Nebraska’s Joslyn Art Museum to reopen this summer with new Snøhetta-designed pavilion

In Omaha, Neb., the Joslyn Art Museum, which displays art from ancient times to the present, has announced it will reopen on September 10, following the completion of its new 42,000-sf Rhonda & Howard Hawks Pavilion. Designed in collaboration with Snøhetta and Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture, the Hawks Pavilion is part of a museum overhaul that will expand the gallery space by more than 40%.

The Hawks Pavilion extends from the Museum’s existing buildings as a curving, low-slung structure that emerges from a new glass entry atrium joining the original 1931 building with the 1994 addition. The transparent first floor also will enclose a new museum shop and community space. As it twists upward, the structure forms the walls of the Hawks Pavilion’s second-floor, day-lit exhibition galleries.

Snøhetta’s plan for the Joslyn Art Museum

Snøhetta’s design of the expansion aims to evoke the cloud formations above the Great Plains, as well as the deep overhangs and horizontal expression of Prairie School architecture.

In addition, visitors will encounter new and refurbished gathering spaces, renovated and additional studios, enhanced amenities for public programs and art education, and new sculpture gardens. The project also updates the 1931 building’s administrative area and renovates the existing cafe.

The Hawks Pavilion will offer the first public presentation of new acquisitions from the Phillip G. Schrager Collection, which the Joslyn says is perhaps the most significant gift of art it has received. The Pavilion’s works on paper gallery will present selections from a gift by Omaha native Ed Ruscha.

After the reopening, the Joslyn will feature the first complete reinstallation of the Museum’s collections since the original building opened. The reinstallation will emphasize the relevance of art and historical objects to contemporary issues and diversify the identities and experiences represented in the galleries.

On the Building Team:
Owner: Joslyn Art Museum
Design architect and landscape architect: Snøhetta
Architect of record: Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture
MEP engineer: Morrissey Engineering
Structural engineer: MKA
Structural engineer of record: Thompson Dreessen & Dorner
General contractor: Kiewit Building Group