Cranbrook Art Museum | SmithGroup JJR

Cranbrook Art Museum was designed by SmithGroup JJR, The collections addition at Cranbrook’s museum is a study in context, planar form, and materiality. Acclaimed for breaking new ground while reinforcing existing design and mission, the addition nearly doubles the floor space and adds extensive functionality.

Photography: Jim Haefner

Flanking Eliel Saarinen’s renowned Cranbrook Art museum, the building is designed as a place of learning about art, within the art itself. SmithGroupJJR deploys a model of open storage to reinvent the relationship of an artwork collection with the public. This contrasts with most museums, where vast private collections are unseen by the public.

Photography: SmithGroupJJR

In the Collections Building, the full, 6,000-piece collection is on display, a veritable canon of furniture, textiles, ceramics and fine art from famed alumni, faculty, and designers including Andy Warhol and Charles and Ray Eames.
This is architecture directly serving a pedagogical mission: bringing the collection to life for generations. In view of Saarinen’s peristyle and Carl Milles’s fountain, it completes the second phase of a master plan – as one critic wrote, “redefining the museum’s forecourt with a quiet demeanor while reinforcing its powerful entry sequence.”

Photography: Jim Haefner

Project Info:
Architects: SmithGroup JJR
Location: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, USA
Project Design: Paul Urbanek, AIA, LEED AP, ice president and project designer
Contractor: Frank Rewold & Son, Inc.
Project Size: Collections Addition – 31.200 GSF
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Jim Haefner, SmithGroupJJR
Manufacturers: Acuity Brands, Bega, Delta Faucet, Gotham Lighting, Lithonia Lighting, McNichols, Sherwin Williams, ThyssenKrupp, LSI Industries, Mod Interiors, Philips, Mark Architectural Lighting
Project Name: Cranbrook Art Museum

The post Cranbrook Art Museum | SmithGroup JJR appeared first on Arch2O.com.

https://www.arch2o.com/cranbrook-art-museum-smithgroup-jjr/ March 31, 2018 at 03:30PM https://www.arch2o.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Arch2O-Cranbrook-Art-Museum-02.jpg