Cooper Robertson will design an extensive campus master plan to transform the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, transforming public areas into vibrant community cultural and entertainment spaces, increasing accessibility, and serving as a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization.
Munson-Williams occupies 10 acres within residential city blocks and acts as the gateway to downtown Utica. Highlights of the master plan include:
· Enhancing the Munson-Williams campus role as a neighborhood anchor and community focus while making the campus more welcoming and visitor-friendly;
· Exploring classroom/studio utilization so that the School of Art will continue to attract top students to the PrattMWP College of Art and Design while balancing the needs of the Community Arts Education programs;
· Evaluating existing land use and developing a conceptual framework plan for vehicular and pedestrian flows, and identifying opportunities for improved green spaces;
· Categorizing and prioritizing capital improvements to establish a long-term strategy for future investment;
· Identifying potential improvements to facilities beyond what Munson-Williams has already documented; and target future space needs.
The project will also include the construction of the Munson-Williams Park. This park will take underutilized land on the front grounds of Munson-WIlliams and create a 49,000-sf public access space stretching from the front of the 324 Genesee Street to Cottage Place. The park will feature new landscaping, lighting, sculptures, and it will utilize the Museum of Art’s staircase as amphitheater seating for events. It will be anchored by the 19th-century Fountain Elms building and the Philip Johnson-designed Museum of Art, which are both free and open to the public. The park will renovate the Oneida Square neighborhood and create a gateway to downtown Utica. The park will be activated with new programming including festivals, block parties, light shows, art demonstrations and installations, pop-up events, and free public performances.
Related Stories
| May 19, 2014
What can architects learn from nature’s 3.8 billion years of experience?
In a new report, HOK and Biomimicry 3.8 partnered to study how lessons from the temperate broadleaf forest biome, which houses many of the world’s largest population centers, can inform the design of the built environment.
| May 15, 2014
First look: 9/11 Memorial Museum opens to first-responders, survivors, 9/11 families [slideshow]
The 110,000-sf museum is filled with monumental artifacts from the tragedy and exhibits that honor the lives of every victim of the 2001 and 1993 attacks.
| May 13, 2014
19 industry groups team to promote resilient planning and building materials
The industry associations, with more than 700,000 members generating almost $1 trillion in GDP, have issued a joint statement on resilience, pushing design and building solutions for disaster mitigation.
| May 13, 2014
Libeskind wins competition to design Canadian National Holocaust Monument
A design team featuring Daniel Libeskind and Gail Dexter-Lord has won a competition with its design for the Canadian National Holocaust Monument in Toronto. The monument is set to open in the autumn of 2015.
| May 11, 2014
Final call for entries: 2014 Giants 300 survey
BD+C's 2014 Giants 300 survey forms are due Wednesday, May 21. Survey results will be published in our July 2014 issue. The annual Giants 300 Report ranks the top AEC firms in commercial construction, by revenue.
| Apr 29, 2014
USGBC launches real-time green building data dashboard
The online data visualization resource highlights green building data for each state and Washington, D.C.
| Apr 24, 2014
Unbuilt and Famous: LEGO releases box set of Bjarke Ingels' LEGO museum
LEGO Architecture has created a box set that customers can use to build replicas of the LEGO Museum, which is not yet built in real life. The museum, designed by the Bjarke Ingels Group, will commemorate the history of LEGO.
| Apr 18, 2014
Multi-level design elevates Bulgarian Children's Museum [slideshow]
Embodying the theme “little mountains,” the 35,000-sf museum will be located in a former college laboratory building in the Studenski-grad university precinct.
| Apr 16, 2014
Upgrading windows: repair, refurbish, or retrofit [AIA course]
Building Teams must focus on a number of key decisions in order to arrive at the optimal solution: repair the windows in place, remove and refurbish them, or opt for full replacement.
| Apr 15, 2014
12 award-winning structural steel buildings
Zaha Hadid's Broad Art Museum and One World Trade Center are among the projects honored by the American Institute of Steel Construction for excellence in structural steel design.
