Albright Knox Renovation Studio

Proect Grow for

AKDarcy Engle . Semester Documentation for IDE 351 . Spring 2015

Contents

02 08 12 26 50

Public Buildings

The AlbightKnox

Schematic Design

Revised Design

Appendix

Public BuildingsWhat is a public building? What are the parameters that set it apart from one that is private? These questions although we thought would be easy to define, we realized had much gray area when trying to formulate a response.

Through reading and disecting research articles, watching video documentaries, and performing our own public space analysis, the guidelines for a public space became more clearly defined, although there are still questions that arise1

1 SEE APPENDIX FOR END OF SEMESTER CONCLUSIONS AND CONFUSIONS

Galleria Mall Study

Over two days, two other students and myself conducted a public space analysis at the Galleria Mall, in Western New York.

We formed conclusions in basic areas such as who, what were they doing, when were they there, where were they, and why?

These simple questions eluded to complex results, and the realization that we had only grazed the surface of a public building analysis.1

1 see appendix for full report

SPACE ANALYSIS

Examples of conclusions include;

- Demographics - "Through 10 different categories that were analyzed I can provide information on the "typical" user of the space: A casually dressed young Caucasian woman whose hair is down"

- Path of travel - "I created a model to show the obstacles in the path of travel. I noticed the kiosks in the mall were scattered and not aligned, forcing people to walk around them, then giving the possibility to be attracted to a product they may not have seen had the kiosk been to the side"

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The Getty Museum

The John Paul Getty Center by Meier was the musuem studied for the case study. By diagramming over the plans and sections of the site and buildings, researching the history of how it came to be, and assessing the materiality of the museum, I gain knowledge about the extensivity needed to design an art museum.

CASE STUDY

To better understand the buildings on the site several diagrams were created, This was done by overlaying trace and examining how the forms had been created.

In this particular diagram, it disected the forms of one of the main buildings, showing how Meier began with one square and used the excess to create the next form.

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The Albright KnoxThe Albright Knox Art Gallery, formerly known as The Buffalo Fine Arts Academy was founded in December 1862. The building was designed by E.B. Green. It is situated in Delaware Park, which was designed by landscape architect, Frederic Law Olmstead. This building became the first permanent home for the Albright Art Gallery on May 31, 1905. Over half a century later, the museum was in need of an addition. This was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill of New York. This addition gave space for a auditorium, more exhibition space, and a members lounge and courtyard. The new addition was dedicated in 1962.

Again more that half a century later, the Albright Knox is in need of an addition again. With more than 90% of its art in storage the Albright has made the decision to expand.

The Albright KnoxMUSEUM TOUR

We met with Bryan Gawronski, the Director of Operations at the Albright Knox Art Gallery. Bryan presented to us the history, the current issues, and future desires of the Albright Knox.

Additionally, he gave us a tour of the entire space, galleries, storage, unused buildings, and offices.

This experience showed us a side of the Albright that very few people know.

We had the opportunity to attend a “Community Outreach Meeting”. These were public meetings held once every few months to hear the public’s opinions and comments on the future of the Albright Knox.

Here, we learned that some are expecting the Albright Knox to be the next architectural wonder, some are expecting the Albright knox to have a atellite location closer to downtown, some are nervous if they build on the current site, their neighborhoods will be disrupted. There were many more comments given by the public as to what they would want out of the future of the Albright Knox.

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The Albright KnoxPROGR-AMMING

Meeting again with our groups, programming was discussed. There were several renditions of programming examples prior to concluding on one idea for the group.

We then went through the process again, this time alone, forming our own priorities within the project.

By assessing what was important, we resolved our programming study.

Our diagrams show; a large lobby, being the hub of the museum. From there you can reach all spaces and return back to the lobby. Galleries are placed to create a looped circulation. The restaurant and gift shop are to have their own seperate entrances, allowing them to be open even when the museum is not. The offices have their own seperate entrance as well, and are grouped according to who should adjacent to who.

Once diagramming was complete, the design began.

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Schematic DesignAs we were studying museums, including the ALbright Knox, I think we began to understand the scope of the task we were undertaking. With seven weeks left, redesigning Art Gallery’s interior programming, and designing a new addition to solve what problems the re-programming could not, was a grand task.

Beginning with inspiration, the design began, and through several interations, we arrived at a final design to present to the Albright Knox.

Schematic DesignINSPI-RATION

From traveling to museums around the world, my inspiration began with them. In particular, an “Art Hall” outside of Stockholm, Sweden - Artipelag. This museum is in a very remote place in the woods. When traveling to it, you either drove up a back road, hiked through the woods, or took a boardwalk along the water.

Artipelag’s unique relationship with it’s surroundings inspired me.

Remembering that the Albright Knox sits on one of the most renowned park systems in the country was importnat. The building sits on Delaware Park, part of the Olmsted Park System, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The park system is an integral part of Buffalo’s urban planning, and history.

With these two places in mind, it became clear that I wanted to use nature as inspiration for the museum addition.

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Schematic DesignSKET-CHING

I started sketching forms that organically interacted with the existing Albright structure. They were too obtrusive. Then, I changed locations. I sketched a structure that stepped over the 1962 building where the existing courtyard is.

Part of my goal with this addition was to recreate an axis in the site. This axis was lost when the 1962 addition was built, but at one time there was a pathway from Elmwood Ave, through the Albright to Hoyt Lake.

The stepped building going up and over the existing building, would be accessible to go in or on top of. It would move the courtyard up instead of ridding the museum of it entirely, and it would create a new pathway from Elmwood Ave. to Hoyt Lake. It would act as a “bridge” of sorts for people.

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Schematic DesignRE-VISIT

On a few occasions, going back to Albright Knox, to sketch out our additions on site, to listen to conversations between guests and staff, and to observe how people currently are using the site helped to form the direction the addition of the Albright Knox should go.

The more time we spent there, the more we heard and absorbed. We were more able to establish a scale, visualize our additions, and make practical decisions for the design

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Schematic DesignTREES

I began to look more into trees and the important facts about them. Included are that the roots are what stabalizes the tree, the roots gather water and nutrients to help the tree to grow.These two ideas further defined key concepts to my design.

As I refined my original sketch of the stepped structure crawling over the Albright Knox, it took more and more of a form similar to roots.

These roots became an important moment for the addition; encouraging a person to interact with the structure as a whole.

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Schematic DesignLAYOUT OF SPACE

I first began by color coding the space according to public(blue) and private(green) spaces.

After you enter the lobby, all spaces become accessible from there. The green, but more importantly the blue areas all circle back to the lobby.

The addition, with the form of roots of a tree as the inspiration, created a pathway that people can walk over or through.

The architecture then does not just sit on the park, but the land under its footprint is raised and is still all usable space for people to inhabit.

The green roof is a raised park, allowing sculptures to be located on the roof. The solid walls of the stairways became areas to display vertical art and signage to make the Albright Knox more appealing from a distance.

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Schematic DesignPRESEN-TATION

Before Mid-Term, we presented out schematic designs to the Albright Knox staff. Post presentation, we received the feedback from the presentation. For the rest of the semester, the revision of the addition was to take place.

During the semester, myself and Rebecca Sturniolo had discussed how this project does not have to end when the semester does. Looking for ways to continue the project to further benefit the Albright Knox, we applied for a Undergraduate Summer Research Grant. Being awarded the opportunity, we will travel to art museums in the United States who have went through similar situations, analysing their architecture, and how it is affecting them today. The findings will be given to the Albright Knox to help with their upcoming addition.

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Revised DesignThe revision of the design took place over two weeks. Beginning on the computer, I realized some of what I was doing was too complex to visualize without building it first. I decided to sketch again, build a scale model, and draft the space by hand.

Revised DesignBUILDING TO SEE

With the feedback, most wanted more exploration in the form of the structure I had created. The building had leveled out at a certain height. To reduce the plateau effect more exploration on the Y-axis was necessary. Pulling pieces of the whole into the space to define interior spaces, gave the space a more fluid shape.

The process allowed me to further explore the placement of apertures in the form, the location of staircases, and visualize the spaces I was creating.

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Revised DesignDRAWING TO KNOW

Drafting the space by hand made the scale of the space more apparent. It also, allowed a visible layering process to take place. Doubling the size of the addition, by adding a second floor for more gallery space required extra height on the addition. This complicated the relationships between the new and existing buildings.

The second floor galleries were added to only the sides of the new addition, allowing for a linear full height lobby to still exist.

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Revised DesignDRAWING TO KNOW

With the roots of a tree gathering nutrients and water to help the growth of the tree, I wanted the roots of the museum to gather people to help the awareness and expansion of the Albright Knox.

I hoped the addition would be more than an architectural expansion, but an expansion for the community and the art as well.

The Site Plan shows the recreated Axis from Hoyt Lake to Elmwood Ave.

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Revised DesignFINAL DRAWINGS

FIRST FLOOR PLAN

SECOND FLOOR PLAN

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Revised DesignFINAL DRAWINGS

CIRCULATION DIAGRAM

SECTION B

SECTION A

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Revised DesignFINAL DRAWINGS

RESTAURANT ELEVATION

CAFE ELEVATION

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Revised DesignFINAL DRAWINGS

ADMISSION ELEVATION

The wayfinding plan highlights key areas of wayfinding, the largest square being the most important. As the squares reduce in size they become further more specific signage.

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Revised DesignFINAL DRAWINGS

Transferring the graphic of the traced roots from a printed image to piece of plastic gave me the linework needed to cut out a mosaic window. The mosaic pattern was cut from the negative space in the image. This window would be placed in the two main overhead skylights when entering the museum.

The shadow left few areas of light hitting the ground in the lobby. This pattern was then taken as a tile pattern to put in key areas for guests to follow. The areas include entrances to the following spaces; galleries, restaurant, and auditorium.

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Revised DesignFINAL DRAWINGS

Exterior Rendering

Interior Rendering

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Revised DesignSCALE MODEL

The scale model helped myself and others to visulaize the complex ideas I was trying to create. It offered a lot of clarity.

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Revised DesignFINAL CRITIQUE

Presenting the revised design allowed us to gain the perspectives of outside critiquers from Ryerson University in Toronto and OCAD , also in Toronto.

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AppendixThe appendix holds all supporting documents from the semester. This includes, the report from the public building analysis, the calculations for square footage and restroom calculations, sourc-es used, and any other conclusions

AppendixSUPPORT-ING DOCSSPACE SQ FT OCCUPANCY TOTAL

gallery

restaurant

kitchen

cafe

gift shop

office

conferenceconference

auditorium

restroom

storage

29.843 sf

3.050 sf

1.400 sf

1.000 sf

1.312 sf

3.850 sf

767 sf767 sf

3.776 sf

1.000 sf

2.000 sf

4.263 people

203 people

7 people

66 people

21 people

38 people *

7 people7 people

251 people

--

10 people

*more offices located in Clifton Hall

Occupancy Total: 1630 people/ 125 people = 13/ 2 = 7 Male WCOccupancy Total: 1630 people/ 65 people = 25/ 2 = 12 Women WC

Occupancy Total: 1630 People/ 500 people = 3 water fountains

WC and Water Fountain Calculations

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SOURCES:

http://publicecodes.cyberregs.com/icod/ibc/2012/icod_ibc_2012_29_sec002.htm

http://www.artipelag.se/en

http://www.albrightknox.org/future-ak/ak-development-history/

Conclusions:

Determining whether or not we have answered questions such as; should a gallery welcome all people, how do we help it to welcome all people, successfully or with the best answer would be hard to judge. However, what we did accomplish this semester was making ourselves aware of what the needs of an art gallery are, and finding nine unique solutions for those needs.

The Albright Knox was grateful for our assistance throughout the semester, and us students were grateful that we had the once in a lifetime opportunity to design an addition to a world renowned art museum.

If and when I continue to study circumstances similar to the Albright Knox, some avenues I would liek to further explore is how we make a more unique environment for a clientele(art) that is constantly changing, constantly being updated and renewing what is current. Or another question may be; does an art galleries walls have to be white? Personally, having never been to an art gallery with a wall a color other than white, it would be a curious space to inhabit. How would that affect the art and the visitor? What would their reactions to a colored wall be?

These are some questions that may be answered through the extension of the project of the summer reasearch aspect.

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