Opening A Window in the Stuffy Museum
Tomorrow, the re-done, re-worked and re-roofed California Academy of Sciences
in San Francisco, opens its doors to the public. Architect Renzo Piano's design brings life to an old building that houses a natural history museum, aquarium and planetarium, with brand new architecture and a rehabilitation of existing spaces. He has created an open, inviting grand entrance with sleek slender columns that support a wide overhanging roof which visually joins together the old and new. The building has gotten a lot of press coverage on the unique landscape Piano has installed on that roof; an undulating earthwork with grasses and wild flowers. Unfortunately, you can only see it in photographs, from the DeYoung Museum's observation floor across the way, or a low flying helicopter.
[Images: Pompidou exterior, prolidge via flickr; Terrace level, sergeymk via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
This is not Piano's first foray into the realm of museum design. His most controversial
project was the Centre Pompidou, where he shares design credit with Richard Rogers. One of the criteria imposed upon the building by the Centre's design competition committee was that it be a free and open space, unimpeded by the typical structural elements. Piano and Rogers won the commission by moving the visitor's access arteries, and structural and mechanical supports to the exterior of the building. That left wide open floor plans that could easily be adapted to the needs of a particular exhibit or a change in function. Piano, who won the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998, designed the recently opened Broad Contemporary Art Museum building at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the soon to be opened newing of the Art Institute of Chicago.
In 1968, Mies van der Rohe's, Neue Nationalgalerie opened in Berlin's Kulturforum.
The building he was asked to design would include the German National Galerie's 20th century collection of modern paintings and sculpture. He gave them the most innovative, modern museum structure of the time. In an effort to keep the interior ground level plan open and free of encumbrance, he devised a scheme that moved the minimal structural support required, out to the edge of the wide overhanging roof. The main galleries were built under this pavilion, which would serve as the main entrance to the museum, as well as a space for temporary exhibits. The Neue, very controversial at the time it was built, is now known as Mies' "temple of light and glass."
As museum design has moved away from its historical antecedent of tight enclosed
spaces, the British Museum in London looked to another Pritzker winner for a dynamic solution to an area that would become available for public access. The British Library had been housed within the confines of the museum until moved to a new building at St. Pancras in 1998. This freed up the old reading room and the courtyard that surrounded it, as a potential new public area. The museum complex had poor pedestrian flow; wings had been added through the decades; the main entrance didn't provide easy access; it was hard to get from one gallery to another. So, Foster created a stunning new entry by cleaning up the old courtyard, providing entryways to the galleries from this central core, and covered the entire space with glass. He also got rid of the employee parking lot at the front exterior entrance, which became a lawn.
As museums around the world continue expanding their collections and need more
space, or renovate older buildings in need of repair, their directors, curators and boards have moved in an exciting new direction. It has taken a while for the conservative museum hierarchy to realize that the open concept Mies initiated in the late 60s was a good idea. Now, they seem to have embraced it with a vengeance.
Special Note:
You can see more great architectural photography from Tim Griffith, who photographed the California Science Academy, at: www.timgriffith.com Be sure to check out his site. And thanks to Tim for the use of the CSA photo's!
Cool architectural design and good photography.