When we designed the original Weisman Art Museum (now called WAM), it was always meant to be a work in progress. With Phase II, we were finally able to bring the sculptural character we achieved for the west elevation around the building to the east side facing the Coffman Plaza; but in red brick instead of stainless steel.
The blank east elevation of the original WAM was conceived with the intention to take on an addition. Yet the constricted site required the Phase II project to be elevated in order to allow continuous traffic flow on the Washington Ave. off-ramp below.
We began to study the potential massing, using the color blocks to explore how to achieve the expansion in the most spatially efficient and cost effective way.
We arrived at the strategy to locating the new exhibition spaces on the north and east sides of the existing galleries. This would provide more than 50% increase of exhibition capacity with the addition of 6,500 SF of new gallery to the existing museum; including new galleries for works on paper, American Art, and the new Target Gallery - a space for interdisciplinary collaboration.
In addition, Phase II called for the refurbishment of the section of existing Washington Ave. Bridge directly in front of the original Weisman. This new platform would support a widened pedestrian connection and the Target Gallery (image on left). The other new gallery spaces facing Coffman Plaza would be articulated as 4 sky-lit volumes supported by monumental pylons rising from the traffic off-ramp below (image on right).
Above the new widen pedestrian connection; a new canopy structure in stainless steel would animate the east elevation (image on top). Compared with the original canopy (image on bottom), this more sculpturally exuberant new canopy would also provide added shelter for the student traffic, and would prevent the snow in the severe winter months from sliding onto the pedestrian bridge.
The design of the new galleries would maintain the generosity of volume as in the original Weisman, while creating a variety of ceiling heights and daylight conditions. The new American Art Gallery would have a finished hard wood floor and skylight (image on left), while the Target Gallery has a more unfinished look with concrete floor (image on right).
These additional galleries would also permit the museum to have more curatorial and installation freedom with the existing galleries.
One of the partition walls was removed for the re-opening of WAM, to create a more open exhibition space as it was envisioned in the original design.
When viewed from the Washington Ave. Bridge off-ramp, the new galleries have a simple but impressive sculptural presence.
WAM Phase II has been a unique collaborative experience; it was a reunion of many of the team members from the original project.
With the completion of Phase II, the project finally arrived full circle in the way we had imagined it more than 15 years ago. At the re-opening, director Lyndel King told me that the museum would really love to have a café. With that thought, we all look forward to our next reunion in Phase III …
The projects in this section were designed and executed during my time at Gehry Partners LLP (the office). I am grateful to Mr. Gehry and the team at the office for their generosity and support over the years. All intellectual property rights of these projects continue to be owned by the office unless otherwise mentioned. The narrative texts on the projects are entirely personal, they do not represent the views or opinions of the office, its clients or any other third party or organization.