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 Synopsis:
The new $200 million, Steven Holl-designed Bloch Building at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is a world-class addition to one of the country's premier general art museums. The addition is the equivalent of a 67-story building lying on its side. The contemporary architecture of the all-glass building is woven into the landscape, as it stretches above and below ground on the eastern edge of the original 1933 museum building and the Kansas City Sculpture Park. The Bloch Building houses the museum's collections of contemporary art, modern art, African art, special exhibits and the museum's newly acquired Hallmark Photographic Collection, which is considered the most broad-ranging and important collection of American photography.
Full story:
Imagine a 67-story office building lying on its side, and you’ll get an idea of how large the expansion of Kansas City’s premier art museum is. The new Bloch Building opened on June 9, 2007.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, ranked among the top art museums in the nation, just completed a $200 million expansion. This is the first expansion of the museum since it opened in 1933. The first phase of the project, a new parking garage, entry plaza and reflecting pool, opened in August 2002. The expansion also included the new Ford Learning Center, dedicated in September 2005, and the Bloch Building.
The underground parking garage is located on the north side of the museum and gives visitors a dramatic new view of the museum. The parking garage accommodates 453 cars. It is topped by a site-specific sculpture by Walter De Maria in a large reflecting pool that allows light to filter through the water into the garage area below.
The Bloch Building, which is located on the east side of the museum, increases the museum's current space for special exhibitions by one-third and showcases the museum's masterpieces of modern and contemporary art, African art and photography. The new building also houses a new entry lobby, reference library, café and sculpture court.
The addition expands the Museum by 71 percent, from its former 234,000 square feet to some 400,000 square feet. It provides more than 165,000 square feet of new galleries, offices and other facilities, including a tranquil court dedicated to the art of sculptor Isamu Noguchi.
World-renowned architect Steven Holl of Steven Holl Architects, New York designed the building. Time magazine has named Holl "America's best architect." Holl’s design has been hailed as a process unfolding, a magical response to the landscape and to the original building. Holl’s slender, elongated design runs some 840 feet along the Museum’s landscape. Much of the new building is below ground level. A series of galleries connect by stairs and ramps. And, five stunning, translucent and transparent glass "lens" emerge from the space beneath, transforming the Kansas City Sculpture Park, which sits outside of the building, into what Museum Director and CEO Marc Wilson calls "an enchanted garden."
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is nationally and internationally recognized as one of America's finest general art museums. With a permanent collection that contains more than 34,500 works of art, the Nelson-Atkins is best known for its Asian art, European paintings and modern sculpture. In January, the museum announced its acquisition of the entire Hallmark Photographic Collection, more than 6,500 works by 600 artists. It is considered the most broad-ranging and important collection of American photography.
Photo Credit: Photos Courtesy of the Kansas City Convention &
Visitors Association.
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