Brooklyn Museum renovations complete - Artworld - Brooklyn Museum of Art - Brief Article

The Brooklyn Museum of Art is set to unveil its new front entrance and public plaza on Apr. 17. The $63-million project, designed by Polshek Partnership Architects, features a 15,000-square-foot entrance pavilion shingled in green-tinted glass. Radiating outward toward Eastern Parkway, the modernist structure connects to a renovated lobby area inside the original 1893 landmark McKim, Mead and White building. Beneath the pavilion is a new 16,000-square-foot basement to house the museum's climate control equipment and other mechanical systems. At ground level, a limestone staircase leads to an upper level promenade that overlooks the pavilion and surrounding neighborhood.

An 80,000-square-foot public plaza will occupy what was once driveway space in front of the building; terraced, planted with flowering trees and supplied with ample seating, it will be open to the public even when the building is closed. The plaza contains two large fountains created by WET Designs, one of which features vertical jets of "dancing" water.

In addition to new construction, the project entailed restoration of the entire Eastern Parkway facade, including repointing and cleaning of the stone; the Daniel Chester French allegorical bronzes, which flank the entrance, and 30 other 19th-century statues that line the cornice have also been refurbished. New parking areas and walkways, combined with a renovated subway station, were designed to facilitate easier public access to the museum.

Further details of changes at the BMA, as well as coverage of the museum's wide-ranging survey of Brooklyn-based artists, which coincides with the reopening, will appear in a forthcoming issue.