Many assumed that the Barnes Foundation’s move from Lower Merion, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia, to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway within the city, was misbegotten. It meant stripping the vaunted collection of Picassos, Van Goghs, Matisses, and all those Renoirs from the sedately classical museum setting that Paul Cret had created for Albert Barnes in 1925. How could a new modern home, designed by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects in 2012, possibly accommodate the artwork without a sense of rupture—especially considering Barnes’s vehement mandate about keeping it all intact? Yet, the Williams Tsien solution has been greeted surprisingly well, in terms of response from critics and the public. The lingering question, however, has been: what would happen to Cret’s building in Lower Merion? And who would keep up the arboretum on its 12-acre property, which Barnes’s wife, Laura, had tended to for so long? The Barnes Foundation said it planned to adapt its galleries for an archive and library. But the Barnes decided it was more expedient to have those functions located with the galleries in central Philadelphia.

Paul Philippe Cret designed the museum for Albert Barnes in 1925. DIGSAU restored the exterior, adding a black steel-framed ramp for accessibility (above), and additional stairs (top of page). Photo © Halkin Mason, click to enlarge.