Following an invited competition, the Museum for African Art selected Bernard Tschumi Architects to design its new building located along Museum Mile in New York City, at the northeast corner of Central Park on Fifth Avenue and 110th Street. Zoning constraints required a street-wall facade that is aligned with existing residential buildings along Fifth Avenue. more

The project for the Museum for African Art combines traditional wood with the most contemporary glass structure with the intention of providing an emblem of access and participation to its visitors. It represents a new kind of museum, one that juxtaposes MAA’s historic aim of exhibition with increased focuses on audience and accessibility. The building was intended to be designed as a resource and a stimulus. It includes flexible, dramatically lit galleries, further enhanced by the integration of media and technology-equipped spaces for education and research, and multipurpose social spaces. The interior areas aim to suggest the multiplicity of African cultures while avoiding literal references to specific techniques and styles. The museum was conceived as a vehicle for exploration of, and by, multiple communities.

Circulation through the museum elaborated a ritual, or route, of multiple sequences. The soaring glass walls that mark the museum’s perimeter facilitate incredible views over Central Park. As one moves through the space, the park becomes central to the museum experience since escalators, elevators, and stairs are located at the periphery of the building. Locating all fixed elements of circulation and service on the periphery of the floor plate allows maximum flexibility in the interior spaces of the building. In this manner, MAA would become the only museum on Fifth Avenue to reveal the park landscape so explicitly. back

Credits

SCHEDULE
International Competition, 1st prize, 2000
SIZE
60,000 sq. feet
BUDGET
$ 27,000,000
CLIENT
The Museum for African Art
TEAM
Lead Designer: Bernard Tschumi. Key Personnel: Kim Starr, Anne Save de Beaurecueil, Johanne Riegels Ostergaard, Joel Rutten, Robert Holton, Jonathan Chace, Valentin Bontjes van Beek, Andrea Day, Kate Linker, Liz Kim, Matt Kelley, Michaela Metcalfe, Georgia Papadavid, Adam Dayem, Matthew Huft, William Feuerman, Jane Kim, Irene Cheng, Chong-zi Chen, Phu Hoang, Sarah Khan, Dominic Leong, Eva Sopeoglou. Consultants: Ove Arup and Partners, Leslie Robertson and Associates
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Program: Cultural, Museum, Performance, Public Buildings