The Philadelphia Art Commission has weighed in somewhat unfavorably on Robert A.M. Stern's design for the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.
According to The Inquirer, the commission didn't offically reject the $150 million proposal, but on Feb 5 it did communicate concerns about the building's design. Specifically, the commission asked Stern to eliminate a cupola, add eye-level windows on the ground floor, and rethink the building's composition.
The museum, supported by H.F. "Gerry" Lenfest, the Oneida Indian Nation, and the state of Pennsylvania, will exist in a space currently dominated by a red brick visitor center built for Philadelphia's Bicentennial in 1976. The commission has approved the demolition of the visitor center so that museum construction can start in the summer of 2014.
"This building really has a big-box-store mentality with a little bit of ornament attached," David B. Brownlee, a Penn art historian and vice chair of the Design Advocacy Group, told Inga Saffron of The Inquirer. Read the full report from The Inquirer.
Here is the firm's essay on the current design scheme for the museum (via www.ramsa.com):
The Museum of the American Revolution, anchoring the eastern end of Independence National Historical Park, is designed to introduce visitors to the American Revolution with its extraordinary collection of historical artifacts and contemporary interpretations demonstrating the continued worldwide importance of the Revolution.
Set amidst buildings of national and architectural significance—facing the First Bank of the United States (Samuel Blodgett, 1795), near William Strickland's Merchant's Exchange (1834) and the U.S. Custom House (Ritter & Shay, 1934)—the Museum will carry forward the restrained Classicism that heralded the birth of the Republic.
The Museum will address the corner of Chestnut and Third Streets with a broad plaza and an inviting entry facade that offers a glimpse at the treasures within through a two-story glazed portico. The museum shop and a café that opens to the sidewalk will enliven the Third Street facade; above, the wall that conceals the galleries will be articulated with brick quoining and recessed blind brick arches, accented with stone at the spring points and keystones and housing stone apsidal niches.
Our design organizes the Museum around a skylit central interior court. The ground floor will accommodate a multi-use theater and a changing exhibition gallery. Within the court a grand elliptical stair will take visitors up to 18,000 square feet of galleries and a theater dedicated to the exhibition of George Washington's marquee tent, one of the Museum's most dramatic holdings.
The Museum's third floor will offer rooms for conferences, symposia, and social events; two broad terraces overlooking the First Bank will command views to Independence Hall and the modern-day Philadelphia skyline.
The Museum will provide state-of-the-art storage and conservation spaces, following best practices for sustainable museum design to target LEED Silver certification.
The Museum will announce itself with a distinctive tower set directly above the lobby: atop a rectangular lantern with scalloped corners, sized to house a full-scale replica of the Liberty bell, will rise a cylindrical cupola with a bell-shaped roof that celebrates in a contemporary way the importance of our nation's founding.
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.