Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Breaks Ground

 

 

Richmond, Va. November 2005

The first stages of the $108 million major transformation of the 13.5 acre Virginia Museum of Fine Arts campus have commenced construction. Excavation for the 600-car Parking Garage project began in October 2005 and the enabling works for the construction of the new 160, 000 sq ft north wing of the museum are now in place. The first stage of the building expansion project will be the demolition of the existing 1976 wing.

The approach returns the museum and its campus to the main street and provides 3.5 acres of public gardens on what was previously surface parking lot.

The building expansion, the largest in the museum’s history, provides the new museum entrance, along with almost 50% more gallery space, a new library, restaurant and café, conservation facilities, curator offices and gift shop. Renovation to the existing building includes a new Education Center and selected gallery space. Once completed the Parking Deck will be partially covered by a sloping hill forming one component of the new E. Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Garden.

Dr Michael Brand, director of the VMFA states: “In this design Rick Mather proposes a new ideal for how we come together as citizens to celebrate culture in public places, one that blurs the threshold between indoor and outdoor spaces, and between architecture and landscape”.

 
   
 
 
 

 

 Background:
1. Project Overview:
  • The expansion will add 100, 000 square feet of new space to the existing 240,000-square-foot museum. Gallery space for the collections and temporary exhibitions will grow by nearly 50%.
  • The new Atrium, a triple-height ‘main street’, will connect the new building with two existing wings and open onto galleries, the new library, education center, museum shop, café and restaurant. Its innovative glass roof will deliver natural light to this and surrounding spaces.
  • A 40-foot-high structural glass wall overlooking the Boulevard, one of Richmond’s key civic thoroughfares, will signal the purpose of the Museum from the outside by showcasing works of art and revealing public activity within.
  • The new Entrance Plaza facing eastward will create a new Main Entrance to the Museum visible from the Boulevard.
  • The new School Tour Entrance from the Entrance Plaza will accommodate more school groups and lead to children’s studios, resource rooms, and a gallery.
  • At the heart of the Museum’s new campus, the E. Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Garden will replace 3.5 acres of current parking lot with a magnificent park including leisurely walkways, refreshing water features, flowers, and art.
  • The Robins Sculpture Garden will partially cover the new, highly innovative Parking Deck tucked beneath a terraced, landscaped slope designed for recreation and viewing outdoor performances.

2. Rick Mather Architects won the competition for the execution of the VMFA Masterplan, Expansion, Renovation, Sculpture Garden and Parking Deck in May 2001.

3. Rick Mather + SMBW, LLC is a limited liability company established for the VMFA project comprising London based Rick Mather Architects and Richmond based SMBW Architects.

4. VMFA was established in 1934. Successive additions were made to the original building in 1954, 1970, 1976 and 1985. It was one of the first state art museums and is based on a public private partnership between the state and private doners. Collections include the Sydney and Frances Lewis Collections of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Modern and Contemporary American art; the Mr and Mrs Paul Mellon Collections of French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art and British sporting art; the Lillian Thomas Pratt Collection of objects from the workshops of Peter Carl Fabergé; the Jerome and Rita Gans Collection of English Silver; American art acquired through the J. Harwood and Louise B. Cochrane Fund; and one of the US’s leading collections of the art of India, Nepal and Tibet.

5. In 2004 the project won the MIPIM/Architectural Review Future Projects Award in the urban communities and sustainability's.

6. In May 2005, VMFA announced that American art collectors James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin plan to bequeath art and give financial support value at well above $100 million to the museum. As a component of their pledge, the gift includes a donation of $10 million toward the capital campaign in support of the expansion. The American Galleries and the new wing will both be named for the McGlothlins.

7. Philadelphia based Olin Partnership were appointed as Landscape Architect for the three projects by Rick Mather + SMBW in 2002. Additional consultants include Hankins Anderson Consulting Engineers, Richmond; L’Observatoire, NYC - Lighting Design; Dewhurst MacFarlane and Partners, London / NYC - specialist structure and façade engineers; Atelier Ten, London / NYC – environmental and building services engineers.
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