind and body, replete with unique experiences. A space for learning, relaxation, and discussion; an architectural and cultural village in the heart of the city.

A museum of architecture, based on the Parisian Cité de l’Architecture model, will through a series of galleries present a panorama of architecture and cultural heritage from the Middle Ages to today. A highly varied collection of materials will illustrate the major changes that have taken place in international and British architecture throughout the centuries. Abbeys, cathedrals, historic city mansions display the wealth of their sculpted and painted decor, as well as the complexity of their structures. Train stations and skyscrapers attest to the technological and formal innovations of the modern era. Public and residential buildings bear witness to the changes in society and lifestyles.

The originality of the collections stems as much from the monumental scales of the displayed volumes as from the remarkable variety of supporting materials: stained glass, scale models, drawings, books, films, and prototypes… The discovery of which invites visitors on an architectural journey through time and space.

We tried to keep in mind the principal reasons for why people would visit the new Battersea Museum of Architecture: the opportunity to see and experience architecture while learning about it as a profession and discussing it with others; people watching and mingling amongst fellow visitors; exploring the architectural setting of the power station; revisiting familiar works of art and architecture. Our aim was to imagine a new Cathedral to Architecture, a building that will challenge its sister structure, the Tate Modern, for international acclaim, and establish a new visual reference point for the city.

A Playground for the Mind and for the Body

The development of culture is one of the highest possible human ideals. Therefore, in every museum it is not the exhibition of works that has meaning, but the presence of visitors and their wandering through and exposure to displays of works that stimulate meaning.

We have introduced the foreign element of a rail into the space of the power station, which will function above all in animating the empty space. It will offer visitors entering the structure a primary pathway, allowing them to take in the essential layout of the building with a minimum of effort. With the pathway determined by the presence of the rail, the simple fact of moving through the exterior and interior spaces of the station begins to make sense.

In its spatial ambition, our project encourages play and fun, categories largely devalued in the traditional world of art. Conceived in this way, cultural spaces are liable to attract new types of visitors. Our project puts the power station on centre stage, the structure itself enhancing the site through its impressive scale, its architecture, and its unique brick material. Our created pathway links together a number of spaces for discovery: the square in front of the museum, clearings, footpaths outside and above and inside, footpaths traversing courtyards and exhibition rooms.

The angles and perspectives created by the rail’s pathway, through the movement within and outside of the structure, place visitors in a position where they can perceive simultaneously the container and its contents, the work and nature. They come to participate in several simultaneous experiences: enjoying the displayed works, being moved by the beauty of the structure and the city: river, park, buildings.

The project has the strength of evoking the dimension and scale of man in the contemporary era, putting into question our relationship to the structure. It is not only a matter of showing, but also of suggesting post-industrial poetry. We conceived of a double-facetted project: on one hand, a calm and contemplative interior, dedicated to the collection’s display; on the other, an exterior opening upon the surrounding landscape, providing breathtaking views.

Museums are NOT FUN! Museums are FUN!

Can we design a museum in which new design ideas are explored, architectural experimentation is encouraged, and the profession challenged, while attracting large numbers of visitors? Alongside certain serious and important topics, the element of fun in museums is important!

For some people, “fun” is a loaded word. Some people would consider words like enjoyable, pleasant, worthwhile and so on, better terms of evaluation for the experience of visiting a museum. For a certain proportion of regular museum goers, “fun” is simply not a word they would consider using in describing the museum experience, implying as it might for them dumbing down, simplification, or out of place hands-on activities, commotion and even noise. Unsurprisingly, almost all of these respondents are over the age of 50. When it comes to younger respondents however, “fun” is a word often used to describe the museum experience, and in very positive terms. But the use of the word “fun” in describing the museum experience should no longer be limited to a particular generational or social category.

We believe that museums can make learning “fun”, therefore museums can be “fun”. As young adult architects with children, we often seek out experiences that combine fun and culture. Museums can provide artistically qualitative but fun activities for the entire family. And this is a trend we are delighted to see taking shape, the positive connotation of “fun” for many people with regard to museum going. Generally, museums are indeed fun, and we hope that increasing numbers of people come to view them as such, regardless of age.

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Power Station by Atelier Zündel Cristea appeared first on Dezeen.

News: a library dedicated to design has opened in South Korea’s capital city, offering access to over 11,000 books chosen by an international team of curators and critics.

The Hyundai Card Design Library is backed by the country’s largest credit card issuer, which claims “there are few design museums and libraries in Korea, whereas Korean colleges every year churn out more than 30,000 novice designers.”

A team including British critic and Golden Lion-winner Justin McGuirk, MoMA curator Paola Antonelli and New York architecture and design journalist Alexandra Lange was brought in to select the books, which cover topics including architecture, industrial design, graphics, photography and branding.

Of the 11,678 books selected for the library’s shelves, more than 7000 aren’t available anywhere else in South Korea and over 2600 are either out of print or very rare.

The firm also hopes the initiative will appeal to a cultured group of potential customers: “It makes people feel that if you have a Hyundai Card, you get access to an enriched lifestyle,” says a spokeswoman.

While most libraries are open to the general public or to academic communities, this library can only be accessed by the company’s credit cardholders and their guests, and then a maximum of eight times each month.

Alongside the book collection, the library contains a cafe and an exhibition space, while on the second floor is an area for reading and discussing ideas around a large steel table. The top floor contains a small attic-like space inspired by a reading room in an old Korean palace where princes could concentrate quietly on their studies.

The curatorial team also wrote commentaries on nearly 1000 of the selected books, which can be read through an iPad app available to library users.

Located in Gahoe-dong, an area once home to Seoul’s scholars and noble classes, the library was designed by architect Choi Wook of Seoul studio One o One.

Earlier this year we reported that a fully digital public library without a single book is set to open this autumn in San Antonio, Texas, while in New York, architectural firm Foster + Partners is planning to completely overhaul the city’s public library – see all libraries on Dezeen.

See all architecture in Seoul »

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New York architecture studio WORKac has reorganised the galleries of the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston, Texas, by adding a glazed entrance pavilion in front (+ slideshow).

Located on the campus of the University of Houston, the original 1970s building was planned with its entrance through an inner courtyard and it struggled to attract visitors. Another problem was that the two main gallery spaces were split apart by a central staircase and the route to a third trailed past the museum’s administration areas.

WORKac attempted to solve both issues with one solution. The architects designed a glazed extension that would relocate all circulation to the facade, whilst also creating a glowing entrance foyer.

“[Our] design gives the museum striking presence and public connectivity through a series of imaginative and economical interventions to the building’s facade, circulation patterns and exterior spaces,” explain the architects.

The new pavilion has an asymmetric shape that frames and shelters the new entrance within a long triangular void.

A matching triangular wall thrusts out to one side of the opening, creating a signage board that appears to have swivelled into position. The architects call this the “wallumn”, as a combination of wall and column.

Glass planks give the extension a variety of transparencies, so anyone passing can catch glimpses of the activities inside.

A new cafe is inserted beyond the galleries and opens out to a courtyard at the rear, which is set to be re-landscaped as the next stage in the refurbishment.

The Blaffer Art Museum reopened in autumn 2012 with an exhibition dedicated to American sculptor Tony Feher.

WORK Architecture Company is headed up by architects Dan Wood and Amale Andraos. Past projects include the headquarters for fashion label Diane von Furstenberg Studio and a temporary urban farming project outside the PS1 Contemporary Art Centre in New York.

See more art gallery design on Dezeen, including a ridged steel art gallery in Korea and the Louvre Lens in northern France.

Photography is by Iwan Baan.

Here’s a project description from WORKac:

WORK Architecture Company’s Blaffer Art Museum Opens

WORKac’s dramatic new addition and renovation of the Blaffer Art Museum in Houston, Texas has opened to the public with a twenty-year survey dedicated to influential American sculptor Tony Feher.

Founded in 1973, the Blaffer Art Museum is a preeminent contemporary art museum without a permanent collection set in the midst of University of Houston’s enormous central campus. With high-profile exhibitions that are free and open to the public, as well as extensive educational programs, the museum has the potential to act as a gateway between the university and the city.

However, its visibility and identity were previously hampered by the fact that its entrance was hidden and accessible only through an internal courtyard. Within, its galleries were excessively impacted by circulation, including a stairway in the middle of two galleries, and another gallery only accessible by a hallway through the administrative offices.

The project represents an important shift in the approach to museum design in the post-recession age. In order to concentrate only on their core missions, the Blaffer and the University of Houston engaged WORKac to strategically rethink the building’s existing features. WORKac’s design gives the museum striking presence and public connectivity through a series of imaginative and economical interventions to the building’s facade, circulation patterns and exterior spaces.

To begin, WORKac opened the previously blank north side of the building with a new entrance pavilion. The projecting volume, clad with channel glass in a gradient of semi-transparent and translucent sections reveals a new grand staircase that reroutes all of the problematic circulation routes from the center of the building to the façade, providing street-level views of the museum’s interior activities, while also allowing for the expansion and diversification of the museum’s gallery spaces. A new entrance zone with a café becomes a commons area that connects the front pavilion with the back courtyard, allowing the public to freely move between city and campus via the museum.

Unable to afford a cantilever and reticent to simply support the projecting volume of the entry pavilion with a column, WORKac invented the “wallumn”, a triangular concrete wall that acts as a column while graphically emphasizing the new entry condition. The existing rear courtyard will soon receive its own upgrade, to provide a flexible and dynamic setting for a continuous program of music, film screenings and other art-related events. New landscaping throughout the exterior area, conceived in partnership with SCAPE Landscape Architects, gives the museum an invigorated sense of place and adds to the rhythm and scale of the pedestrian experience.

The Blaffer Art Museum is WORKac’s first commission in Texas and was completed in association with Gensler Houston as local architect, Matrix Structural Engineers, Shah Smith MEP Engineers and Wade Getz Civil Engineers.

Above: concept diagrams

Above: concept model

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by WORKac appeared first on Dezeen.

British architect David Chipperfield has completed a new gallery building at the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri (+ slideshow).

With walls of dark polished concrete, stone and glass, the East Building was designed as a contemporary counterpart to the Italian-inspired museum designed by Cass Gilbert for the 1904 World’s Fair.

David Chipperfield‘s design features a grand staircase that connects the old building with the extension. Visitors can choose to enter the museum through Gilbert’s original portico or though the glazed frontage of the new wing.

The polished dark concrete walls are speckled with aggregates from the Missouri River, while inside a coffered concrete ceiling runs through the building and integrates a grid of skylights that let daylight filter down onto an oak floor.

Above: photograph is c/o the Saint Louis Art Museum

Set to open on 29 June, the East Building will accommodate both permanent collections and special exhibitions, giving the museum around 30 percent more gallery space. Temporary exhibitions will no longer be held in the main building, which will now be dedicated to static exhibits.

Above: photograph is by Simon Menges

Additional spaces include a 100-seat restaurant, a 60-seat cafe and an underground parking zone.

David Chipperfield first revealed designs for the structure in 2005, but the project had been delayed by funding issues. Architecture firm HOK worked alongside Chipperfield to deliver the building.

Above: photograph is by Simon Menges

The London-based architect has worked on a number of museum projects over the years. In 2007 he won the Stirling Prize for the Museum of Modern Literature in Germany and he also designed the Hepworth Wakefield gallery in the UK. Recent projects include designs for a museum of fine arts in Reims, France. See more architecture by David Chipperfield.

Photography is by Jacob Sharp, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s some more information from the press release:

Expanded and Renovated Saint Louis Art Museum to Open its New East Building by Sir David Chipperfield on June 29-30, 2013

Brent R. Benjamin, director of the Saint Louis Art Museum, today announced details of the grand opening of the Museum’s more than 200,000-square-foot East Building, designed by renowned British architect Sir David Chipperfield with technical assistance from HOK. A weekend celebration, held on June 29 and 30, will welcome the public to the monumental new structure of dark polished concrete-and-stone panels and floor-to-ceiling windows, set in historic Forest Park as a contemporary counterpart to the scale and dignity of the original building, designed by Cass Gilbert for the 1904 World’s Fair.

All inaugural exhibitions in the East Building will be drawn from the collections of the Saint Louis Art Museum, revealing as never before the riches of one of America’s premier encyclopedic art museums. The expansion adds 82,452 square feet of galleries and public space – an increase of about 30 percent – while linking the Museum more closely with Forest Park through a design by the celebrated French landscape architect Michel Desvigne. The project also adds a host of new visitor amenities to the Museum, all in support of a civic institution that is always open free to the public.

“The ideal of a democratic Palace of the Arts, which Cass Gilbert so powerfully embodied in our original building, now finds beautiful, modern-day expression, at once rigorous and elegant, in the adjoining masterwork by Sir David Chipperfield,” Brent R. Benjamin stated. “Celebrating the Forest Park site, harmonizing with the 1904 building, and creating a distinctive architectural work for our own time, the East Building will offer the people of St. Louis, and our visitors from around the world, a remarkable new view of the outstanding collections of this Museum and of the vital role that an art museum can play in public life.”

Barbara B. Taylor, president of the Saint Louis Art Museum, stated, “The unprecedented success of the East Building capital campaign, which to date has secured commitments of more than $160 million, surpassing its $145 million public goal, is a testament to the importance of the Saint Louis Art Museum in the life of our city, and a statement of confidence in this Museum’s position among national institutions.”

Inaugural exhibitions to celebrate the collections

The Museum’s collections span some 5,000 years and feature masterpieces from the ancient Mediterranean, Asia, Africa, the Islamic world, Europe and the Americas. All aspects of the collections will be celebrated at the time of the opening.

In the East Building, the inaugural installation in the new special exhibitions galleries will be Postwar German Art in the Collection, an extensive re-examination of this major aspect of the Museum’s holdings. The exhibition will address themes and groupings such as the legacy of Joseph Beuys; the large-scale works of Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Anselm Kiefer; and the influence of the Düsseldorf School of Photography. Drawing from impressive strengths in the Museum’s collections, these galleries will feature works by artists including Georg Baselitz, Jörg Immendorff, Martin Kippenberger, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Andreas Gursky and Candida Höfer.

The East Building galleries dedicated to the permanent collection will explore developments in American art after World War II. Beginning with American responses to Surrealism and the emergence of Abstract Expressionism, the presentation will proceed to movements including Minimalism, Pop and Process art. Galleries also will address themes such as the return to figuration and contemporary modes of abstraction. Artists represented in the installation will include earlier figures such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Frank Stella,Ellsworth Kelly and Andy Warhol and more recent artists such as Leonardo Drew, Teresita Fernández, Kerry James Marshall and Julie Mehretu. Thirty percent of the works in the installation will not have been on view for approximately a decade.

The Museum’s former temporary exhibition galleries in the 1904 building will now be devoted to the permanent collection, and more than 50 galleries in the Cass Gilbert-designed Main Building recently have been reinstalled as part of a renovation project complementing the East Building expansion. Notable reinstallations in the original building include the galleries for 18th century European art, with works by Canaletto, Tiepolo, Chardin, Reynolds and Gainsborough presented within the context of the Grand Tour; the French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries, with works by masters from Manet, Monet and Renoir through van Gogh and Gauguin installed thematically; and a dedicated gallery to house the Museum’s collection of the work of Max Beckmann, the largest of its kind in the world.

Among the major reinstallations to be revealed at the time of the grand opening will be A New View: Surrealism, Abstraction and the Modern City. Exploring three great themes in the art of the first half of the 20th century, the installation will examine Surrealism as reflected in the work of Giorgio di Chirico and Max Ernst and the abstract approaches evident in works by Paul Klee, Roberto Matta, Pablo Picasso, Joan Miró and Alberto Giacometti. A second section of the installation will focus on the pivotal role of Piet Mondrian in European abstraction. The third section will explore the importance of urban imagery in the work of artists including Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Amedeo Modigliani and Robert Delaunay.

Another major reinstallation in the 1904 building will be A New View: Ancient American Art, presenting some 300 works from the ancient cultures of the WesternHemisphere. Constituting the first reconfiguration since 1981 of the Museum’s esteemed collection of ancient American art, the installation will include works from the Inca and Moche of South America, the Maya and Aztec of Mexico and the Mississippian cultures of the Midwest.

The opening of the East Building will also mark the inauguration of Stone Sea, a major new outdoor work commissioned by the Museum from the celebrated British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy. Using stone from the Earthworks Quarry in Perryville, Mo., Goldsworthy has built 25 10-foot arches, each weighing approximately 13 tons, arranged in a dense composition that evokes the texture and movement of theancient shallow seas that once covered the Midwest.

Highlights of the East Building design

Visitors to the Saint Louis Art Museum may use the existing Sculpture Hall entrance in the 1904 building, where Cass Gilbert’s original main-floor layout has been restored as part of the expansion project, or may use the fully accessible new entrance to the East Building. Either way, the contrast is immediately apparent between the neo-classical 1904 building and the East Building, with its facade of floor-to-ceiling windows and twenty-three monumental panels of dark polished concrete gleaming with highlights of Missouri river aggregates.

David Chipperfield’s design joins the two buildings seamlessly with a new Grand Stair, which also establishes clear and organic connections among primary circulation axes. The new circulation path leads directly from the Grand Stair to lower-level galleries and a concourse with a new 60-seat cafe, a renovated museum shop and auditorium, and access to a new below-grade parking garage.

The outstanding design feature of the galleries of the East Building is an innovative coffered ceiling made of white concrete. The ceiling houses 698 coffers, most with scrimmed skylights to provide abundant but controlled natural light to the galleries. The lighting system is designed in collaboration with Arup.

Floors in the East Building are made of six-inch-wide planks of white oak, and the floor vents are stainless steel, both chosen to minimize distraction from the works of art.

The landscape design by Michel Desvigne features the installation of outdoor sculptures by artists including Alexander Calder, Henry Moore and George Rickey; as well as new plantings – including approximately 300 trees – in accordance with St. Louis’s existing Forest Park Master Plan. The landscape design will be executed in phases, with much of the most significant work to be completed after the June 2013 opening.

New visitor amenities

The outstanding new amenity in the East Building will be a new 2,500-square-foot restaurant, offering seating for 100 patrons with dramatic views overlooking Forest Park’s Art Hill. A private dining room in the restaurant will accommodate as many as 40 guests. Operating the restaurant and the new Museum cafe will be the Bon Appétit Management Company, which is known for its restaurant service at institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Seattle Art Museum and the Getty Center.

Among the other significant amenities offered as part of the expansion project are a renovated museum shop, a renovation and upgrade of the 480-seat auditorium, the provision of three new classrooms, a dedicated art-study space and a school-group entrance in the existing buildings and the development of a new 129,000-square-foot below-grade parking garage in the East Building, accommodating 300 vehicles.

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by David Chipperfield appeared first on Dezeen.