Museum for African Art / Robert Stern Architects

Apr 2010

By Karen Cilento — Filed under: Architecture News ,Museums and Libraries , Museum for African Art, New York, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, USA

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What began in a rented townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side has grown to become an internationally recognized preeminent source for exhibitions and publications related to historical and contemporary African art. The Museum for African Art will finally find a permanent home along Manhattan’s “Museum Mile” and will be open to the public next April. Designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP, the museum will bring the prestigious row of museums of Manhattan to Harlem, one of the country’s most important centers of historic and contemporary African-American culture.

More about the museum and more images after the break.

The museum will own and occupy about 75,000 square feet in a mixed-use joint-development project. This dramatic increase in public space, in addition to the museum’s new location will provide adequate space for significantly more exhibitions, public programs, and education initiatives; thus enabling the museum to serve larger audiences.

The new Museum, which faces Central Park to the west, is distinguished on its north and west facades by trapezoidal windows with bronze-finished aluminum mullions that create a dynamic “pattern”. Visitors will enter the new Museum through a soaring glass atrium that measures 45 feet high. Curving African etimoe wood form one of the walls and the ceiling of the 5,000 square ft of informal exhibition space.

The second floor provides 15,000 square feet of flexible gallery space which will typically be configured as three rotating exhibition galleries that may be installed individually or as a group. The third floor of the Museum will house the library, offices, and a gracious event space with a roof terrace overlooking Central Park.

Cite:
Cilento , Karen . "Museum for African Art / Robert Stern Architects" 25 Apr 2010. ArchDaily. Accessed 07 Feb 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/57745>

Comments (26)
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Rembo says:

what is this garbage?

# April 25, 2010 at 17:09

hovaard says:

never new stern was an african-american

# April 25, 2010 at 17:41

Peter Smith says:

So you need to be an African-american in order to design a museum for African-american art? Is Pei a French? Is Ghery a Spaniard?..Come on!!!

# December 9, 2010 at 21:35

kensi says:

museums shouldn’t look like Holiday Inns…

# April 25, 2010 at 17:50

rand says:

Cool! (They designed it so that the building could be easily converted into luxury housing units.)

# April 25, 2010 at 18:05

franklin says:

would you expect any less? we have learned alot from history (/sarcasm)

# April 28, 2010 at 13:29

ron says:

just terrible – looks like a mixed-use commercial project.

# April 25, 2010 at 20:02

colin says:

…as terrible as this looks… you should see what they are actually building..it is one of the worst buildings you will ever see….anywhere… I have seen parking garages that would have been more respectful…seeing the renderings restores some sense of credibility to Stern.. at least there was and attempt to do a project of some quality… a project respectful of African Americans…whomever allowed the disgrace that is being built on 110th and 5th to occur African American or otherwise should be named and public-ally shamed.

# April 25, 2010 at 20:47

mehr says:

why are they letting this guy design this??!!

# April 25, 2010 at 20:56

Boom says:

@ Aliakzandr and all others ….first read the article and then comment …..plz

# April 25, 2010 at 22:14

toni says:

Usually first we see the drawings… the articles are useless lol

# April 26, 2010 at 06:08

Sam says:

# April 25, 2010 at 22:35

ornament and crime says:

I understand that this is a mixed use building, and that means that as a development it needs to make money.

It does not, however, appear to be an appropriate container for a Museum of African Art.

# April 25, 2010 at 22:47

I should also say that this is a very handsome project from Mr Stern’s office, not a pediment or pillaster in site. I’m also sure that the patterned bronze, stone and glass facade will create a very beautiful result.

Just don’t put African Art in it.

# April 25, 2010 at 23:38

Tuf Pak says:

It’s stunning that they’ve co-opted an Upper East Side aesthetic for a museum for African Art above 96th street.

Stern is the Uptown upper-class architect because he is Uptown upper-class, he’s nothing they need to be afraid of. But for a museum for african art they’ve brought in their buddy and moved an upper east side condominium project 30 blocks north. Do they intend for a museum that feels like it’s eking out a living on someone else’s land (like a freehold on someones plantation?!)

And what, is that angled stone pattern facade some sort of tip-of-the-hat to Breuer’s Whitney Museum? Is that the sole museum related concession to what is otherwise a simple real estate venture? Weak, pathetic.

# April 26, 2010 at 02:49

bill says:

What’s the definition of ‘public space’ here: the museum exhibition space and the interior lobby? The building is nifty for a mixed-use commercial building with luxury apartments…because that’s what it is, isn’t it? With a glass atrium and fancy finishings in the interior of the museum part tacked on? I understand the blandness of the design, but not every museum has to be a cathedral of experimental architecture, though, does it? Central park location attracting simple design luxury condos–I’m just not shocked by that. the stern firm just seems like a bland and extremely profitable business churning out the in-between stuff the world over.

# April 26, 2010 at 03:33

liminal says:

@ Boom… have read the article and still agree with the general comments. An inkling of african heritage is surely not too much to ask?

# April 26, 2010 at 03:37

arch says:

very cool hotel

# April 26, 2010 at 04:09

shetu says:

Around 7 out of 10 comments I post are being negative and rude.
But what can I do else seeing this type of projects?

# April 26, 2010 at 05:25

Colin says:

the building is 90% completed …if you are in Manhattan ..you can see it..it is so terrible it hurts to look at it…i have to go by it 3 to 4 times a week. I can only blame Stern to a degree.
It all comes down to the Developer and the leaders of the Museum that allowed this monstrosity to be built. When they Value engineered the project from a limestone (it would appear in the renderings) and brass exterior to precast concrete of a quality that is typically used on parking garages and painted aluminum someone should have raised hell..someone should have walked and laid on the ground in front of the cranes so that it could not be built .. There are so many talented African American Architects..i doubt if any of them are on the board of the museum and would of allowed this to be constructed. This is not about Stern being African American that is meaningless..it is about respect ..it is about appropriateness it is about caring… This It is an insult to the African American People.. there is a blip of a resurgence of interesting architecture in New York. This sets the city back years…

# April 26, 2010 at 07:12

gweilo says:

Agreed. One can blame Stern, but ultimately it’s the client who dictated the program and selected the architect and design. Anyone who thinks the architect has the power to shape the overall direction and program, particularly at this scale, has never led a project before. This doesn’t absolve Stern from producing what appears to be a tawdry and institutional design. And the architect does have a responsibility to produce a good design within budget constraints – not shoot for the moon then end up value engineering it all (Ultimately I’ll wait for the final product to judge it all.) But I’m guessing had Stern had more latitude he would have done it differently, and his hands were tied.

# April 27, 2010 at 10:29

Nicholas Patten says: