This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
This Website Uses Cookies
By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more.
Architectural Record logo
search
cart
facebook twitter linkedin youtube
  • Sign In
  • Subscribe
  • Sign Out
  • My Account
Architectural Record logo
  • NEWS
    • Latest News
    • Interviews
    • Reviews
    • Commentary
    • Editorials
  • PROJECTS
    • Building Types
    • Interior Design
    • Museums & Arts Centers
    • Adaptive Reuse
    • Colleges & Universities
    • Lighting
    • Snapshot
  • HOUSES
    • Record Houses
    • House of the Month
    • Featured Houses
    • Kitchen and Bath
  • PRODUCTS
    • Material World
    • Categories
    • Award Winners
    • Case Studies
    • Partners in Design
    • Trends & Insights
  • EXCLUSIVES
    • Best Architecture Schools
    • Top 300 Firms
    • Theme Issues
    • Record Houses
    • Record Products
    • Good Design Is Good Business
    • Design Vanguard
    • Historical Archive
    • Cocktail Napkin Sketch
    • Videos
  • CALL FOR ENTRIES
    • Record Houses
    • Guess the Architect Contest
    • Submit Your Work
  • CONTINUING ED
    • Architectural Technology
    • Architect Continuing Education
    • Continuing Education Center
    • Digital Academies
  • EVENTS
    • Record on the Road
    • Innovation Conference
    • Women In Architecture
    • Webinars
    • Advertising Excellence Awards
  • MORE
    • Subscribe
    • Customer Service
    • Digital Edition
    • eNewsletter
    • Interactive Spotlight
    • Store
    • Custom Content Marketing
    • Research
    • Sponsor Insights
    • eBooks
  • CONTACT
    • Advertise
Home » Philadelphia Museum of Art Reopens Long-Forgotten Spaces as Part of its Frank Gehry-Designed Renovation
Architecture News

Philadelphia Museum of Art Reopens Long-Forgotten Spaces as Part of its Frank Gehry-Designed Renovation

Philadelphia Museum of Art

The reopened north entrance, used as a loading dock for decades, includes 24-foot-tall ceilings.

Photo by Tim Tiebout, courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2019

Philadelphia Museum of Art

One half of a dramatic north-south axis has been reopened, its Guastavino vaults meticulously restored.

Photo by Joseph Hu, courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2019

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Next fall, the full 640-foot length of the vaulted walkway will be accessible to the public.

Rendering by Gehry Partners and KX-L, courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2019

Philadelphia Museum of Art

A former lightwell has been covered with a skylight whose structure mimics that of the vaults over the adjacent walkway.

Photo by Tim Tiebout, courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2019

Philadelphia Museum of Art

A multilevel circulation hub, dubbed the forum, will open next year.

Rendering by Gehry Partners and KX-L, courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2019

Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
September 20, 2019
Joann Gonchar, FAIA
KEYWORDS museums / Philadelphia / renovation
Reprints
No Comments

Architects & Firms

Gehry Partners

Frank Gehry talks about the porticoed and pedimented structure that houses the Philadelphia Museum of Art as though it were a living being, referring to its “good bones” and its “heart.” The Pritzker Prize–winning architect has been involved in renovating the 1928 Beaux Arts building at the head of Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway since 2006, when his Los Angeles-based firm was hired to develop the museum’s master plan. The long-range set of projects aims to replace antiquated building systems, create new galleries, and improve wayfinding and circulation, which Gehry says had become confusing and “muddled” after earlier modifications. The museum had “clogged up arteries,” he explains.

Full completion of all the construction outlined by the master plan is many years away, but visitors now have a sense of Gehry’s approach to remedying this situation. Earlier this week, on September 18, an historic entrance on the museum’s north side reopened, as did about half of a striking vaulted walkway, running from one side of the museum to the other. Though conceived as public spaces by Horace Trumbauer and Julian Abele, the museum’s original architects, both the entrance and the passage had been long off-limits to museumgoers, having been used as a loading dock and for storage since at least the mid 1970s.

Gehry is of course best known for his expressively sculptural buildings. But here his hand is barely discernable: sleek bronze fixtures suspended from the vaults illuminate the meticulously cleaned Guastavino tiles; a lightwell formerly exposed to the elements has been captured as skylit indoor space and is now home to an espresso bar; and new floors, from the same quarry in Minnesota that supplied the limestone used in the original construction, conceal extensive infrastructure for heating, cooling, telecommunications, and electrical systems. Gehry describes his role akin to that of an archaeologist. He says he is “excavating” Trumbauer and Abele, and that he is quite satisfied doing so. “My other work offers plenty of opportunity for self-expression.”

The just-opened half of the walkway and entrance are only two pieces of the current phase of construction known as the core project, for which demolition began in 2017. By next fall, when this stage of the master plan is scheduled to be complete, more than 90,000 square feet of renovated space—including 23,000 square feet of new galleries and the full, 640-foot length of the vaulted walkway—will be open to visitors. Also slated to be done next year as part of this $220 million phase, is what has been dubbed the forum—a new, double-story circulation hub and gathering space that connects the walkway to the rest of the museum. It was made possible by demolition of an auditorium built in 1959 and required structural gymnastics, such as underpinning its foundations.

Future phases of Gehry’s master plan, which are not yet scheduled, will move forward as resources permit, say museum officials. They include a new auditorium as well as  more galleries. These exhibition spaces are to be dug underneath the east terrace and its monumental steps (the steps familiar to anyone who has seen the 1976 movie Rocky). The design also calls for a portal-like window that will slice through the stairs and offer views out over the parkway and of the Philadelphia skyline. Gehry insists that even this “window to the city” was part of Trumbauer’s vision. “We didn’t create a new master plan,” he says. “We’ve recreated an existing one.”

AR Subscribe

Recent Articles by Joann Gonchar, FAIA

Lincoln Center’s Geffen Hall to Get Long-Awaited Revamp

A Closer Look at the Gridshell Roof of Swatch Headquarters by Shigeru Ban

Continuing Education: Mass Timber Construction Swatch Headquarters by Shigeru Ban

Joann-gonchar1

Joann Gonchar, FAIA, LEED AP, is a senior editor at Architectural Record. She joined RECORD in 2006, after working for eight years at its sister publication, Engineering News-Record. Before starting her career as a journalist, Joann worked for several architecture firms and spent three years in Kobe, Japan, with the firm Team Zoo, Atelier Iruka. She earned a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University. She is licensed to practice architecture in New York State.

Related Articles

Frank Gehry Breaks Ground on Renovation of Philadelphia Museum of Art

Gehry-Designed Restaurant Opens at Philadelphia Museum of Art

You must login or register in order to post a comment.

Report Abusive Comment

More Videos

AR Tremco Webinar


 


 

Events

December 12, 2019

Improving Building Delivery with BIM

Credits: 1 AIA LU/Elective; 1 AIBD P-CE; 0.1 IACET CEU
May qualify for learning hours through most Canadian architectural associations

BIM brings countless advantages to the construction team, but the biggest benefit lies with the owner. For architects continuing to develop and enhance delivery methods, BIM is the solution. In this webinar with Rob Glisson, AIA, principal at ROJO Architecture, see how BIM can help you reduce risk, accelerate schedules, establish more accurate budgets, decrease costs, and better serve your clients.

December 17, 2019

Minimizing Risk in Blindside Waterproofing Applications

Credits: 1 AIA LU/Elective; 1 AIBD P-CE; 0.1 IACET CEU

May qualify for learning hours through most Canadian architectural associations

This course will identify blindside waterproofing product technologies, their differences, the criteria for product performance, and how to design a waterproofing system accordingly. Best practices for mitigating application risks and managing critical areas prone to moisture infiltration will be reviewed, including the sequence of installation and for detailing failure points.

View All Submit An Event

Products

ENR Square Foot Costbook 2020

ENR Square Foot Costbook 2020

See More Products

Tweets by @ArchRecord

Architectural Record

AR December 2019 Cover

2019 December

In the December 2019 issue, Architectural Record reveals the winners of the annual Record Products contest.

View More Subscribe
  • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Survey And Sample
    • Editorial Calendar
  • Call for Entries
  • Subscribe
    • Subscribe
    • Renew
    • Create Account
    • Change Address
    • Pay My Bill
    • Free eNewsletters
    • Customer Care
  • Advertise
    • Architectural Record
    • Advertising Awards
  • Industry Jobs

Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved BNP Media.

Design, CMS, Hosting & Web Development :: ePublishing