Museums

When cultural and not-for-profit organizations engage in building projects, they inevitably also re-shape themselves. BBB is committed to the process of institution-building in the fullest sense. Our portfolio includes performance venues, sacred spaces, museums, libraries, parks and gardens. We work collaboratively with our clients, sometimes at multiple sites and often over the course of many years, to create customized programs and inspired spaces that transform institutions.

Selected Work

Alice Austen House & Grounds, Staten Island, NY

Bartow Pell Mansion Museum, Bronx, NY

BLDG 92: Brooklyn Navy Yard Center, Brooklyn, NY

Castle Clinton, New York, NY

Center for Jewish History, New York, NY

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY

Ellis Island Immigration Museum, New York Harbor

Enoch Pratt Free Public Library, Baltimore, MD

The Frick Collection and Art Reference Library, New York, NY

Japan Society, New York, NY

John Jay Heritage Center, Rye, NY

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY

Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville, KY

National Building Museum, Washington, DC

National Museum of American History, Washington, DC

New York Hall of Science, Queens, NY

New-York Historical Society, New York, NY

New York Public Library, New York, NY

Red Star Line Museum, Antwerp, Belgium

Reynolda House Museum, Winston-Salem, NC

Rubin Museum of Art, New York, NY

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

South Street Seaport Museum, New York, NY

Studio Museum of Harlem, New York, NY

Thomas Edison National Historical Park, West Orange, NJ

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH

United States Diplomacy Center, Washington, DC

The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, NY

The Met BreuerNew York, NY

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum New York, NY

The Morgan Library & Museum New York, NY

New-York Historical Society Luce Center New York, NY

Center for Jewish History The David Berg Rare Book Room New York, NY

Red Star Line Museum Antwerp, Belgium

Muhammad Ali Center Louisville, KY

Rubin Museum of Art New York, NY

Thomas Edison National Historical Park West Orange, NJ

Ellis IslandNew York Harbor, NY

MUSEUMS

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

BBB’s Long Term Feasibility Study for The Metropolitan Museum of Art provides the Museum with a planning vision for the 21st century and a roadmap for how to implement projects over the next 30 years.

BBB worked with The Met over a two-year period to identify, plan, and prioritize space needs for the main building on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Prepared with input from the Museum’s Trustees, curators, and senior administrative staff, the study serves as a comprehensive framework for the major construction and infrastructure modernization projects to be undertaken in the coming decades. BBB’s vision identifies a set of potential future projects that could address ongoing issues such as visitor circulation and wayfinding, art storage, art delivery, infrastructure maintenance, and the goal of maximizing opportunities for the exhibition and interpretation of the collections.

Location New York, NY Client The Metropolitan Museum of ArtCompleted 2014

MUSEUMS

The Met Breuer

BBB has guided the restoration of Marcel Breuer’s iconic 1966 building – originally designed as the Whitney Museum – and helped transform it into The Met Breuer. In this iconic space, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present exhibitions of modern and contemporary art

The restoration was approached as Breuer himself might have, carefully preserving the authentic patina of aging materials and allowing visitors to understand and appreciate the building’s evolution over time. Planning for the lobby focused on enhancing both circulation and the visitor experience. Retail is minimized and visitors are provided with free access throughout the lobby and lower level. A new, specially designed ticketing desk and ticketing kiosks help to minimize waiting times for entry. Restoration of the public interior spaces and exterior Sunken Garden was undertaken with a consciously conservative approach. Focus was given to restoring the building’s signature attributes, including concrete walls, bluestone floors, bronze fixtures, wood handrails, and lighting, carefully distinguishing patina from damage. Inappropriate or obsolete interventions made after 1966 have been removed and limited new interventions complement the restored interiors and establish a contemporary Met presence.

Location New York, NY Client The Metropolitan Museum of ArtSize 82,000 SFCompleted 2016

MUSEUMS

Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

BBB’s master plan and restoration of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum supports its position as the preeminent museum and educational authority for the study of design in the United States.

Originally designed by Babb, Cook, and Willard in 1902, The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum occupies the former home of Andrew Carnegie and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Following completion of a facility development plan, BBB created a master plan that reorganized the museum campus. Subsequently, BBB collaborated with Gluckman Mayner on a comprehensive renovation, restoring and updating the facilities. The Mansion is now dedicated primarily to public functions such as exhibition galleries, art handling, retail and food service, and the adjacent townhouse to administrative offices, education, and the relocated National Design Library. In addition to gallery and infrastructure improvements to the Mansion and townhouses, the project includes new freight and passenger elevators, registrar offices, and art conservation labs. Important public spaces, such as the main stair, café, and restrooms are also renovated and expanded to enhance the visitor experience.

Location New York, NY Client Smithsonian InstitutionSize 76,000 SFCompleted 2014Construction Cost $30.3 millionCertification LEED Silver

MUSEUMS

The Morgan Library & Museum

BBB’s work at The Morgan Library & Museum preserves, restores and expands a New York City architectural treasure.

In collaboration with Renzo Piano Building Workshop, BBB designed the expansion and renovation of The Morgan Library & Museum. BBB assumed many roles throughout the project, including executive architect, project management, and design and production architect for the restoration of the landmark structures, office, and support spaces. The existing library was comprised of three historic landmarks: the original, turn-of-the-century McKim Mead & White building; the 1928 library annex; and an 1853 brownstone mansion known as The Morgan House. The expansion knits the campus together through the construction of a 72,000-SF modern, skylit atrium, which extends four stories below grade and required a 50-foot bedrock excavation. Contemporary in its glass and steel vocabulary and elegant, modern detailing, the new structure is sensitive to its classically proportioned surroundings and neighborhood. BBB also designed the renovation of the major exhibition gallery in the 1928 Annex Building and the conversion of the original reading room into a new gallery. The project also features a new café and shop, office space, exhibition preparation spaces, collections storage space, and a 275-seat underground auditorium.

Location New York, NYClient The Morgan Library & MuseumSize 147,000 SFCompleted 2011Construction Cost $70 million

MUSEUMS

New-York Historical Society Luce Center

BBB’s award-winning design for the Henry Luce III Center provides a modern exhibition facility within the fourth floor of the New-York Historical Society building.

BBB has worked at the New-York Historical Society’s turn-of-the century home on Central Park West since 1993. In addition to the development of a master plan, BBB implemented a series of building campaigns, including the Henry Luce III Center for the Study of American Culture. Designed to display and provide access to the Society’s $1 billion museum collection, the Luce Center includes interpretive exhibits that make the collection more accessible. Visitors can view the objects through glass and choose which to study, and scholars and researchers have direct access to the objects by appointment within a specially designed study area. A new mezzanine on the fourth floor provides additional areas for displays, tailored carefully to the specific needs of each type of object. The building envelope and systems are also designed to provide a state-of-the-art museum environment.

Location New York, NY Client New-York Historical SocietySize 120,000 SFCompleted 2000Construction Cost $19 million

MUSEUMS

Center for Jewish History David Berg Rare Book Room

Designed as a contemporary jewel box, the Rare Book Room at the Center for Jewish History is secure yet transparent, serving as both an archival repository and a venue for revolving exhibits.

The Center for Jewish History brings together the resources of five institutions that specialize in Jewish cultural research, analysis, preservation, and interpretation. The Center is housed in a facility designed by BBB in 1996, and the David Berg Rare Book Room is a new, state-of-the-art exhibition and shared central holdings space for the Center’s collection of rare books, first editions, illuminated manuscripts, and letters dating back hundreds of years. The room is lined with custom archival bookcases with glass-front doors for the secure yet visible display of books; smaller millwork pieces in the center include storage drawers for larger folios and flat files. The two perimeter walls combine archival exhibition vitrines with glass “viewing” walls that enable the public to see inside the room; touchscreen technology and digitized volumes allow visitors to engage with material in unprecedented ways.

Location New York, NYClient Center for Jewish HistorySize 500 SFCompleted 2013Construction Cost $1.2 million

MUSEUMS

Red Star Line Museum

BBB’s restoration gives the historic Red Star Line inspection station new life as a museum that celebrates the emigrant experience.

The Red Star Line buildings, overlooking the River Scheldt, are landmark structures with great historic value to the city of Antwerp and the broader history of European emigration. Three modest maritime buildings, which date to the early twentieth century, were the place through which more than two million emigrants departed for America between 1873 and 1934, including future luminaries Golda Meir and Irving Berlin. BBB led the design and transformation of the buildings into a contemporary museum that maintains the character of the original structures. The buildings are fully restored to house interpretive exhibits, areas for quiet contemplation, a resource center, and support functions such as ticketing, reception, a gift shop and a café. A striking steel and glass observation tower lends the museum an iconic and contemporary presence on the Antwerp waterfront and provides visitors with a panoramic, open-air view of the city.

Location Antwerp, BelgiumClient City of Antwerp, BelgiumSize 33,400 SFCompleted 2013Construction Cost €18.5 million

MUSEUMS

Muhammad Ali Center

For the Muhammad Ali Center, a cultural and educational institution that interprets Ali’s life story and inspirational message, BBB designed a new building on a prominent site overlooking the Ohio River.

The Muhammad Ali Center is a six-level facility located in Muhammad Ali’s birthplace at the edge of downtown Louisville. The building’s lower portion relates to the 19th-century context of the surrounding buildings, and the upper mass reaches skyward. The roof “lifts off” from a lower center ridge and caps a glass-enclosed sixth floor, recalling Ali’s famous quote, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. Your hands can’t hit what your eyes can’t see.” The torch carried by Muhammad Ali at the 1996 Olympics is depicted on the building’s south side by a three-story cone made of copper-hued aluminum panels, and an elliptical staircase within provides the connection to exhibition floors. The main feature of the exterior, a “wrapper” of 1’ x 2’ ceramic tiles in nine different colors, covers all four sides of the building. The wrapper appears from the entry plaza as an abstract pattern but resolves itself into images of Ali when viewed from a distance on Interstate Highway I-64.

Location Louisville, KYClient Muhammad Ali CenterSize 96,750 SFCompleted 2008Cost $20 million

MUSEUMS

Rubin Museum of Art

BBB transformed a high-end retail emporium into a contemplative environment for the Rubin Museum of Art, the largest facility devoted to Himalayan art in the Western World.

The 21st-century home of the Rubin Museum began its life as six tenement buildings that BBB renovated into a Barney’s Women’s Store in 1986. When Barneys vacated, BBB was re-engaged to collaborate with the Museum and a team of specialists in a major planning effort to adapt the commercial space for the display of a unique collection of art. To create the sense of intimacy that is required to appreciate the art, the galleries are isolated by surrounding wall panels. Inspired by Tibetan designs, the wall system enclosing the main stair provides key additional display space on two sides and low walls for long axial views across the gallery floors. The Tibetan motif is echoed overhead with a mandala-shaped, luminous fabric ceiling at each floor where the circular stair opening provides the center point of the square. BBB’s scope of work also included building-wide security, museum-quality environmental controls, multi-use theater design, sophisticated lighting controls, café and museum store design, and the acoustic treatment of spaces.

Location New York, NY Client Shelley and Donald Rubin Cultural TrustSize 64,000 SFCompleted 2004Construction Cost $21 million

MUSEUMS

Thomas Edison National Historical Park

BBB’s interpretive design work at the Thomas Edison National Historic Park preserves an endangered piece of American history and offers visitors a glimpse into the great inventor’s home and workplace.

BBB’s work on the 15-building National Register site where Thomas Edison worked and lived for more than 40 years includes a master plan for the research laboratories and renovation of both the West Orange Laboratories and the inventor’s house at Glenmont. By the 1990s, the facilities had fallen into disrepair and only a fraction of Edison’s artifacts and documents were on display, resulting in the site’s placement on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s endangered list. A comprehensive overhaul enhances the visitor experience at the site and protects its invaluable collection of artifacts and archival material. A sensitive integration of new life safety, fire prevention and environmental control systems, inclusion of new fire stairs and elevator, and reorganization of administrative offices allow for a better protection of the collection and public access for the first time to the upper two floors of the main laboratory building. Finally, Building II, one of the original lab buildings that had been relocated to Henry Ford’s Dearborn Village in Michigan, was dismantled and shipped by rail back to West Orange. It now serves as the Historical Park’s Education and Conference Center.

Location West Orange, NJ Client National Park ServiceCompleted 2009

Harvard Business School

MUSEUMS

Ellis Island

At Ellis Island, BBB has made a cultural and historical symbol of American immigration accessible to generations of visitors.

For more than two decades, BBB has provided planning, preservation, and design services at the designated national monument and World Heritage site, Ellis Island. BBB’s work began with the creation of a Concept Master Plan for the Island, and subsequently, a Development Concept Plan and a comprehensive Historic Structures Report. Most notably, BBB has worked on the programming, restoration, renovation, and adaptive reuse of the main building into the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. The project required the sensitive integration of modern technology and systems into a heavily deteriorated National Register structure, and spaces for a diverse range of uses: including public gatherings and assemblies, exhibitions, administrative, library services, and numerous visitor amenities. Subsequently, BBB has restored the Powerhouse, the Kitchen & Laundry Building, the Bakery & Carpentry Building, and the Hospital Outbuilding, and stabilized the Baggage & Dormitory building.

Location New York Harbor, NYClient Save Ellis Island, Inc.; Statue of Liberty Ellis Island Foundation; National Park ServiceSize 395,000 SF (multiple projects); 250,000 SF (Museum)Completed 1980 - Ongoing (multiple projects); 1990 (Museum)Construction Cost $155 million (Museum)

Left to right, top to bottom

Rockefeller Center, New York, NY Denison University Bryant Arts Center, Granville, OH 100 Eleventh Avenue, New York, NY

Historic DC Courthouse, Washington, DC Grand Central Terminal, New York, NY Lincoln Center, New York, NY

Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville, KY Princeton University Campus Plan, Princeton, NJ Kansas City Power & Light District, Kansas City, MO

Natick Collection, Natick, MA Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Sacramento, CA BBB Office, New York, NY

Beyer Blinder Belle was founded in 1968, in the wake of the urban renewal movement in the United States, when the social fabric of cities, communities, and buildings was compromised by the prevailing attitudes about planning and architecture. We pioneered and defined a different approach to the design of the built environment that focused on architecture empowering people — their interaction with each other on streets and in neighborhoods, their pleasure in moving through the city, and their connections to the surrounding physical fabric.

This mission has guided us for more than four decades and has shaped a broad and

award-winning practice — now 185 professionals in New York City and Washington,

DC engaged in architecture, planning, and interiors. A persistent exploration

of historic, cultural and civic meaning guides our work, while our design is

contemporary and reflects the materials and technology of today.

Planning, restoration, and the design of new buildings are the fundamental

underpinnings of our practice. Many of our projects involve the stewardship of

historic buildings in sensitive urban sites — the work for which we have become

best recognized. Our deep sense of identity and evolving perspectives on design

have guided our practice in new construction as well as master planning and urban

design. With our clients and friends, we continue the dialogue.

Our areas of specialization include: Campus Planning;

Design for Higher Education; Design & Planning for K-12; Government;

Historic Preservation; Hospitality & Retail; Interiors; Mixed-Use;

Museums & Institutions; Office; Parks, Gardens & Recreation; Performing Arts;

Planning & Urban Design; Residential; Sacred; and Transportation.

02-2017

COVERRed Star Line Museum - Courtesy of Red Star Line Museum, photo by Filip Dujardin

INSIDE COVERCooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum - John Bartelstone

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ARTBeyer Blinder Belle and Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

THE MET BREUERPeter Aaron/Otto

COOPER HEWITT, SMITHSONIAN DESIGN MUSEUM John Bartelstone

THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUMFrederick Charles and Courtesy of The Morgan Library & Musuem/Photo by Graham Haber

NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY LUCE CENTERPeter Aaron/Otto

CENTER FOR JEWISH HISTORY DAVID BERG RARE BOOK ROOMAlexander Severin

RED STAR LINE MUSEUMCourtesy of Red Star Line/Photo by Filip Dujardin

MUHAMMAD ALI CENTERTed Wathen/Quadrant Inc.

RUBIN MUSEUM OF ARTPeter Aaron/Otto

THOMAS EDISON NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARKChuck Choi

ELLIS ISLANDPeter Aaron/Otto

FIRM OVERVIEWTop Left to Right: Rockefeller Center - Peter Aaron/Otto; Denison University Bryant Arts Center - Brad Feinknopf;

100 Eleventh Avenue - dBox; Historic DC Courthouse - Joseph Romeo; Grand Central Terminal - Peter Aaron/Otto; Lincoln Center - Iwan Baan; Muhammad Ali Center - Ted Wathen/Quadrant Inc.; Princeton University Campus Plan - Courtesy of Princeton University, Office of Communications, D. Applewhite; Kansas City Power & Light District - Brad Feinknopf; Natick Collection - Chuck Choi; Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament - David Wakely; BBB Office - Michael Falco

120 Broadway, 20th Floor New York, NY 10271 212 777 7800   3307 M Street, NW, Suite 301 Washington, DC 20007 202 333 8000

beyerblinderbelle.com