Iwan Baan

OBJETIVO

Glenstone sought to provide access to a larger portion of its collection and enhance its service to the public. The new Museum’s goal is to offer visitors a experience of works from its collection integrated seamlessly with architecture, and nature.

Guests are intended to have an unhurried, intimate engagement with the artworks and environment. Visitors leave their cars in a parking grove and are greeted at the nearby wood clad Arrival Gallery, where they can orient themselves for their visit. They proceed by walking over a timber bridge and into an expansive meadow. As the path curves, visitors glimpse the Museum through a wooded verge of honey locusts, oaks, and tulip trees, until they emerge with a full view of the Pavilions’ entrance.

Prioritizing natural light over artificial light was fundamental to the design of the Pavilions. Most rooms have large clerestories or laylights to provide balanced natural light from above. One room is open to the sky. The play of light and shadow varies throughout the day. As the seasons change, the light fluctuates, revealing subtle qualities in the artworks and providing a more natural, nuanced experience.

Increasing access to and understanding of the expansive landscape and environment was a core tenet of the project. The landscape design sought to emphasize a systems approach to water management, reforestation, meadow regeneration, and landscape maintenance. The Environmental Center highlights the Museum’s sustainability efforts in composting, organic landscape management, waste reduction, recycling, and water conservation.

CONTEXTO

Embedded in rolling grass pasture and woodland, Glenstone provides a serene and contemplative environment for visitors to view contemporary art and experience nature. Glenstone’s first museum was completed in 2006 by the late architect Charles Gwathmey. Thomas Phifer and Partners completed a major expansion of its museum and landscape, the centerpiece of which is a new 204,000 SF building.

From the Arrival Gallery, the new Glenstone appears as an ensemble of simple masonry forms embedded in the landscape. The Museum is organized as a ring of gallery rooms surrounding an 18,000 SF water court. Pavilions of varying proportions and daylight house single-artist installations, with one room intended for multiple-artist surveys.

Select pavilions were designed in collaboration with artists including Michael Heizer, Cy Twombly, Robert Gober, Charles Ray, On Kawara, and Brice Marden to meet the specific requirements of their works.

A strategic master plan and site design increase the area of restored woodlands, meadows, and streams and make them more accessible to the public. The expansion also provides a new public entrance and Arrival Gallery, two free-standing cafés, and an Environmental Center that highlights environmentally sustainable practices.

Emily and Mitch Rales, co-Founders, “envision Glenstone not only as a place, but a state of mind created by the energy of architecture, the power of art, and the restorative qualities of nature.”