OMA reveals the expansion of Buffalo Albright-Knox-Gundlach Art Museum
26/06/2018.
[Buffalo - NY] USA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
metalocus, INÉS LALUETA
Albright-Knox Art Gallery officials on Monday announced a new design for its expansion that would spare a beloved 1962 building by Buffalo-born architect Gordon Bunshaft.
Rendering. Buffalo Albright-Knox-Gundlach Art Museum by OMA. Image by Brick Visuals, courtesy of OMA
Site plan. Buffalo Albright-Knox-Gundlach Art Museum by OMA. Image by Brick Visuals, courtesy of OMA
Rendering. Buffalo Albright-Knox-Gundlach Art Museum by OMA. Image by Brick Visuals, courtesy of OMA
In 2016, it was announced that OMA (Shohei Shigematsu) was selected to expand and refurbish the historic campus of Buffalo’s Albright-Knox Art Gallery in New York State. The museum’s board of directors chose OMA’s NY branch ahead of other established practices. Forming the institution’s first expansion in more than half a century, the project will both enlarge and enhance the Albright-Knox, enabling the institution to better serve its audience. Two years after the initial announcement, the preliminary schematic design has been unveiled.
Description of project by OMA
The AK360 project – an ambitious campus development project for the Albright Knox Gallery – will double the number of masterworks the museum can display and will also provide state-of-the-art space for presenting special exhibitions. The project will enhance the visitor experience at the museum, creating more space for education, dining, and social activities, while better integrating the campus to the landscape of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Delaware Park.
Under the plan developed by the museum and OMA/Shohei Shigematsu, the new building will add 29,000 sf of much-needed space for displaying special exhibitions and the museum’s world-renowned art collection. The new building will also incorporate several visitor amenities and is envisioned to have a wraparound promenade that visually and aesthetically connects the interior of the building with the existing campus and landscape.
In addition to the new North Building, OMA will work on preservation and improvements to the existing campus. Changes include creating a new education wing in the lower level of the 1962 building, transforming a surface parking lot into a green landscape and gathering place, adding a new point of entry and exist on the east façade of the museum’s 1962 building and creating new education wing in the lower level of the 1962 building. A scenic bridge weaving through Olmsted Park will connect the North Building with the 1905 building along with a new roof enclosure for the 1962 building’s open-air sculpture garden will activate the museum with year-round activities. The free-standing North Building along with the roof of the 1962 building will contribute a new profile and language to the existing lineage of architectural history of the campus.
Shohei Shigematsu stated, “The north building comprises three levels offering diverse gallery experiences. Encircling the second level gallery is a double-height promenade, a flexible space with 360-degree views to the surrounding buildings and Olmsted landscape. The building is enveloped by a translucent façade that achieves an open and ephemeral quality and engages the external environment. Layers of visual and spatial connections throughout the north building foster dialogue with the architectural legacy of the Albright-Knox while inviting contemporary audiences to discover the diverse activities within.”
More information
Architects Arquitectos
OMA. Project leader.- Shohei Shigematsu, Jason Long
Architects Team
Competition --- Associate-in-charge.- Laura Baird. Project Architect.- Lawrence Siu, Ceren Bingol, Wesley Ho, Maxime Leclerc, Daeho Lee, Salome Nikuradze, Nicholas Solakian, Andrea Zalewski. // Concept --- Associate-in-charge.- Laura Baird. Project Architect. Lawrence Siu. Remy Bertin. Patricio Fernandez. Tamara Jamil. Maxime Leclerc. Daeho Lee. Jayeual Lee. Andres Rabano. Alyssa Saltzgaber.
Client
Albright Knox Gallery
Area
4,650m²
Dates
2016-ongoing
Shohei Shigematsu
Shohei Shigematsu born in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan in 1973. In 1996 graduated from the Department of Architecture at Kyushu University. Studying at the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam. He became an associate since 2004.joined OMA in 1998 and became a partner in 2008.
He has led the office in New York since 2006. Sho's designs for cultural venues include the Quebec National Beaux Arts Museum and the Faena Arts Center in Miami Beach, as well as direct collaborations with artists, including Cai Guo Qiang, Marina Abramovic and Kanye West.
Sho is currently designing a number of luxury, high rise towers in San Francisco, New York, and Miami, as well as a mixed-use complex in Santa Monica. His engagement with urban conditions around the world include a new civic center in Bogota, Colombia; a post-Hurricane Sandy, urban water strategy for New Jersey; and a food hub in Louisville, Kentucky.
He is a design critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he is conducting a research studio entitled Alimentary Design, investigating the intersection of food, architecture and urbanism.
He has led the office in New York since 2006. Sho's designs for cultural venues include the Quebec National Beaux Arts Museum and the Faena Arts Center in Miami Beach, as well as direct collaborations with artists, including Cai Guo Qiang, Marina Abramovic and Kanye West.
Sho is currently designing a number of luxury, high rise towers in San Francisco, New York, and Miami, as well as a mixed-use complex in Santa Monica. His engagement with urban conditions around the world include a new civic center in Bogota, Colombia; a post-Hurricane Sandy, urban water strategy for New Jersey; and a food hub in Louisville, Kentucky.
He is a design critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he is conducting a research studio entitled Alimentary Design, investigating the intersection of food, architecture and urbanism.
Office for Metropolitan Architecture OMA, New York
Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a leading international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. OMA's buildings and masterplans around the world insist on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities for content and everyday use. OMA is led by ten partners – Rem Koolhaas, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, David Gianotten, Chris van Duijn, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Jason Long and Michael Kokora – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Beijing, Hong Kong, Doha and Dubai.
Responsible for OMA’s operations in America, OMA New York was established in 2001 and has since overseen the successful completion of several buildings across the country including Milstein Hall at Cornell University (2011); the Wyly Theater in Dallas (2009); the Seattle Central Library (2004); the IIT Campus Center in Chicago (2003); and Prada’s Epicenter in New York (2001). The office is currently overseeing the construction of three cultural projects, including the Musée National des Beaux-arts du Québec and the Faena Arts District in Miami Beach – both scheduled for completion in 2016 – as well as a studio expansion for artist Cai Guo Qiang in New York. The New York office has most recently been commissioned to design a number of residential towers in San Francisco, New York, and Miami, as well as two projects in Los Angeles; the Plaza at Santa Monica, a mixed use complex in Los Angeles, and the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.
OMA New York’s ongoing engagements with urban conditions around the world include a new civic center in Bogota, Colombia; a post-Hurricane Sandy, urban water strategy for New Jersey; the 11th Street Bridge Park and RFK Stadium-Armory Campus Masterplan in Washington, DC; and a food hub in West Louisville, Kentucky.
Jason Long
Jason Long (OMA partner / OMA NY co-director) Jason Long is a Partner at OMA. He joined the firm in 2003 and has been leading OMA New York since 2014. Jason brings a research-driven, interdisciplinary approach to a wide range of projects internationally—from concept to completion, he served as the project manager for the Quebec National Museum in Quebec City and the Faena Forum in Miami.
A number of projects under his direction take a creative approach on the much-needed adaptive reuse and restoration of existing buildings, including POST Houston, the transformation of a former post office warehouse in downtown Houston into a mixed-use cultural platform, incorporating a new venue for Live Nation; the conversion of an Art Deco parking garage in New York City into a synagogue; the renovation of the Fitzgerald Building at University of Toronto into a new campus administration center; the adaptive reuse of Jersey City’s Pathside Building into museum for Centre Pompidou; and LANTERN, the conversion of a former commercial bakery into a community arts hub in Detroit.
Jason’s projects in urbanism and the public realm, particularly in Washington, D.C., public health, and equitable development at varying scales: a streetscape design for D.C. Convention Center, the 11th Street Bridge Park connecting disparate communities on either side of the Anacostia River, and a sports and recreation masterplan for the RFK Stadium Armory Campus.
His diverse portfolio extends to residential developments across housing types and regions in North America. Jason led the recently completed Eagle + West, OMA’s first high-rise towers in New York. In California, he oversaw the design and completion of The Avery in San Francisco and is currently leading 730 Stanyan, a 120-unit, 100% affordable housing building in historic Haight Ashbury. Currently in progress is The Perigon, a beachfront high-rise in Miami’s mid-beach neighborhood.
Jason previously served as a key member of AMO and was the Associate Editor of Content (Taschen, 2004).
Jason has lectured at SPUR, Urban Land Institute (ULI), AIA Conventions, and various museums and universities across the globe. He has been a visiting professor at Cornell University School of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP).
Jason holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Vassar College and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD).
A number of projects under his direction take a creative approach on the much-needed adaptive reuse and restoration of existing buildings, including POST Houston, the transformation of a former post office warehouse in downtown Houston into a mixed-use cultural platform, incorporating a new venue for Live Nation; the conversion of an Art Deco parking garage in New York City into a synagogue; the renovation of the Fitzgerald Building at University of Toronto into a new campus administration center; the adaptive reuse of Jersey City’s Pathside Building into museum for Centre Pompidou; and LANTERN, the conversion of a former commercial bakery into a community arts hub in Detroit.
Jason’s projects in urbanism and the public realm, particularly in Washington, D.C., public health, and equitable development at varying scales: a streetscape design for D.C. Convention Center, the 11th Street Bridge Park connecting disparate communities on either side of the Anacostia River, and a sports and recreation masterplan for the RFK Stadium Armory Campus.
His diverse portfolio extends to residential developments across housing types and regions in North America. Jason led the recently completed Eagle + West, OMA’s first high-rise towers in New York. In California, he oversaw the design and completion of The Avery in San Francisco and is currently leading 730 Stanyan, a 120-unit, 100% affordable housing building in historic Haight Ashbury. Currently in progress is The Perigon, a beachfront high-rise in Miami’s mid-beach neighborhood.
Jason previously served as a key member of AMO and was the Associate Editor of Content (Taschen, 2004).
Jason has lectured at SPUR, Urban Land Institute (ULI), AIA Conventions, and various museums and universities across the globe. He has been a visiting professor at Cornell University School of Architecture, Art and Planning (AAP).
Jason holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Vassar College and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (GSD).
OMA. Office for Metropolitan Architecture
Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. AMO, a research and design studio, applies architectural thinking to domains beyond. OMA is led by eight partners – Rem Koolhaas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten – and maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha, and Australia. OMA-designed buildings currently under construction are the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens (KaDeWe) in Berlin, The Factory in Manchester, Hangzhou Prism, the CMG Times Center in Shenzhen and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.
OMA’s completed projects include Taipei Performing Arts Centre (2022), Audrey Irmas Pavilion in Los Angeles (2020), Norra Tornen in Stockholm (2020), Axel Springer Campus in Berlin (2020), MEETT Toulouse Exhibition and Convention Centre (2020), Galleria in Gwanggyo (2020), WA Museum Boola Bardip (2020), nhow RAI Hotel in Amsterdam (2020), a new building for Brighton College (2020), and Potato Head Studios in Bali (2020). Earlier buildings include Fondazione Prada in Milan (2018), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow (2015), De Rotterdam (2013), CCTV Headquarters in Beijing (2012), Casa da Música in Porto (2005), and the Seattle Central Library (2004).
AMO often works in parallel with OMA's clients to fertilize architecture with intelligence from this array of disciplines. This is the case with Prada: AMO's research into identity, in-store technology, and new possibilities of content-production in fashion helped generate OMA's architectural designs for new Prada epicenter stores in New York and Los Angeles. In 2004, AMO was commissioned by the European Union to study its visual communication, and designed a colored "barcode" flag, combining the flags of all member states, which was used during the Austrian presidency of the EU. AMO has worked with Universal Studios, Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, Heineken, Ikea, Condé Nast, Harvard University and the Hermitage. It has produced Countryside: The Future, a research exhibited at Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; exhibitions at the Venice Architecture Biennale, including Public Works (2012), Cronocaos (2010), and The Gulf (2006); and for Fondazione Prada, including When Attitudes Become Form (2012) and Serial and Portable Classics (2015). AMO, with Harvard University, was responsible for the research and curation of the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale and its publication Elements. Other notable projects are Roadmap 2050, a plan for a Europe-wide renewable energy grid; Project Japan, a 720-page book on the Metabolism architecture movement (Taschen, 2010); and the educational program of Strelka Institute in Moscow.
