The Philadelphia Museum of Art is preparing to publicly
exhibit for the first time its plans for the largest renovation and
construction project in its history, one that will transform the grand,
beloved, cramped building into what officials believe will be a surprisingly
spacious, airy, and light-filled vessel to display some of the world's greatest
art.
Should all go as envisioned, virtually no changes will be
visible from outside the building, aside from staircase enclosures mandated by
the city's fire code, and a redesigned landscape leading to the west entrance
looking out over Fairmount Park.
Yet the project will eventually add 78,000 square feet of
new gallery space, including 55,000 square feet carved from the schist under
the terrace facing the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.
"Making a Classic Modern: Frank Gehry's Master Plan for
the Philadelphia Museum of Art," an exhibition detailing the museum's
future with models, site plans, digital images, and floor plans, will be on
view from July 1 to Sept. 1 in the museum's Dorrance Galleries.
Developed by the incorrigibly flamboyant Gehry, the Los
Angeles architect known for the titanium swirls of L.A.'s Disney Concert Hall
and the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, the master plan for the
Philadelphia museum's transformation will achieve its goal via spatial
legerdemain and natural light flooding previously dark or enclosed (or even
nonexistent) spaces.
"For me, one of the keys to this project is basically
the understanding and respect for the character of this building," said
Timothy Rub, art museum director. "For those who think of Frank Gehry as
the architect of the Disney Concert Hall and Bilbao, I suspect they will want
to think again."
Rub said he could not put a price tag on all the remaining
work at this point, although the initial renovations and demolition will run in
the range of $150 million to $160 million.
The galleries under the terrace will constitute a vast
expansion, and provide Gehry with an opportunity for some dramatic, albeit
hidden, bravado. This space - with a saddleback ceiling rising as high as 28
feet - is seen as critical to providing a home for the museum's growing
collection of modern and contemporary art, plus holdings in American and Asian
art.
An additional 23,000 square feet of light-filled gallery
space will be added by simply moving mostly back-office operations from the
vast wings that extend out on either side of Lenfest Hall, the museum's
westside welcome center.
The total of about 78,000 square feet of new gallery space
will constitute roughly a 60 percent increase over what is currently available.
The museum has more than 227,000 artworks in its collection.
The project, Rub said, which is the culmination of a master
plan first sketched out by Gehry and his firm in 2006, will be divided into at
least two phases, each with multiple parts.
The first, dubbed the "core project" by museum
officials, encompasses comprehensive interior building renovations (the first
in the museum's 86-year history, including huge upgrades to systems),
demolition of the museum auditorium, and an opening up of the museum interior -
what Gehry once referred to as unclogging the building's arteries.
The auditorium demolition will be accompanied by renovation
of the 640-foot-long vaulted corridor that runs the length of the central
building, from the Kelly Drive side to the south facade facing the Schuylkill.
The corridor, with greatly expanded skylights, eventually will become the
primary entrance to the new below-terrace modern, contemporary, American, and
Asian galleries.
Removal of the current auditorium - added after the museum
first opened in 1928 - will allow creation of what officials are calling the
Forum, a huge multistory column of open space leading down from the ground
floor to the vaulted corridor at the Kelly Drive level, a new museum store, and
eventually to a new auditorium constructed under the museum's northwest parking
terrace area.
"The reason you want to do this," Rub said,
"is you want to open up and clarify the circulation on [the ground floor].
And number two, you want a way to go down to the Kelly Drive level."
If fund-raising proceeds well, this phase of interior
construction will also include construction of the new gallery and public
spaces in each arm of the museum's ground floor - the floor reached by entering
from the west, or park side of the building.
Once those galleries are completed, visitors will be able to
view them while strolling along light-filled corridors, with city vistas
visible through the sequence of windows.
"You'll know where you are," Rub said.
Also in the future - as funds become available, Rub said -
will be construction of the museum's first education center, in 10,000 square
feet of the north wing that extends toward the Parkway. The center
"represents a very significant commitment to education and addresses a
real deficit, I think, at this museum," Rub said.
Down the road will be construction of external fire stairs
at the end of both the north and south wings that extend toward the Parkway.
The stairs will be enclosed by plain rectangular towers clad in the same
sandstone as the original building.
A cafe, relocated by construction of new gallery space, will
go into the museum's south wing and will allow for al fresco dining on the east
terrace. (There is also an option for officials to open up the very top of the
museum, replace brick with glass in the pediments, and utilize the
"attic" for public space. No decision has been made on that.)
The second phase of the project will be creation of the
below-terrace galleries, with light flowing from corner skylights, an oculus
built into the east terrace's redesigned fountain, new outside skylights
running the length of the vaulted corridor, and light wells defining new
terrace sunken gardens.
It is also possible that the very eastern end of the gallery
will terminate in a window looking down the Parkway toward City Hall. This
would necessitate demolition of part of the iconic steps, a possibility Rub
said would probably lead to some debate. There has been no decision on this
option.
Museum officials emphasized that they are not announcing
commencement of construction or a capital campaign at this time.
The project's $150 million-$160 million first phase, Rub
said, would take possibly five years to complete. The creation of the new
galleries and education center in the building's existing wings would add to
the cost and time frame.
Rub did not place a price tag on the underground gallery
project, the other gallery projects, the new underground auditorium, or the new
west side landscaping and redesign.
The museum's board of trustees approved the master plan
unanimously in December, he said.
Constance H. Williams, board chair, said the trustees were
"thrilled."
"It aligns totally with our strategic plan of opening
up the museum," she said. "It deals with aging infrastructure, and
the conclusion of the board is we need to open it all up."
Critically important, she said, is the "modular"
nature of the plan. All the different parts fit together, but do not need to
launch simultaneously. Rather, she said, "We are able to do it as we raise
the money. . . . We are able to do it in sections, which makes [the total cost]
palatable."
Mounting the master plan exhibition in July, she said, is
indicative of "the confidence we have" in completing the total
project."
BY THE NUMBERS
78,000 Square feet of new gallery space.
$150M Approximate cost of the initial renovations and demolition,
which could take five years.
600,000 Number of artworks in the museum's collection.
Source: Philly.com
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