Cleveland Museum of Art | Rafael Viñoly Architects PC

The Cleveland Museum of Art, one of the largest and most important art institutions in the United States, was built in 1916 by local architects Hubbell and Benes as a Greek revival pavilion, situated at the head of a pastoral park and lagoon landscape designed by the Olmsted Brothers. However, subsequent additions, including a noteworthy education wing by Marcel Breuer, obscured the rational plan of the original structure with a disjointed, confusing warren of spaces. In 2001, Rafael Viñoly Architects won the commission to resolve these conditions with an expansion and renovation, creating a coherent organization of galleries that accommodates projected growth and unifies disparate architectural vocabularies into a singular composition. The plan restores focus to the original 1916 building, conceiving of it as a “jewel” set within a continuous ring of expansion space that includes the renovated Breuer building. The other additions were demolished to make way for a vast, indoor, sunlit piazza, topped by a gently curving canopy of glass and steel, around which the entire museum is newly organized. With indoor landscaping and daylight drawing visitors into the center of the plan, the column-free piazza is a large and welcoming public gathering spot for museum-goers as well as an event space for large functions. New gallery wings to the east and west enclose the piazza and taper toward the 1916 building, where they culminate in fully transparent, glazed galleries and pedestrian bridges that permit unobstructed views of the sides of the historic pavilion. The new gallery wings’ exterior stone cladding alternates bands of granite with bands of marble that modulate the two very different aesthetics of the 1916 and Breuer buildings. In this manner, the distinctions between “modern” and “historic” are preserved, yet integrated into a cohesive whole. The two-phase construction process accommodates the museum’s fundraising schedule and allows continued operation (on a reduced basis) while the project is under construction. Phase 1, completed in 2009, consisted of the renovation of the 1916 and Breuer buildings and the construction of the new east wing. Phase 2 began with razing the remaining museum additions to make way for the west wing and central piazza and will be completed in 2012. Size Phase I Renovations: 383,000 Phase I Expansion: 139,000 Phase I Parking: 218,000 Phase I Total: 740,000 gross square feet (68,750 square meters) Phase II Expansion: 214,000 gross square feet (19,881 square meters) Phases I and II Total: 954,000 gross square feet (88,631 square meters) Explanation For Delay Design revisions in particular relating to re-use of Breuer and the 1916 building; unforeseen conditions requiring analysis and study prior to resolution in the field; upgrades in finishes and sitework. Additional notes from Dan Gallagher: The cost overruns were predominately due to owner scope changes that occured after Timothy Rub took over. By my accounting, our scope changes were under the contingency amount... I have a document in the Cleveland files that breaks down all Change Orders by scope responsibility. Also, Timothy Rub publicly took responsibility for the cost overruns in a Cleveland Plain Dealer article last year. A good portion of the schedule delays could also be accounted for by these owner changes. They asked us to redesign some major elements of the galleries in 1916 and the East Wing. However, there were some contractor errors and quality issues that contributed to the schedule delays also. Most notably was a major error in laying out the East Wing and serious quality problems with the stone veneer panels. It took some months to fix these problems. Features New construction and exterior cladding restore order to museum complex, with renewed emphasis on original 1916 building Large, daylit public piazza establishes clear organization and provides function space New galleries expand display of permanent collection and create space for large traveling exhibitions Integrated Design with Salient Features Rafael Viñoly Architects’ plan brings a renewed sense of order to the Cleveland Museum of Art and restores focus to its original 1916 building, conceiving of it as a “jewel” set within a continuous ring of expansion space, of which an earlier expansion designed by Marcel Breuer is one part. Additions from 1958 and 1984 have recently been demolished, making way for a vast, indoor, sunlit piazza that exposes the north façade of the 1916 building in its entirety for the first time since 1958) and functions as the central organizing element for visitors. The landscaped piazza is topped by a gently curving, column-free canopy of glass and steel that brings daylight into the center of the plan. As with the glass canopy over the piazza, new east and west gallery wings seem to barely touch the 1916 building, as they connect to it via glass pedestrian bridges. Each wing culminates in a fully glazed gallery that, in addition to creating a day-lit space for viewing art, permits full views of the 1916 building’s east and west elevations and restores its original appearance as a freestanding structure in a park. The centerpiece of the new east wing is the double-height special exhibitions galleries and lobby, located on the first basement, lower atrium level. In all of the new wings, expanded gallery space will put more of the museum’s permanent collection on display than has previously been possible. The complex is now organized by a continuous ring of gallery space, as well as a new gift shop and restaurant, surrounding the piazza on two levels, instead of the confusing, maze-like spaces that had previously characterized the museum. Mission The Cleveland Museum of Art was built in 1916, designed by local architects Hubbell & Benes as a grand Greek revival pavilion situated at the north end of a formal sculpture garden and lagoon, in a landscape designed by the Olmsted Brothers. Subsequent additions to the museum obscured the rational plan of the original structure. An undistinguished 1958 expansion added a ring of additional gallery space to the rear and sides of the 1916 building and enclosed an outdoor courtyard. In 1970, modern architect Marcel Breuer added an educational wing, which, while an impressive work of modern architecture in its own right, did little to remedy the museum’s inefficient and confusing layout, as it adjoined the warren of spaces in the 1958 structure and created a new entrance that was not aligned with the obscured original north-south axis. A library expansion was added to the west in 1984. The end result was a disjointed complex with structures that lacked coherent relationships in terms of form, material, circulation and program. In 2001, the museum commissioned Rafael Viñoly Architects to resolve these conditions, unifying the circulation patterns and architectural vocabulary of the disparate structures into one singular museum complex. The scope of the project included the complete renovation for the existing structures, and expanded gallery, administrative, curatorial, and public space to accommodate large international touring exhibitions and a projected increase in yearly visitation. Design Rafael Viñoly Architects’ plan brings a renewed sense of order to the museum complex and restores focus to the original 1916 building, conceiving of it as a “jewel” set within a continuous ring of expansion space, of which the Breuer building is one part. The 1958 and 1984 additions will be demolished, making way for a vast, indoor, sunlit piazza that exposes the south façade of the 1916 building (for the first time since 1958) and functions as the main orientation device for visitors. The museum is now organized by a continuous ring of gallery space that surrounds the piazza on two levels (with the restaurant and retail shop along its western and northern edges, respectively), instead of the maze-like spaces that had previously characterized the museum. With indoor landscaping and daylight entering the center of the floor plan, the 36,000-square-foot piazza is a large and welcoming public space, a gathering place for museum-goers as well as an event space for large functions (700 people can be accommodated for dinner seating using only one-third of the floor area). It is topped by a gently curving, column-free canopy of glass and steel. Structurally, the canopy is supported in two places: along its northern side, by a narrow, four-story volume of galleries and administrative spaces inserted between the Breuer building and the piazza; along its southern edge, a transfer beam concealed on the roof of the 1916 building transfers the canopy load to the existing structural columns, after a structural analysis determined that the columns could support more weight than that of the building alone. As with the glass canopy over the piazza, the new east and west gallery wings seem to barely touch the 1916 building, as they connect to it via glass pedestrian bridges. Each wing culminates in a fully glazed gallery that, in addition to creating a day-lit space for viewing art, permits full views of the 1916 building’s east and west elevations and restores its original appearance as a freestanding structure in a park. In this manner, the distinctions of “modern” and “historic” are preserved, yet integrated into a cohesive whole. The exterior cladding of the new construction is designed to transition between the very different aesthetics of the 1916 and Breuer buildings, establishing a dialogue between their strong self-referential characters without creating a “hard seam” between them. The dark granite bands of the Breuer building are echoed on the Rafael Viñoly Architects additions with alternating bands of dark granite and white marble; the black bands decrease in density until they eventually transition to the fully white marble palette of the 1916 building. Site The Cleveland Museum of Art is located on a 13-acre site in University Circle, a suburban neighborhood approximately four miles east of downtown Cleveland. Immediately surrounding the museum are Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), the University Hospitals of Cleveland, and a number of prominent cultural institutions: the Cleveland Botanical Garden, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Children’s Museum of Cleveland, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and Severance Hall, the home of the Cleveland Orchestra. The University Circle area is renowned for distinctive architecture from a variety of eras, from the neoclassical Severance Hall (home of the Cleveland Orchestra), to Frank Gehry’s Peter B. Lewis Building for the Weatherhead School of Management at CWRU. Program The 1916 building houses the museum’s collection of ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman art; the medieval through 18th-century European collection; 18th through 20th-century American galleries; early Christian art; prints and drawings; and the museum’s Armor Court. Storage space is available in the basement. The Marcel Breuer expansion will continue to operate as the museum’s educational center, featuring the new Ingalls Library and reading room (relocated from the 1984 addition), the 700-seat Gartner Auditorium, classrooms, two lecture/recital halls, the Lifelong Learning Center, and basement-level security offices. Access to the new Ingalls art library is encouraged by making it convenient to the main entry and open to the public who share it with Case Western Reserve University and CMA curators and staff. The new east wing houses double-height special exhibitions galleries and a small lobby, located on the first basement, lower atrium level. Above these, on the second floor, are galleries for the museum’s 19th and 20th-century European, modern and contemporary, and photography collections. This wing also houses art storage space in the basement and new offices, laboratories, and workrooms for the conservation department on the ground floor. In addition to serving as the social heart of the complex, the piazza also covers a vast underground storage space. Immediately adjacent to the piazza, set between it and the Breuer expansion, a four-story “bar building” of new construction houses the museum’s gift shop, a small gallery, and two entryways on the ground level; the textiles, Japanese, Korean, pre-Columbian, American Indian, and sub-Saharan African galleries on the second floor; and staff offices and conference rooms on the third and fourth floors (the basement is devoted primarily to mechanical rooms and some storage). The new west wing, immediately adjacent to the piazza, features a restaurant and kitchen, as well as a private dining room. The second-floor galleries in this wing are dedicated to the museum’s Chinese, Indian, and Islamic art collections. The basement houses the loading dock, staging areas, security checkpoints, and various workshops. Circulation The Rafael Viñoly Architects expansion and renovation preserves the Breuer entrance and its signature concrete canopy as the main point of entry, which leads into the central piazza that functions as the main orientation device for a visitor’s experience. (Additionally, a small sculpture garden along the north side of the museum features demountable walls measuring 12’ x 12’, through which large art pieces can be brought into the piazza.) Though this entrance is located slightly off-axis from the center of the 1916 building and piazza, the sunlight flooding the atrium draws people into the center of the building, where the newly organized building circulation becomes clear. In keeping with the “jewel” concept, the new internal circulation takes its cues from the axial, cross-shaped layout of the 1916 building, which is re-centered within the overall museum layout: its north entrance provides direct access to the central piazza, and its east and west axes enter the new east and west gallery wings. The piazza also opens up to the restaurant, gift shop, ground-floor gallery, and the Breuer building. Escalators at the east and west ends of the piazza circulate visitors up to the second-floor balcony and, in the case of the eastern escalators, down to the lower-level special exhibitions galleries. The second-floor balcony provides the majority of the upper-level horizontal circulation throughout the complex, not only to the galleries housed in the new wings of the Rafael Viñoly Architects’ expansion, but also to the 1916 building, via glazed pedestrian bridges leading into new second-story entrances positioned at either end of the original building’s east-west axis. In addition to the two escalator banks in the piazza and the preexisting stairways and elevators in the 1916 and Breuer buildings, vertical circulation is provided by two new vertical cores at the northwestern and northeastern corners of the piazza. Each core contains one stair, two passenger elevators, one freight elevator, and vertical risers for mechanical services. A short underground tunnel links the basement parking garage level to the basement of the Breuer building, where a new stair and a small glazed elevator provide access to a new on-grade vestibule underneath the concrete entrance canopy. Sustainability Art conservation and sustainable building design do not necessarily go hand in hand. Very strict environmental criteria for the spaces where art is displayed and stored place heavy demands on a museum’s mechanical and control systems. These demands include a very small range of temperatures (typically +/- 2 degrees) and high levels of humidity (typically 45 to 55% RH). Humidity is supplied as steam, either on- or off-site, purified and introduced to the museum’s HVAC system. The production of humidity and the tight temperature range necessitates mechanical systems that tend to use more energy than typical commercial or institutional buildings. Artificial lighting creates another drain on energy resources in an art museum. Exposure of the artwork to both daylight and artificial light must be strictly controlled. Typically, museums define light exposure either as a maximum allowable peak (measured in foot-candles) or an accumulated exposure to light (measured in foot-candle hours) over the course of a year. Viewing artwork in natural daylight is viewed by some as ideal—but building systems that can automatically balance available daylight with artificial light while limiting light exposure can be excessively complex and impractical. Many museums opt for only artificial light in galleries not only because exposure limits can be easily controlled, but also because contemporary curatorial aesthetics often dictate that art be viewed in controlled, artificially lit environments. Typically artwork is lit by incandescent lighting, the least energy-efficient type of lighting. In spite of these necessary limitations, Rafael Viñoly Architects worked within the context of the program, site, exhibit design, and conservation standards to find opportunities for elements of sustainability. The firm carefully considered the exhibit layouts in terms of light sensitivity and worked to coordinate areas of natural daylight with less light-sensitive collections. This idea was also applied to the conservation labs, which are all provided with abundant natural light, along with shading systems that can provide partial screening or total blackout. For the display of non-light-sensitive objects, Rafael Viñoly Architects provided an all-glass gallery that also gives the new museum wing an almost transparent appearance where it would otherwise partially block views of the historic 1916 building. In order to control light, temperature, and humidity in this gallery, the firm devised a double-skin curtain wall with integral shading devices and a self-contained mechanical system. The concept is similar to contemporary European office building ventilated façades, which are designed to maximize the efficiency of day-lighting and natural ventilation. While the all-glass façade is not strictly a ”green” element, Rafael Viñoly Architects employed lessons from the growing body of research on sustainability and façade design, ensuring a conservation environment under difficult conditions—especially during the harsh Ohio winter—while maintaining a strong sense of historical presence and integrity. With this expansion project, the Cleveland Museum of Art becomes one of the first art museums to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s new stormwater runoff standards. Rafael Viñoly Architects and their consultants incorporated bio-retention basins and drainage systems into the museum’s overall landscape design to filter and treat stormwater before it is directed to the natural waterways and eventually to nearby Lake Erie. Schedule The project was divided into two phases to accommodate the museum’s fundraising schedule and to permit continued operations (on a reduced basis) while construction takes place. Phase I included renovations to the 1916 and Breuer buildings, a new central utility plant built adjacent to the western end of the Breuer wing, expansion of the parking garage, and the construction of the museum’s new east wing for special exhibitions, art storage, conservation labs, and the Museum’s 20th-century collections. Phase II includes the demolition of the 1958 and 1984 additions, along with construction of the central piazza; the west wing; the four-story volume containing gallery, retail, and administrative space that rises between the piazza and the Breuer building; and basement space for storage, curatorial, workroom, and administrative needs. Function The Cleveland Museum of Art houses a world-renowned collection of more than 40,000 works of art ranging over 6,000 years, from ancient masterpieces to contemporary and modern works of art. In addition to providing additional space for the permanent collection, the expansion provides large new double-height Special Exhibits galleries that are able to accommodate large touring exhibitions, some of which the museum was unable to mount in the past. Furthermore, the 36,000-square-foot piazza provides a gathering place for museum-goers as well as an event space for large functions—700 people can be accommodated for dinner seating using only one-third of the floor area. Image The primary purpose of the expansion project is to give the museum a coherent architectural identity, knitting together diverse stages of the museum’s growth in a rational way. One method of achieving this is through the exterior cladding of the new construction, designed to transition between the very different aesthetics of the historic landmark 1916 and Breuer buildings, establishing a dialogue between their strong self-referential characters without creating a “hard seam” between them. The banding of the Breuer building is echoed on the Rafael Viñoly Architects additions with alternating bands of dark granite and white marble; the granite bands decrease in density until they eventually transition to the fully white marble palette of the 1916 building. In this manner, the distinctions of “modern” and “historic” are preserved, yet integrated into a cohesive whole. Economic Construction of the Cleveland Museum of Art is progressing at a projected cost of approximately $450 per square foot, significantly less than the typical $600-$800 per square foot of new museum construction. The phased construction plan allows the museum to build as funds become available. During both phases, an onsite construction office has allowed Rafael Viñoly Architects to ensure that the project budget is adhered to. Operational The museum is open and free of charge six days a week. The Rafael Viñoly Architects expansion and renovation preserves the Breuer entrance as the main point of entry while partially enclosing its signature concrete canopy with a delicate glass lobby and elevator. This re-established entry leads into the central piazza that functions as the central organizing space for a visitor’s experience. The gallery spaces are arranged on two levels in a continuous ring around this central location, while administrative offices and the conservation department occupy new facilities at the top of the structure and in the new east wing, respectively. Quotes “Perhaps, the most exciting thing about the architect’s life is to see dreams on paper come to life. For me, to be a part of this wondrous, historic project at The Cleveland Museum of Art.” (RV)