Gluckman Tang Architects has been selected to design two new museums in North Adams, Massachusetts: the 160,000-square-foot Global Contemporary Art Museum (GCAM) and 32,400-square-feet Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum.
Built as a 700-foot-long addition to two historic freight depots in Western Gateway Heritage State Park, the Extreme Model Railroad museum will house one of the world’s largest collections of working O-scale model trains, moving through a trainscape designed by world-class architects, including Frank Gehry, Gluckman Tang, and Zaha Hadid.
“I have long said that an art museum is an 18th century idea in a 19th century box that more or less fulfilled its structural destiny sometime toward the end of the 20th century," said Thomas Krens, former director of New York's Guggenheim Museum. "Most established museums in large cities, and many private collectors, simply do not have the space to exhibit the explosion of artistic creativity that has been produced in recent times. The GCAM is designed to address that issue with what I feel is a model alternative of what a museum can be.”
GCAM will exhibit private art collections.
Correction: A previous version of this article stated that the museums would be built in Adams, Masschusetts. It has been updated to North Adams.
