Museum expansions designed by prominent architects often result in a new main entrance to the addition’s grand (and new) lobby/party hall. In many cases, this reorientation of the circulation gives visitors no visual knowledge of the original museum, while the ultra-spacious lobby offers few clues to the existence of the older structure.
Rick Mather Architects + SMBW’s 165,000-square-foot James W. and Frances G. McGlothlin Wing for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) in Richmond may have the de rigueur entrance and lobby/atrium, but it avoids the typical mistakes. As you arrive, you see the entrance facade on the north, as well as one on the east — which abuts the Georgian-style brick-and-limestone museum designed in 1936 by Peebles and Ferguson. More important, the museum has kept the older entrance open to the public.
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