In Greenwich, Conn., the Bruce Museum, a multidisciplinary institution highlighting art, science, and history, has undergone a campus revitalization and expansion that more than doubles the museum’s size.
Designed by EskewDumezRipple and built by Turner Construction, the project includes a 42,000-sf, three-floor addition as well as a comprehensive renovation of the 32,500-sf museum, which was originally built as a private home in the mid-19th century and expanded in the early 1990s.
The project provides permanent and changing galleries, expanded collection storage, education spaces, public gathering places, and a public entrance lobby. A new lecture hall serves as a hub for community programming, public lectures, and receptions.
“We can host the community in a way we’ve never been able to before,” Robert Wolterstorff, executive director, Bruce Museum, said in a statement. “In the past, we had no permanent collections galleries.”
The project reorients the museum’s entrance so that, instead of facing a highway, it now faces the free and public Bruce Park. The double-height lobby, café, and gift shop form an open, free-flowing public area, and a new courtyard joins the existing museum to the addition.
EskewDumezRipple’s design draws inspiration from both the historic stone house and the surrounding region’s geology. The striated façade of cast stone and glass evokes the Connecticut coast’s rock quarries, and the façade changes appearance as the sun changes position depending on the time of day and year. The design emphasizes natural daylighting, with openings in the façade providing light to the interior that gradually recedes deeper in the galleries.
The energy-efficient design includes an airtight façade, highly efficient air-handling units, a dehumidification system, and a stormwater management system that collects 100% of rainwater onsite. The museum has a predicted Energy Use Intensity (EUI), or the amount of energy used per square foot annually, of 63, in contrast to an EUI of 186 for similar museums in the northeast US, according to the statement.
On the Building Team:
Owner: Bruce Museum
Owner’s representative: Stone Harbor Land Company
Architecture and interiors: EskewDumezRipple
Contractor: Turner Construction
Landscape architect: Reed Hilderbrand
Structural engineering: Guy Nordenson and Associates
MEP engineering: Altieri
Civil engineering: Redniss & Mead
Geotechnical: Melick-Tully and Associates
Lighting: Fisher Marantz Stone
Acoustics and A/V: Jaffe Holden
Envelope: Simpson Gumpertz & Heger
Related Stories
High-rise Construction | Mar 16, 2015
Mexican Museum tower caught in turmoil to break ground this summer in San Francisco
Millennium Partners said it will break ground on the 53-story residential and museum tower while the lawsuits go through the appeals process.
Museums | Mar 9, 2015
Architecture based on astronomy principles for new planetarium in Shanghai
The ancient Chinese civilization left some of the earliest records of humans studying the stars and skies. To exhibit this long history, a new planetarium and astronomy museum is planned for construction in Shanghai.
Museums | Mar 5, 2015
A giant, silver loop in Dubai will house the Museum of the Future
The Sheikh of Dubai hopes the $136 million museum will serve as an incubator for ideas and real designs—a global destination for inventors and entrepreneurs.
Architects | Feb 27, 2015
5 finalists announced for 2015 Mies van der Rohe Award
Bjarke Ingels' Danish Maritime Museum and the Ravensburg Art Museum by Lederer Ragnarsdóttir Oei are among the five projects vying for the award.
Museums | Feb 18, 2015
Foster + Partners' National Museum of Marine Science and Technology breaks ground in Taiwan
The museum will be home to an aquarium, exhibition space, and waterfront views.
Museums | Feb 17, 2015
Light will shimmer through roof cutouts in Jean Nouvel’s Louvre Abu Dhabi
After many delays since construction started in 2009, the Jean Nouvel-designed Louvre Abu Dhabi is slated for completion sometime this year.
Architects | Feb 11, 2015
Shortlist for 2015 Mies van der Rohe Award announced
Copenhagen, Berlin, and Rotterdam are the cities where most of the shortlisted works have been built.
Museums | Feb 9, 2015
Herzog & de Meuron's M+ museum begins construction in Hong Kong
When completed, M+ will be one of the first buildings in the Foster + Partners-planned West Kowloon Cultural District.
Museums | Feb 6, 2015
Tacoma Art Museum's new wing features sun screens that operate like railroad box car doors
The 16-foot-tall screens, operated by a hand wheel, roll like box car doors across the façade and interlace with a set of fixed screens.
| Jan 19, 2015
HAO unveils designs for a 3D movie museum in China
New York-based HAO has released designs for the proposed Bolong 3D Movie Museum & Mediatek in Tianjin.