[Akron] Addition to The Akron Art Museum

[ryarch]

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

[ryarch]

More Pics...

[ryarch]

More pics...

[ryarch]

Interior of addition

[ryarch]

Orginal Building...

[ryarch]

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.

[ryarch]

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.

[ryarch]

Forgot pic-2 on the last post.

[ryarch]

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.

[cacapis]

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

[emow54]

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

[rogen13]

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

[WilsonMetry]

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.

[ryarch]

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.

[ryarch]

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.

[ryarch]

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.

[WilsonMetry]

thats the one!!



Thanks

[wizum]

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

[wizum]

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?)

[ryarch]

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.