New Center at Clark Art Institute by Tadao Ando

The Clark Art Institute in Williamstown opened its expanded and reconceived 140-acre campus on July 4, 2014. The multi-phase project, nearly fifteen years in the making, reconceptualizes the visitor experience of the Clark and represents the most significant transformation of the Institute since it opened in 1955.

Clark Center and reflecting pool. Photography © Jade Doskow.

The Clark’s project include: The new 42,600-square-foot Clark Center, designed by Tadao Ando Architect & Associates, Osaka, Japan (and the renovated Museum Building and Manton Research Center designed by Selldorf Architects, New York).

The project adds more than 13,000 square feet of gallery space to the campus, supporting the Clark's expanded collection and exhibition programs, and establishing the Institute as a leader in best practices for sustainability and energy efficiency.

“The addition of special exhibition and education space in the new Clark Center, coupled with the renovation of our Museum Building, enables us to present our collection and expand the provocative exhibitions for which the Clark is noted in new and interesting ways,” Conforti said. “On the campus, Reed Hilderbrand’s work has brought renewed ecological health to the land, helping to improve our significant natural assets. From the earliest days of our planning process, Gensler has integrated the work of all the design teams, guided us on sustainability, and provided the overarching framework that such an ambitious undertaking requires.”

Building Project Clark Center

The Ando-designed stone, concrete, and glass Clark Center, situated northwest of the Museum Building, is the new centerpiece of the Clark’s campus and serves as its primary entrance. The two-story building overlooks the three-tiered reflecting pool, designed by Tadao Ando and Reed Hilderbrand, integrating indoor and outdoor spaces and creating a stunning visual connection to adjacent buildings and the woodland surroundings. The building provides 11,000 square feet of special exhibition space in galleries located on both floors of the building. The lower-level galleries are partially situated beneath a green roof that forms an exterior courtyard at the main entrance to the facility.

The lobby overlooks the reflecting pool and is highlighted by a dramatic glass and concrete stairway that accesses the galleries, dining, and family areas located below. The Clark’s primary retail facility is located on the building’s first floor, with interiors designed by California-based wHY Architecture and Design, led by principal Kulapat Yantrasast, who also designed Café Seven, the Clark’s new dining facility. A granite and glass corridor links the Clark Center to the Ando-designed Museum Pavilion, a glass structure that creates a light-filled transitional space connected to the Museum Building’s new west-facing entrance.

“I like to accomplish art spaces that inspire viewers and evoke their creativity and freedom of thinking,” said Ando. “I have always been in awe of the Clark’s unique sense of place in nature. In both the Clark Center and Lunder Center, I have tried to express a deep respect for the landscape outside and an equal reverence for the art inside. It is critical that the art speak for itself and that viewers experience it in their own way.”

In addition to the reinstallation of the Clark’s permanent collection in reconfigured galleries, the July 4 opening included the presentation of two special exhibitions:

Cast for Eternity.- Ancient Ritual Bronzes from the Shanghai Museum.
Raw Color.- The Circles of David Smith.

CREDITS.

Project Team.- Clark Art Institute; Peter Willmott, President, Board of Trustees. Michael Conforti, Director.
Design Architect – Clark Center.- Tadao Ando Architect & Associates, Osaka, Japan.
Design Architect – Museum Building and Manton Research Center.- Annabelle Selldorf, Selldorf Architects, New York, New York.
Landscape Architect.- Gary Hilderbrand, Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Executive Architect and Sustainability Consultant.- Gensler, New York, New York.
Civil Engineer.- Vincent P. Guntlow & Associates, Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Construction Manager.- Clark Center, Reflecting Pool, Physical Plant, Sitework.- Turner Construction Company, Albany, New York.
Museum Building and Manton Research Center: Consigli Construction Co., Inc., Williamstown, Massachusetts.
Project Manager.- Zubatkin, New York, New York.
Owner’s Representative.- Arcadis U.S., Chicago, Illinois.

Read less

Clark Center and reflecting pool. Photography by Jade Doskow.

Reflecting pool as seen from Clark Center. Photography © Tucker Bair. Courtesy of the Clark Art Institute.

Interior. Clark Center. By Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.

Detail of Clark Center and Museum Building. Photography © Kris Qua.

Detail of Clark Center and reflecting pool. Photography © Jade Doskow.

Installation at the Lunder Center at Stone Hill of Primo Piano III, 1962. Painted steel, 124 x 146 x 19 in. (314.9 x 370.8 x 48.3 cm). The Estate of David Smith. Photograph by Mike Agee.

Clark Center from reflecting pool. Rendering: Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.

Lunder Center at Stone Hill. Photography © Jeff Goldberg / Esto.

Installation at the Lunder Center at Stone Hill of Circles Intercepted, Circle IV, Dida's Circle on a Fungus, Circle II, and Circle III, left to right. Photograph by Mike Agee.

Installation at the Lunder Center at Stone Hill of Circle V, Circle I and Circle II, left to right. Photograph by Mike Agee.

Circle V, 1963. Painted steel, 77 x 90 x 20 in. (195.6 x 228.6 x 50.8 cm). JPMorgan Chase Art Collection.

Installation at the Lunder Center at Stone Hill of Circle III, Circle II, Circle I, and Circle V, closest to furthest [photo by: Mike Agee]

Bianzhong Set of Musical Bells, Early Spring and Autumn period, 8th–7th century BCE. Shanghai Museum.

Ding Food Vessel with Bird-shaped Legs, Early Western Zhou dynasty, 11th century BCE. 20.8 x 16.4 cm. Shanghai Museum.

Detail of Clark Center, concrete and red granite. Photography © Kris Qua. Click above to see larger image.

Clark campus from Stone Hill. Rendering by Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.

Clark Center and reflecting pool. Rendering by Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.

Lower Level of Clark Center. Rendering: Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.

View more images

Metalocus recommends

House by the temple by Kuma&Elsa. Photograph by Shohei Kuma

Exchange between the two worlds of a mirror. House by the temple by Kuma&Elsa

Shoreline House by Splyce. Photograph by Ema Peter

Renovation as the most cost-effective and environmentally friendly. Shoreline House by Splyce

Mariano Azuela 194 by Bloqe Arquitectura. Photograph by Pavelin

A look at heritage. Mariano Azuela 194 by Bloqe Arquitectura

More information

TADAO ANDO

Tadao Ando was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1941. Ando briefly worked as a professional boxer in his youth. At 17, he obtained a featherweight boxing license and participated in professional bouts in Japan. At the same time, he worked as a truck driver and carpenter, a trade in which he gained firsthand experience in constructing furniture and wooden structures.

Tadao Ando did not attend formal architecture school for economic and personal reasons. He came from a modest family in Osaka, and financial constraints prevented him from attending university. During this time, he began reading architectural books on his own, by Mies van der Rohe and other modern architects, including treatises by Le Corbusier, particularly the book Vers une architecture, which was decisive for his vocation. His alternative training consisted of reading, attending lectures, and learning from direct observation.

A self-taught architect, he spent time in Kyoto and Nara, where he studied firsthand the great monuments of traditional Japanese architecture. Between 1962 and 1969, he travelled to the United States, Europe, and Africa to learn about Western architecture, its history, and techniques. His studies of traditional and modern Japanese architecture profoundly influenced his work and resulted in a unique blend of these rich traditions.

In 1969, he founded Tadao Ando Architect and Associates in Osaka. He is an honorary member of the architecture academies in six countries; he has been a visiting professor at Yale, Columbia, and Harvard University; and in 1997, he became a professor of architecture at the University of Tokyo.

His notable works include the Water Church (1988) and the Light Church (1989) in Japan; the Naoshima Museum of Contemporary Art (1992); the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in Texas (2002); and the UNESCO Conference Center in Paris (1995).

In 1991, he completed Rokko Housing II, the second phase of a residential complex begun in 1983 in Kobe, which was expanded in a third phase in 1998.

Ando has received numerous architectural awards, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995. Tadao Ando was appointed to the Berlin Academy of Arts in 1995. In 1995, he was made a Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government. He was subsequently promoted to Officer in 1997 and to Commander in 2013.

In 1996, he received the Praemium Imperiale for Architecture from the Japan Art Association, and in 1997, he was awarded the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Gold Medal, the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal in 2002, and the Kyoto Prize for his outstanding career in the arts and philosophy in 2002.

His works have been exhibited at institutions such as the Centre Pompidou in Paris, MoMA in New York, and the Venice Architecture Biennale, where he has participated in multiple editions since 1985. His buildings can be seen in Japan, Europe, the United States, and India.

In the fall of 2001, as a follow-up to the comprehensive master plan commissioned by Cooper, Robertson & Partners in the 1990s and completed in 2001, Tadao Ando was selected to develop a new architectural master plan for the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, to expand its buildings and enhance its 140-acre campus. The project included the construction of the new Stone Hill Center exhibition building (2008) and the expansion of the Clark Museum, which reopened in 2014.

Published on: July 8, 2014

Cite:

metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA

"New Center at Clark Art Institute by Tadao Ando" METALOCUS. Accessed

<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/new-center-clark-art-institute-tadao-ando> ISSN 1139-6415