Buffalo AKG Art Museum opens this month (June 2023), inviting the public into its brand-new, OMA-designed home in New York state. When we first visited the project, a little over six months ago, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) was still deep in construction. Now, it is reborn with a striking OMA-crafted extension (led by partner in charge Shohei Shigematsu, and working with executive architects Cooper Robertson), site-specific installations, and a new focus on the local community.
Buffalo AKG Art Museum opens to the public
'We often say that there are only two types of museums: a museum in the park, embedded in the tranquility of nature, and a museum in the city, implanted within the energy of urbanism. The Buffalo AKG Art Museum is both. It sits at the northern edge of the historic Delaware Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The city is known for its history of industrial revolution and the current revitalisation of remnants from that past. It has a rich architectural history – from silos and manufacturing facilities to buildings by Eero Saarinen, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright,' the OMA team write in a statement.
This cultural institution is celebrating an inspiring legacy – it is the sixth-oldest museum in the United States. Having undergone various iterations and additions in its long life (its first version was established in 1862), and under the guidance of current director Janne Sirén, it launched a new scheme for a refresh and extension by OMA. Now, it spans decades and styles, from the original 1905 building to a new three-storey, geometric structure. There's a sculpture terrace and a connecting bridge as well as a 1962 building whose courtyard becomes a key public heart for the complex – and where Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann of Studio Other Spaces have designed a site-specific artwork to cover it.
Shigematsu said during our site visit last tyear: ‘Our focus was to present those efforts as a sign of openness, by having a space where people can improvise, and activities visible from outside – not about a closed authoritarian façade.' To that end, its ethereal volumes and glass transparency were very important: 'If you occupied the ground level with the galleries, then it would become another fortress,’ he added.
Buffalo AKG Art Museum opens to the public this weekend (15-18 June 2023).
-
Bringing BRAT to life: we meet the designers behind Charli XCX's victory-lap tourAn exclusive interview with Cour Design's Jonny Kingsbury, the stage and lighting designer behind Charli XCX's new BRAT tour
-
Apple’s new Mac mini is a pocket-sized powerhouse thanks to the M4 processorWith the new Mac mini, Apple has squeezed its M4 and M4 Pro processors into the smallest conceivable footprint, physically and environmentally. Apple insiders tell us how
-
One to Watch: EJM Studio’s stool is inspired by the humble church pewEJM Studio’s ‘Pew’ stool reimagines the traditional British church seating with a modern, eco-conscious twist
-
Step inside a Brooklyn Brownstone that bridges old and new'Brooklyn Brownstone' has been refreshed by Jon Powell Architects (JPA) and the result is a contemporary design rooted in modern elegance
-
The new Frederic Church Center at Olana complements its leafy Upstate New York siteTour the Frederic Church Center for Art and Landscape, now open at Olana, a historic site in Upstate New York, courtesy of architecture studio ARO
-
Turin’s Museo Egizio gets an OMA makeover for its bicentenaryThe Gallery of the Kings at Turin’s Museo Egizio has been inaugurated after being remodelled by OMA, in collaboration with Andrea Tabocchini Architecture
-
On a sloped Los Angeles site, a cascade of green 'boxes' offers inside outside livingUnStack, a house by FreelandBuck, is a cascading series of bright green volumes, with mountain views
-
This New York brownstone was transformed through the power of a single, clever moveVoid House, a New York brownstone reimagined by architecture studio Light and Air, is an interior transformed through the power of one smart move
-
A new Texas house transforms a sloping plot into a multi-layered family homeThe Griggs Residence is a Texas house that shields its interior world and spacious terraces with a stone and steel façade
-
Light, nature and modernist architecture: welcome to the reimagined Longwood GardensLongwood Gardens and its modernist Roberto Burle Marx-designed greenhouse get a makeover by Weiss/Manfredi and Reed Hildebrand in the US
-
A bridge in Buffalo heralds a new era for the city's LaSalle ParkA new Buffalo bridge offers pedestrian access over busy traffic for the local community, courtesy of schlaich bergermann partner
