Bringing Mass to the Arts
Phoenix Art Museum Turns Up the Volume

By Scott Blair

When the Phoenix Art Museum expanded ten years ago, the construction team took a loose campus of older buildings and unified them with dramatic new structures. Since then the museum has grown both in attendance and endowment, creating the need for another expansion.

 

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"At any one time, the museum can only hang about 5 percent of its 17,000-piece collection," said Jim Ballinger, director of Phoenix Art Museum. "We have long had a need to expand our gallery space to show more of our collection and provide more space for moderately sized and small touring exhibitions."

In 2001, Phoenix voters approved $18.2 million in bond funds for the >> museum's expansion. "Our challenge was to to then raise another $23 million from private donors, corporations and foundations in a less than perfect economic environment," Ballinger said.

The expansion will add a new four-level gallery wing, a new 12,500-sq.-ft. lobby and canopied exterior entry plaza, an outdoor sculpture garden and an expanded museum store. Kitchell Contractors of Phoenix, Ariz. was chosen as the contractor for the project.

One time-saving step to the renovation was to enlist the same architect as the 1994 expansion, Todd Williams Billie Tsien Architects LLP of New York City, N.Y. "We knew the premises and existing buildings well," said Felix Ade, project architect for the firm.

"The biggest challenge was the conditions of the site had changed. Last time we had addressed the site as a master plan, but there were several components of that plan that weren't completed due to cost, such as a large 70-ft. fiberglass dome in the center of the property." This left a central atrium where the museum's entryway was without an anchor or focal point.

"Suddenly the property on the north side of the museum campus became available and was purchased by the museum, so the direction of the site development changed," Ade said. "We thought during the renovation ten years ago that the museum's future expansions would occur to the east. That's why we put the central mechanical plant and the loading dock on the north side last time - it was the backside of the building then."

The original entrance on the new renovation was to be on Central Avenue, as if people would arrive on foot, on bike or on the bus, Ade added. But with the parking lot on the north side of the lot being used by most of the visitors, those arriving by car did not have a clear entryway into the museum.

The designers chose to keep the plant and dock where they were to control the budget, but mask them from view. "We are raising the parapet height and the central plant is being renovated, with a new larger 250-ton chiller replacing the old one half that size," said John Rigsby, project manager for Kitchell Contractors.

The city street which separated the existing museum with the newly purchased land was realigned, forming a more logical intersection and allowing for an exterior plaza with the new entranceway.

"The plaza will be comprised of granite pavers and an 8-ft. tall water curtain fountain, which will provide both visual and sound deadening from the busy streets nearby," Rigsby said. Steel beams cantilever out over the plaza, creating a canopy for the outdoor plaza.

"One of the stunning architectural features is the glass enclosure of the lobby where glass sheet panels, 6-ft. wide and over 15-ft. high provide a grand arrival for visitors," Ade said. "We wanted nothing to obstruct the view into the lobby or out into the plaza."

The illusion of continuous space is accentuated by the glass sheets, which are held in place with clear silicon joints without frames or mullions. The sheets continue several inches beyond the ceiling as if it was disappearing into it. >>

"The glass panels are comprised of three, 1/2-in. layers sandwiched together, and weigh almost a ton each," Rigsby said. B & B Glass, the Phoenix, Ariz.-based glazing contractor, built a special attachment for the forklift with suction cups to transport the sheets, Rigsby added.

Existing gallery space was converted into a tall, canyon-like walkway which leads visitors into a new orientation space, located where the old museum store was. The new store occupies a space twice the size of the previous location.

For the new 40,000-sq.-ft. gallery addition, crews shored up an 18-ft. deep excavation for the basement in a previously empty part of the lot on the south side. "Half of the basement will be occupied by mechanical systems, with the other half devoted to gallery space," Rigsby said. Light wells with sandblasted glass and a reflecting pool were included for additional impact.

Even though the campus has a central plant, the new addition required additional mechanical systems. "The entire east wall is filled with ductwork within a 7-ft. wide passageway," Rigsby said. "Air, temperature and humidity control are all extremely important for a museum."

On the floors above, the goal was to create as much open space as possible. "The museum wanted big, open rooms to be able to build their own temporary walls to the specifications of each exhibit," Ade said. "We had a very large volume to add to the overall campus, but we didn't want it to stand out, so we chose to connect them by using a similar material for the exterior pre-cast concrete panels."

One of the most unique aspects of the 1994 renovation was the green aggregate used in the pre-cast panels. In the current addition, a green quartzite aggregate from Utah was chosen. "It uses a slightly different color of aggregate - less obviously green and more gray," Ade said.

"The aggregate had to be mined in the summer due to extreme winter weather restrictions," Rigsby said. "To get the proper matrix color, black Texas sand was used to contrast with the aggregate."

The finish was sandblasted this time for a more subtle look. "It doesn't attack the surface as much as water-washing, which was used in the 1994 addition and brings out the aggregate texture more," Ade said.

The west side of the addition adjoins the 1994 addition. "One of the challenges was tying the new structure into the old one, both mechanically and structurally," Rigsby said. Kitchell had to raise the level of the floor in the old addition to match the new floor height after the wall was cut out between the two structures. "The gallery floor was filled with 8-in. thick high-density foam and covered with a concrete slab. You might not think walking on foam would be strong enough but it was chosen because you couldn't fill the gap with soil due to the moisture, and compacting would add too much vibration, so we talked with the architect and found this foam which supports 10-lbs.-per-sq.-inch."

The museum is scheduled for completion mid-2006. In addition, 40,000 sq. ft. of outdoor space at the heart of the campus will be transformed into a sculpture garden later this year under a separate construction contract

 
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