Museum projects....16

A museum addition makes a modern statement while also alluding to the past.

A museum addition designed by Arquitectonica on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx marks the beginning of an ambitious plan to expand—and eventually replace—the existing Bronx Art Museum. The first phase of the project includes new galleries and administration spaces and an outdoor sculpture court. This mid-block structure is part of a larger plan for which Arquitectonica has designed additional galleries, classrooms, an auditorium, a children's art center and a residential tower that will anchor the corner at 165th Street where the museum currently sits.

Photo © Norman McGrath

Arquitectonica's first phase emerges from the sidewalk as an irregular folded screen made of fritted glass and metallic panels, angling and twisting like an architectural origami. Passersby can peek into the ground floor community gallery through the slivers of semitransparent glass that face the street. This curtain-like geometry dramatizes the vertical dimension of the otherwise modest structure, turning it into a monumental surface.

On the sides of the building where the museum will expand in the future, the architects designed walls with an intricate pattern of black and white bricks that convey the value of craftsmanship. The walls recall the ubiquitous side brick walls of Bronx row houses and commercial buildings. The complexity of the weave and brick-by-brick scale encourage close examination and contrast in scale with the front facade.
 
Inside, the new galleries rise along with the steep, rocky site. Ramps and stairs lead to a series of simple, austere spaces. Concrete floors and ceilings, steel cable railings, and a sleek lighting system by renowned French lighting designer Herve Descottes create neutral functional spaces. The pure orthogonal geometry of the galleries is violated only by the expression of the folded front facade on one side. The upper gallery opens to a walled-in sculpture garden, surprisingly set on grade more that 30 feet above the Grand Concourse.

Architect:
Arquitectonica
114 West 26th Street, Fifth Floor      
New York, NY  10001-6812
Telephone: 212.254.2700

From Architectural Record (12x/Year/USA)