Akron Art Museum? Yeah, this is where I live: Akron, Ohio, USA, and we are getting akick-ass building: Coop Himmelb(l)au has designed the addition to our local art museum. Keep in mind that we are a fairly small city, outside of Cleveland, Ohio. We have just over 200,000 persons living in a typical mid-west, psuedo-conservative area of America, but a pretty good comtemporary art museum for our size. I'm proud of it and suggest friend and family go there when they visit us.

The existing Art Museum is a nice romanesque style brick and stone three story building that COOP is proposing a freakish glass addition too. It is under construction and I cruise by it whenever I think to watch it go up.

Some facts:

About the Building

Since its humble beginnings in the basement of the public library in 1922, the Akron Art Museum has played an increasingly vital role in the city of Akron. Continuing in that tradition, the museum is poised to make history with its 65,000 square foot new building designed by world-renowned architecture firm, Coop Himmelb(l)au.

The dynamic, soaring structure will be built adjacent to the existing museum, a post office building dating back to 1899, effectively incorporating the new into the old. The project will triple gallery space from 8,000 square feet to approximately 20,000 square feet, allowing greater display of the museum’s important paintings and sculpture from the permanent collection as well as selections from its distinguished photography holdings.

Outdoor space for public events and sculpture will increase from 14,000 square feet to over 20,000 square feet, allowing the museum to act not just as a place to view art but as a key social and cultural center for the community. The expansion also provides a number of exciting amenities long requested by museum visitors such as classrooms, a childrens gallery, museum gift shop and café.

http://www.akronartmuseum.org/newbuilding/index2.html

About Coop Himmelb(l)au

Coop Himmelb(l)au was founded in 1968 in Vienna, Austria, by principals Wolf D. Prix and Helmut Swiczinsky. Internationally known as leading architectural theorists and practitioners, the firm is also celebrated for its adaptive re-use of historic buildings. Their numerous projects include the Rooftop Remodeling of a law office in downtown Vienna and more recently, Apartment Building Gasometer B, the conversion of a 19th century industrial structure into apartments, offices and shops.

Other notable projects now under development include the firm’s JVC Urban Entertainment Center in Guadalajara, Mexico, part of a mammoth cultural park designed by several of the world’s leading architects and "The Hamburg Double Cone," a multifunctional office and educational center. In addition to the Akron Art Museum project, Coop Himmelb(l)au has won two other international competitions recently: the Musée des Confluences (a science center in France) and the BMW Event and Delivery Center in Germany.

The firm has received a number of important awards including the German Architecture Award in 1999, the "Großer Österreichischer Staatspreis" 1999 and most recently, the European Steel Design Award in 2001.

Coop Himmelb(l)au’s currently has an office in Vienna, Austria and Guadalajara, Mexico.

http://www.coop-himmelblau.at/coophimmelblau.html

More Pics...

More pics...

Interior of addition

Orginal Building...

I cruised by the site for the addition to the Akron Art Museum to see what Coop has been up to:

The main body of the building is up and cladded. You can see the Romanesque original portionof the museum in the background, and the flying steel that will be the cantilevered wings of the addition. Very cool.

This image is from the opposite direction. There are some darker steel columns on site for temporary shoring of the structural steel, including the cantilevered sections. This will be removed as the remaining caldding and glass goes up. Almost all of the steel that is still exposed will be clad in glazing. This is real exciting stuff for our little city. i am personally pumped about it.

Forgot pic-2 on the last post.

This is from across the street at about what will be the front entry.

A side note: When I took these pics my back is to Gwathmey Segal's addition to the main branch of our Public Library and the building to the right (out of view) is our convention center by Polcheck. I am positive that I spelled both of thier names wrong. My apologies, because I am sure that they both are members of this forum, and are damn jealous of this building. Thier's are not this cool.

Strange I missed this thread when you first posted it. The building looks really interesting.
The shape makes it look as if it were really huge but it's actually not thaat big.
And what are the local papers saying about this? Probably a lot :D

ryarch, Very cool. Next time I am home, I will have to check it out. I grew up in Greensburg.

cool coop... :clap: by the way im inviting you all to my birthday party... :peace: today

ryarch-
I missed this thread also.

Please take some more pictures, I would love to see some of the construction details. Looks like a very complicated structure.

PS I was in Akron for a couple of days (years ago) on business and stayed in the hotel that was converted from grain silos. Very odd spaces but I liked it. Very unusual conversion. Would be cool to post a couple of shots of that if you can get 'em.

Quaker Oats. The famous and very filling maker of oats and oatmeal had their start in Akron. The silos (there must be 40 of them all ganged togather) were bought by Hilton Hotels. They carved all of the silos into hotel rooms. Quirky, and charming.

It is a 'Crown Plaza' now. There are some little shops attached to it in the original office area. The structure is cool. The area with shops is all brick and timber framed. The hotel is cast in place conc silos with openings carved out for balconies. Square bed in round room = quirky.

Thanks for remembering.

I, like a big arch nerd, drive by the Art Museum all of th time to see what's going on. I'll continue to take pics and post 'em. Glad that you have enjoyed our little museum. I will get some close-ups to augment the general pics I have already posted.

Here's a pic of the selective demolition to remove panels from the exterior of the silos to accomodate balconies for the hotel rooms.

Not a great pic (got it from a web page) but you get the idea.

thats the one!! :craqueur:

:eek: :eek:

Thanks

Hey Ryarch...

any recent photos of this project? I just ran across a little blurb in "Contract" magazine about it... it stated that the addition would be complete in May 2007... it had a little about the idea behind the design but not too much... could you possibly post anything you know about it as well? also, do you have a KMZ for the location? I am currently putting together GE placemarks for architecture I want to visit (this is one of them) vs. ones I have already been to... anyhow, anymore info would be cool...

also, I noticed that this is actually in the wrong forum... moving to the architecture travel forum... so I guess if you could give a little info on how to get to this building and/or visit it that would be wonderful :)

ok... I found the location... here is the KMZ for the Museum location... now the rest is up to you Ryarch (any good local info on this gem to be?) :)

How to get there:
Getting there is easy wizum...I-77 takes you into downtown Akron. Get off at Main st./Broadway Ave exit. Go north on Broadway. Left if you came from the north; right if you're coming from the south. The Art Museum is onn your left after about a dozen blocks. After about 9 blocks you will see Polchek's Inventor's Hall of Fame. Worth a quick park and look around. You have to pay to get in to most of it, but it is worth getting into the lobby for 5 minutes and checking out the interiors. It's a very open plan, and you can see alot. If I get off my ass I'll take some pics of it, too. Also, we have a Gwathmey Segal Main Library across the street from the new art museum. It's a great 30 minute architectural tour to see all three buildings. Coop's is the hands down winner for bravery in design. I give the Akron Art Museum credit for having the balls the commission them.

What little I know about the local scoop: The museum has been raising funds for 10 years. More than 80% of the $30 million from private donors.

The competition: A 'jury' was assembled that included 5 local architects (none of which were me, lol) and an Architectural Curator from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art. They apparently looked at 125 architects that were 'internationally renouned'. There was a stink about not choosing a local architect for the work by some selfish assholes, but I'm glad that they didn't do that. They narrowed it down to 30 that they invited to submit preliminary designs.

From that they chose 3:
UN Studio of Amsterdam, Snøhetta of Oslo and Coop Himmelb(l)au

All submitted more refined versions of thier orginal schemes and Coop won.

Then there was a big scramble to become the 'local architect' and builder. Not many firms went after it, though. It scared smaller firms. Most of the competition was local offices of larger firms, like URS.

It going to be KICK-ASS!

Principal Wolf Prix explains, "This design is based on the paradigm of interactivity. The new building…reorganizes the existing building, integrating it into a unified whole. History is not destroyed or forgotten but intelligently folded into the future."

That means: KICK-ASS!

What little I know about the local scoop: The museum has been raising funds for 10 years. More than 80% of the $30 million from private donors.

The competition: A 'jury' was assembled that included 5 local architects (none of which were me, lol) and an Architectural Curator from Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art. They apparently looked at 125 architects that were 'internationally renouned'. There was a stink about not choosing a local architect for the work by some selfish assholes, but I'm glad that they didn't do that. They narrowed it down to 30 that they invited to submit preliminary designs.

From that they chose 3:
UN Studio of Amsterdam, Snøhetta of Oslo and Coop Himmelb(l)au

All submitted more refined versions of thier orginal schemes and Coop won.

Then there was a big scramble to become the 'local architect' and builder. Not many firms went after it, though. It scared smaller firms. Most of the competition was local offices of larger firms, like URS.

It going to be KICK-ASS!

Principal Wolf Prix explains, "This design is based on the paradigm of interactivity. The new building…reorganizes the existing building, integrating it into a unified whole. History is not destroyed or forgotten but intelligently folded into the future."

That means: KICK-ASS!


LOL... nice description Ryarch... thanks for posting that... I am anxious to see the bugger...

Any news of this one Ryarch? any pics?

I'll get back at it in a week or so. It's looking cool, but the weather here sucks. Ohio in the fall/winter when the leaves are already gone. Any shade of grey that you want...we got it. I post some pics soon. Promise.

I'll get back at it in a week or so. It's looking cool, but the weather here sucks. Ohio in the fall/winter when the leaves are already gone. Any shade of grey that you want...we got it. I post some pics soon. Promise.

Looking forward to seeing them... yeah, I was in Ohio earlier this last year, March I think, and that is all I saw... Grey :puke: makes me miss Florida sometimes...

An update as to the progress of the Akron Art Museum construction. Most of the building is closed in for the season. The only thing left is the large expanse of glazing over and around the front entrance. All of the metal panels are in and the 'flying wing' is covered with panels and a steel grid.There is still alot to do. I don't believe they are scheduled to open for more than a year from now. Apparently 'kick-ass' takes time and money.

I will continue to keep you posted. I enjoy doing this. I am really pumped about this building!

You can see the cladding on the cantilevered section. The difference between the metal panels and the metal grid/screen.

Nice lamp post, huh?

A detial of the cantilever over the entrance.

The addition from the other direction (looking north). More solid than the entry. The new galleries are in this section of the building. This metal clad piece in the forground of the building wraps around the back. A reverse 'L-shaped', if you will. It lays to the south and east of the original building.So, the metal 'L' and the original building create a 'U', and the new entry sits at the open end of the 'U'.

Does that make sense?

Forgot the pic?!

The north-east side of the building. Kind of the bottom right corner of the 'U-shape'. You can see the concrete elevator tower in the right-center of the pic. It is canted in a couple of directions. Note the cantilevered wing reaching over the original building.

Entrance from across the street and @ the second floor of adjacent parking garage.

Detail @ building connection near entry.

damn, the pic, again!?

More...

another...

Last, for now. I'll keep posting if interest is there.

great photos. :D

any idea what generated the form of the, erm, roof cloud?

Looking good.
True, it doesn't seem to be going fast, probably those weird forms are difficult to build.
But that is actually good for us, it gives you more opportunities to take pictures for us in more stages of the construction :D
Thank you!!!

By the way, there seems to be some weird vertical and horizontal lines in your pictures.

cacapis, thanks and I noticed the lines only after posting. I used ACDSee to quickly batch resize the pics. The lines are not in the originals, but when I batch resize them, there they are. I see them mostly in the sky. Is that true from your observations?

carbide, I have read the answer to your question aboutthe roof before, but can't recall what the answer was. I will try to look for it again, thanks.

The lines are not in the originals, but when I batch resize them, there they are. I see them mostly in the sky. Is that true from your observations?
Veeery nice photos, thanks.
No, actually stripes are all over photos, but they are more visible in light, homogeneously colored area.
There must be options for resizing method when you do batch conversion... Look for "resample" or "bell filter".

Last, for now. I'll keep posting if interest is there.

It is! I am really enjoying this thread so keep it up, and thanks!

I thinks that this is one obnoxious building with no respect to its past.... i dont understand the use of form and material in this context... is there no contextuality or a sense of semantic relationships with a building.......

I thinks that this is one obnoxious building with no respect to its past.... i dont understand the use of form and material in this context... is there no contextuality or a sense of semantic relationships with a building.......

kschetan,

I think this is a very valid statement but maybe that is the point in how these guys approached the design? but I don't know and so maybe Ryarch could enlighten us?

I also would like to know what has driven some of the form and choices of this design as it relates to the context. I did get a chance last year to pass through Akron and I would say that what Koop and company have done is take the approach of creating something so different from its context that it just screams of something new. I'm not validating the approach just taking a stab at what it most likely is. there stuff in how it relates to centuries old buildings is always so foreign typically isn't it? I would love to see more context though and possibly some overhead shots that would give us a sense of its layout... maybe the site for the museum offers some of this and I will have a look...

kschetan,

what Koop and company have done is take the approach of creating something so different from its context that it just screams of something new.

I understand this quest.... for something new... but it needs to respect the past, it doesnot involve redoing the past, but by recognising the presence of history... and thereby become timeless... A designer has to elevate himself to a birds view to readdress the issues of past, present & future as one .... and create a building which is timeless.... I really thought that the jewish museum by libeskind is a good example .....

I understand this quest.... for something new... but it needs to respect the past, it doesnot involve redoing the past, but by recognising the presence of history... and thereby become timeless... A designer has to elevate himself to a birds view to readdress the issues of past, present & future as one .... and create a building which is timeless.... I really thought that the jewish museum by libeskind is a good example .....

I don't disagree with you kschetan... I just don't think we can fully make that call yet as we just haven't seen this thing entirely (and I have some of the same reservations about the design myself)... We can begin to make some assumptions but I really hate making those :D and think until we see this thing, from inside and out and have a better collage of pics to see the design we are assuming too much...

for instance, and to bring your example into this, I never really had a clear undersanding of the Jewish museum by Libeskind until seeing one of those google movies about the building. this movie, about 20 minutes long I think, walked you through the building and described what was taking place and how idea, emotion, history, and so on was revealed in its form and space. I had an appreciation for what the building was kind of doing in its presence to its context from pictures I had seen, but it wasn't until having a more complete understanding of the building, as a whole, that I could make a better judgement on it.

I guess I'm not much of a fan of this building either. I'm having a hard time putting my finger on exactly why. It's almost as if there is too much happening. A little restraint may have been more appropriate here. It's almost as the boys Himmelb(l)au threw every trick in their book at this one. I'm definitely an appreciator of Coop Himmelblau but, this one just isn't doing it for me thus far.

and dare I say this Eric Owen Moss, Morphosis, Coop Himmelblau aesthetic is begining to look a little (i'm sure to get flamed for this).....dated?:eek:

i completly agree with you wizum..that a walkthrough or visit to the building is essential to understand the relevance of the building, but as a immediate reaction to the statement the building is trying to make in terms of its boldness or " hello i am the geek here.., just look at my past offffff,its boring".. it doestnot accept the value systems that the past has to offer.

Well I just got back from a crazy 15+ hours of driving yesterday coming back from my little weekend architecture trip. Me and a good friend of mine from back in school spent the weekend exploring some of what the state of Ohio has to offer architecture wise. But I digress... this post is about the Akron Museum of Art and the quick visit we made Sunday (15th) morning for a few hours.

We drove up from Cincinnati (about a 3 hour drive) and entered into the city. Thanks to ryarch for knowing roughly where in the city the museum was located (though I missed getting in touch with ryarch - you better have a good reason man :D). Anyhow, the museum is slated to open tomorrow July 17th) and is Coop's first State-side building to get built (we heard that others are in the works, a high school in California I think is the next one?).

this first shot is from the parking deck across the street from the musuem.

Edit:
This shot has been used as the shot of the day on Archidose (http://archidose.blogspot.com/2007/07/today-archidose-116.html)

What we found out when we got to the museum was that they were holding a free "sneak peak" before the opening on Tuesday. We fully expected to just get some exterior shots and wander around for an hour and head back home. But the people there where great and there was quite a crowd to see this new building.

this shot is from the same vantage point from the one above but at street level.

This shot is from the left side of the museum closer to the street intersection that the museum sits on.

This shot is from the back side of the museum from the other intersection. Check out the cantilever, it hangs over the right-of-way over the street. Zaha hadid's museum in Cincinnati does the same thing, though not quite the cantilever as this one though :)

This on is walking around from the side I started from but from the backside of the building (the service side). The parking deck you see in the background is the one I took the first one from.

Here is a shot at the entry of the museum.

this shot is from inside the main lobby space you enter into. A fantastic space with a lot going on. This building reminded me alot of Disney Hall in that every time you turned around you saw something new.

Here is another lobby shot (they wouldn't allow photography in the gallery spaces obviously but were very glad they didn't care if we shot this space).

This shot is looking towards the original museum building. Coop created a large frame opening that supported both the wall of the old building and the new glass structure. A really nice connection.

And finally here is a shot of the detail of the glass wall along the front part of the lobby space. what was cool here was that they didn't create a curb or any kind of framing at the base but allowed for the glass to continue on into a channel in the concrete. Nick and myself really liked this detail.

Well I have a ton more pics and you can check them out on my flickr site:

Akron Museum of Art (http://www.flickr.com/photos/wizum/sets/72157600861580471/)

I hope I didn't steal too much of ryarch's thunder. thanks man for starting this thread.

Oh, and as we were waiting for our tour of the building we spoke with the guy in charge of all the art work for the museum. He had nothing but incredible things to say of the building and design and said it was amazingly functional. He also stated that the community was really behind the design and the reviews so far had been very good.

From discussion earlier in this thread about making judgement before seeing a building - and yes I was a bit skeptical of this building - it was amazing seeing how different this thing was seeing it in person and how my opinion of how it works in it's context changed from only seeing the pics. The building is so "out there" but yet it works well with its surroundings and I couldn't imagine anything else that would have worked better.

I am curious to hear what ryarch has to say about the building since this is in his town.

:bump:

And also, I have had several of my images used in an article about the museum over at architectureweek.com (http://www.architectureweek.com/today.html). So head over to check out the article. I am very happy with the way they did everything and that they actually asked for permission before running the article :). Apparently it happens more than you think (people using photographs without permission). Anyhow, check it out and if you have a chance to see the museum by all means do, it is worth it I think.

wizum...sorry we did miss each other. Thanks for the pics. You come up from Atlanta and get in the museum before I do...and I live here. You're good! Great pics.

I can only speak from an exterior perspective, having not been inside yet, but I like the building. I make the same assumptions that have been stated here already. 'Make it different. Very different from the original'. If that is the starting premise, the design can come from any number of other points. We may never get to find out what those are that Coop used, but that may not be very important. I believe that it fits, so in my mind, they must have used the correct contextual markers for generating their design.

What I am most sure of: if you build a building this different, is it can be very polarizing relative to opinions. I believe that was the intention of the art museums board. Their collection is comprised almost entirely of modern art and this building is a jewel to me. I can't wait to get in it.

wizum, thanks for trying to contact me when you came up. Sorry that didn't work out. Next time up, and of course anyone else, we'll get it together. I would have loved to shown you a few other beauties (buildings that is) right downtown.

akron, ohio.. lebron james' hometown,, hehe.. im a big basketball fan just so you know ü