In Norfolk, Va., the Chrysler Museum of Art’s Perry Glass Studio, an educational facility for glassmaking, will open a new addition this summer. That will be followed by a renovation of the existing building scheduled for completion this winter.
The design by Work Program Architects clads the studio expansion in terracotta panels and brick veneer, referencing glass art’s firing process. A new transparent museum front welcomes visitors from all sides. It also creates a connection between the museum and the city’s downtown arts neighborhood, the NEON District. Visitors will be guided to NEON by a path decorated with a series of wayfinding glass “breadcrumbs.”
As soon as they enter, visitors will see the furnaces of the theater-style performance hot shop, which allows artists to work with glass in its molten state. A focal point, the hot shop will display the art of glassblowing. The glassmaking studios (including flat, flame, cold, and mold shops), wood and metal shops, and classrooms will offer artists space to hone their craft, while also allowing visitors to explore glass art.
A roof terrace offers views of the Chrysler Museum, the Hague, and the Elizabeth River. The project also includes an event space, retail area, and catering kitchen.
In light of the area’s recurring flooding events, the new addition has been raised four feet above the existing glass studio to keep it above the floodplain.
The design’s other coastal resilience strategies include native, salt-tolerant plantings; cisterns to collect rainwater for summer irrigation; onsite water storage; new trees and protection of existing trees to absorb water; and landscaped areas that act as a green sponge.
On the Building Team:
Owner: Chrysler Museum of Art
Design architect and architect of record: Work Program Architects
Structural engineer: Speight Marshall Francis
Landscape architects: Stromberg Garrigan & Associates, WPL
Civil engineer: Timmons Group
PME engineer: Altieri Sebor Wieber
Theater/AV/acoustics: NV5
Geotechnical: GET Solutions, Terracon
Envelope: REI Engineers
Contractor: Hourigan
![Rendering courtesy Work Program Architects](/sites/default/files/inline-images/CMGS_Exterior22-08-10_Rendering_Sloped-Walk-edit-2000.png)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/CMGS_Exterior22-08-10_Rendering_Axon-from-East-2000.png)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/CMGS_Exterior22-08-10_Rendering_Duke-at-Grace-2000.png)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/CMGS_Exterior22-08-10_Rendering_Duke-at-Brambleton-2000.png)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Entry-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Reception-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Gift-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Ramp-to-Existing-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Existing-Hot-Shop-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Outdoor-Hot-Shop-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Lobby-toward-Theater-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Lobby-Toward-Reception-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Theater-Entrance-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Theater-looking-North-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Theater-Balcony-looking-North-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Theater-Balcony-Looking-South-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Balcony-Toward-Theater-1280.jpg)
![Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly expanded Perry Glass Studio will display the art of glassmaking](/sites/default/files/inline-images/21-10-28_Balcony-toward-Reception-1280.jpg)
Related Stories
| Mar 29, 2012
Construction completed on Las Vegas’ newest performing arts center
The Smith Center will be the first major multi-purpose performance center in the U.S. to earn Silver LEED certification.
| Mar 5, 2012
Franklin Institute in Philadelphia selects Skanska to construct new pavilion
The building has been designed by SaylorGregg Architects and will apply for LEED Silver certification.
| Dec 5, 2011
Summit Design+Build begins renovation of Chicago’s Esquire Theatre
The 33,000 square foot building will undergo an extensive structural remodel and core & shell build-out changing the building’s use from a movie theater to a high-end retail center.
| Nov 9, 2011
Lincoln Center Pavilion wins national architecture and engineering award
The project team members include owner Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York; design architect and interior designer of the restaurant, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York; executive architect, FXFOWLE, New York; and architect and interior designer of the film center, Rockwell Group, New York; structural engineer Arup (AISC Member), New York; and general contractor Turner Construction Company (AISC Member), New York.
| Oct 12, 2011
BIM Clarification and Codification in a Louisiana Sports Museum
The Louisiana State Sports Hall of Fame celebrates the sporting past, but it took innovative 3D planning and coordination of the future to deliver its contemporary design.
| Oct 12, 2011
Consigli Construction breaks ground for Bigelow Laboratory Center for Ocean Health
Consigli to build third phase of 64-acre Ocean Science and Education Campus, design by WBRC Architects , engineers in association with Perkins + Will
| Sep 12, 2011
Living Buildings: Are AEC Firms up to the Challenge?
Modular Architecture > You’ve done a LEED Gold or two, maybe even a LEED Platinum. But are you and your firm ready to take on the Living Building Challenge? Think twice before you say yes.
| Apr 13, 2011
Expanded Museum of the Moving Image provides a treat for the eyes
The expansion and renovation of the Museum of the Moving Image in the Astoria section of Queens, N.Y., involved a complete redesign of its first floor and the construction of a three-story 47,000-sf addition.
| Apr 12, 2011
Entrance pavilion adds subtle style to Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
A $13 million gift from the Otis Booth Foundation is funding a new entrance pavilion at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. CO Architects, Los Angeles, is designing the frameless structure with an energy-efficient curtain wall, vertical suspension rods, and horizontal knife plates to make it as transparent as possible.
| Jan 21, 2011
Sustainable history center exhibits Fort Ticonderoga’s storied past
Fort Ticonderoga, in Ticonderoga, N.Y., along Lake Champlain, dates to 1755 and was the site of battles in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The new $20.8 million, 15,000-sf Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center pays homage to the French magasin du Roi (the King’s warehouse) at the fort.