Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
From Towrs
Press Release
The addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO) opening in June, 2006 runs along the eastern edge of the museum campus and provides a counterpoint to the original 1933 Beaux-Arts building. Five lenses of glass walls emerge from the ground and create a luminous, undulating interplay between architecture, landscape and art.
The new Bloch Building is the centerpiece of a dramatic transformation of the entire institution that includes major renovations to the original building, a restoration of the Sculpture Park and a complete reinstallation of the permanent galleries, drawing from the more than 34,500 works in its encyclopedic collection. The new 165,000-square-foot expansion increases museum space by more than 70 percent and features five distinct levels of expansive, light-filled galleries.
Marc F. Wilson, Menefee D. and Mary Louise Blackwell Director/ CEO of the museum states: “The completion of this amazing transformation is an aesthetic and programmatic achievement, both for the Nelson-Atkins and for the entire community of Kansas City. Steven Holl and his team arrived at a brilliant solution that completely fulfilled the requirements of the Museum’s strategic plan and its architectural program while responding creatively to the injunctions of the community.”
Selected through an international juried competition, Steven Holl Architects was awarded the commission for the new building in 1999. The design was chosen for its imagination and unexpected solution to the institution’s needs, balancing innovation with respect for the beloved Nelson-Atkins building. Steven Holl stated: “The idea of complimentary contrast, the Stone and the Feather, drove our design for the addition to the classical stone temple and surrounding landscape. The addition is not an object: we envisioned a new paradigm fusing landscape and architecture. In contrast to the stone building, the new lightweight architecture of glass lenses is scattered about the landscape framing sculpture gardens.”
Architecture critic Paul Goldberger recently wrote,” The building is not just Holl’s finest by far, but also one of the best museums of the last generation.” (New Yorker, April 30 2007)
The five lenses emerge from the ground and create a dynamic interaction between architecture and landscape, inside and outside, translucence and opacity, tranquility and energy. The lenses’ multiple layers of translucent glass gather, diffuse and refract light, at times materializing light like blocks of ice. During the day the lenses inject varying qualities of light into the galleries, while at night the sculpture garden glows with their internal light. The sculpture garden continues up and over the gallery roofs, and provides sustainable green roofs to achieve high insulation and control storm water. The “meandering path” threaded between the lenses in the Sculpture Park has its sinuous complement in the open flow through the continuous level of galleries below.
The scheme creates unique spaces for particular works of art, with a court dedicated to the Museum’s significant holdings of Isamu Noguchi sculptures and an entry plaza and reflecting pool designed in collaboration with Walter de Maria. The galleries, organized in sequence to support the progression of the collections, gradually step down into the Park, and are punctuated by views into the landscape. As visitors move through the new addition, they will experience a flow between light, art, architecture and landscape. “The movement of the body as it crosses through overlapping perspectives, through the landscape and the free movement threaded between the light gathering lenses of the new addition are the elemental connections between ourselves and architecture,” says Steven Holl.
On Steven Holl Architects
In 1976 Steven Holl founded Steven Holl Architects, which now has offices in New York and Beijing with a staff of 49. The firm’s work has been widely published and exhibited and has been recognized internationally with numerous awards. Among the recent honors are: AIA/COTE 2007 Top Ten Green Project for the Whitney Water Purification Facility and Park, a national AIA Institute Honor Award for the University of Iowa School of Art & Art History in Iowa City, IA, and three of the ten 2007 Design Awards handed out by the AIA NY (for the University of Iowa, The New Residence at the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C., and The Higgins Hall Center Section of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York). Currently under construction is the Vanke Center (Shenzhen, China), Linked Hybrid mixed-use complex (Beijing, China), the Nanjing Museum of Art and Architecture (Nanjing, China) and the NYU Department of Philosophy (New York City). Recently the office has won a number of international design competitions including Herning Center of the Arts (Herning, Denmark), Cité du Surf et de l’Océan (Biarritz, France), Sail Hybrid (Knokke-Heist, Belgium), Meander (Helsinki, Finland) and Vanke Center (Shenzhen, China).
Press Release
New York City, December 20 2007 – Since it’s opening on June 9th 2007, Steven Holl Architects’ addition to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, MO has been lauded by leading national press and prestigious architecture communities.
Capping off an award-winning year, TIME magazine’s Richard Lacayo just voted the museum #1 in its Top 10 of Best Architectural Marvels of 2007 (December 24, 2007) stating: “Adding a new wing to a neoclassical museum, Holl devised a spectacular update on classicism. [..] The effect against the nighttime sky is nothing short of magical.”
This praise joins the critical acclaim of The New York Times’ Nicolai Ourousoff who wrote on June 6, 2007: 'By subtly interweaving his building with the museum’s historic fabric and the surrounding landscape, he has produced a work of haunting power. For the art world, the addition, known as the Bloch Building, should reaffirm that art and architecture can happily coexist. (...) He has created a building that sensitizes visitors to the world around them. It’s an approach that should be studied by anyone who sets out to design a museum from this point forward.’ Similar commendation was given by architecture critic Paul Goldberger, who recently wrote,” The building is not just Holl’s finest by far, but also one of the best museums of the last generation” (New Yorker, April 30 2007).
This critical acclaim in the media has been accompanied by several prestigious awards. On November 29th, the museum received the New Built Award by LEAF London and most recently it been awarded with the AIA Central States Award for Excellence in Architecture and the AIA Kansas Honor Award for Excellence in Architecture. Steven Holl Architects, always focusing on a high quality of its architectural details, has been awarded a staggering five AIA Kansas City Awards for Craftsmanship for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art for the handrails, coat check and visitors desk, glass, board-formed concrete and plaster.
The Board of Trustees for the Nelson Gallery Foundation recently issued this statement: ‘Steven Holl Architects demonstrated outstanding dedication and commitment to the campus transformation project at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. With their hard work and concentration on excellence, our partnership to create a visitor experience that visually delights and provides connection to the art is a success. The single-mindedness and enthusiasm demonstrated by Steven Holl Architects are praised and commended by every Trustee, staff member and volunteer.’
Steven Holl Architects has realized cultural, civic, academic and residential projects both in the United States and internationally. Steven Holl is a tenured Professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture and Planning. In 1976 he founded Steven Holl Architects, which has now offices in New York and Beijing with a staff of 63. Currently under construction is the Linked Hybrid mixed-use complex (Beijing, China) which made it to the third project in TIME magazine’s list of upcoming Architectural Marvels of 2007, the Nanjing Museum of Art and Architecture (Nanjing, China), the Vanke Center (Shenzhen, China), Beirut Marina (Beirut, Lebanon), and the Herning Center of the Arts (Herning, Denmark). In September 2007 Steven Holl Architects opened the renovation of the Interiors for the Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts & Science at New York University (NYU) and last month the office presented its design for the Hudson Yards in New York City. Recently the office has won a number of international design competitions including Herning Center of the Arts (Herning, Denmark), Cité du Surf et de l’Océan (Biarritz, France), Sail Hybrid (Knokke-Heist, Belgium), Meander (Helsinki, Finland) and Vanke Center (Shenzhen, China).
For more information on the work of Steven Holl Architects, please visit www.stevenholl.com
