Cass Gilbert's Palace of Fine Arts, now the Saint Louis Art Museum, was the only permanent structure built for the 1904 World's Fair. While a cultural icon to this day, the historic building's neoclassical design limits how art can be displayed, especially large contemporary works. Museum commissioners selected Sir David Chipperfield to design an expansion for such works that incorporates daylight in the galleries and takes advantage of its location in sprawling Forest Park. His new East Building does both, but without allowing any direct sunlight to touch the art.
The key to the design is a dramatic 4-foot-deep coffered ceiling that bounces light off the structure's highly reflective concrete. Sunlight comes through skylights composed of triple-glazed translucent glass with a UV-resistant interlayer. Within each of the ceiling's 4-by-9-foot openings is a framework of aluminum extrusions that supports what the designers call the light spreader—a horizontal light-diffusing resin panel. Around the top of that is the halo, a raised collar that blocks any residual direct sunlight that might seep through. “What's unique about this solution is that while we are controlling daylight, you really [sense] it in the galleries,” says Roger McFarland, principal at HOK, the architect of record. “If a cloud goes over, you notice it.”
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