| Art’s New Home: Speed Museum to get major renovation | ||||||||||||||
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Written by: Ashley Medley, Author Published: Thursday, 13 May 2010 |
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The Speed Art Museum is about to get a face-lift. The museum’s biggest renovation project since its initial construction in 1927 will change the look and feel of the beloved museum.
“The project will be completed in a couple of phases,” said museum Director Dr. Charles Venable. “The master plan is to renovate part of the original 1927 building and the two floors of the 1983 galleries.”
The project will restore the original beaux arts-style building while adding modern and urban elements.
The most dramatic part of the project will be the demolition of the museum’s current sculpture garden and auditorium and construction of a three- or four- story building on the museum’s north side. The building will house the new museum shop, restaurant, galleries and temporary exhibit space.
Renovations to the galleries added in 1983 will include opening up skylights and changing up the exhibition space.
“The walls are complicated. It’s difficult to display large pieces of art,” Venable said.
Major changes are also coming to the museum’s exterior landscape. Plans are in place to create an outdoor sculpture park and public piazza between the museum and the University of Louisville’s School of Business.
The park and piazza will also have wi-fi access. Thousands of students walk through the existing path everyday, Venable said.
The sculpture park and piazza were made possible by a $10 million gift from Drs. Frederick and Elizabeth Cressman.
The gift is “to allow the Speed to further its mission by strengthening the quality of its facilities in a dynamic way that will engage the Speed Art Museum, the University of Louisville and the community,” said Elizabeth Cressman in a press release. “Our ultimate goal is to bring the Speed and the university together as true partners so the lives of students are enhanced through exposure to art and culture at the museum.”
The James Graham Brown Foundation made a $5 million grant to the project.
“The face of the museum will be totally transformed,” Venable said. “The museum is passive – it sits back from Third Street and there are hardly any windows. Plans for the north building aren’t complete, but we would like to include lots of glass so we can light the building at night, so passersby can see inside the museum and see people moving around and see the art.”
The museum plans to hold more evening events once the project is complete.
“We want it to become the marquee for the museum and the U of L campus,” Venable added.
The project will also help the museum be more green. The goal is to obtain a high LEED rating and to install underground retention basins to help alleviate some of the flooding that seems to plague that portion of Third Street.
Kulapat Yantrasast, of Los Angeles-based wHY Architects, is the lead architect on the project.
“(Yantrasast) grew up as an architect building museums. When we were looking for an architect for the project, we wanted someone who had worked extensively with museums,” Venable said.
Yantrasast’s portfolio of work includes Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, the ARMANI/TEATRO for Giorgio Armani in Milan, Italy, the Foundation Francois Pinault for Contemporary Art in Paris, the Calder Museum project in Philadelphia and the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass.
Massachusetts-based landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand Associates will also work on the project.
Construction is scheduled to begin next year. It should be complete in 2014, Venable said.
The construction won’t disrupt the museum’s daily operations. The museum will remain open while certain sections may be closed while work is completed.
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