Walker Art Center Expansion Plans - Brief Article

Art in America, June, 2001 by Stephanie Cash, David Ebony

The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has unveiled plans for a $90-million expansion designed by recent Pritzker Prize winners Jacques Herzog & Pierre de Meuron [see "Front Page," May '01], the Swiss team known for its innovative use of materials and light. The renovated and expanded facility will add over 100,000 square feet of interior space, nearly doubling the size of the 1971 building designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes.

The five-story addition echoes the existing cubic structure and is connected to it by a two-story link that will house several galleries and public spaces. But the facade will be made of a translucent medium, to be determined, that will integrate indoor and outdoor spaces, and allow for daytime and nighttime visual effects. Variously shaped windows will punctuate the facade at irregular intervals. Gallery space will increase from 30,000 to 45,000 square feet. Also included in the plans are a new studio for dance, music and theater programs, 14,000 square feet of rooftop terraces, a restaurant, cafe and shop. Underground parking and four additional acres of green space will be added to the 11-acre sculpture garden, once the neighboring Guthrie Theater moves to its new home. (The theater will move to a structure, designed by Jean Nouvel, in 2004, and its existing building will be torn down.) To make way for the Herzog & de Meuron building, the Walker has also acquired an adjacent property from Allianz Life Insurance, which had originally included the home of museum founder T.B. Walker. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2003.