The permanent ground-floor intervention includes a flexible exhibition gallery, a state-of-the-art 200-seat movie theater, a bookstore/museum shop, a lobby and a café. The second floor houses administrative offices, a multi-use exhibition loft, and the Tut’s Fever Movie Palace. Designed by artist Red Grooms as an interpretation of Egyptian-style movie theaters of the twenties and thirties, Tut’s theater adds an engaging dynamic to the exhibition loft. The roof will accommodate a prefabricated metal pavilion, providing exhibition and entertainment space.

The architects placed a new monumental stair and elevator tower on-axis with the main entrance to the building, so that it extends from the original courtyard façade as a counterpoint to its gridded solid-void frame.

The stair acts as the iconic object of the design and the orientation element for the entire complex. The landings provide visitors with an alternative exhibition experience, giving them the opportunity to reorient themselves before reentering through the façade of the original building, creating a sense of anticipation and reengagement. In the final phase, the courtyard will be developed as an outdoor movie theater and exhibition space to hold larger-scale installations.

Download project pdf for more information

The compositional strategy of the Crocker Museum of Art addition and renovation was to establish a new and unique iconic presence for the addition, while framing the existing complex in a visual and physical dynamic, creating a collaged image for both the new and historic structures.

The new addition is rotated on a due north/south axis, disengaging it from the existing orthogonal street grid and Crocker complex, which reinforces the contrapuntal siting and massing.

The ground floor contains a new entry off O Street, which simultaneously accesses the museum store, lobby, reception desk, double height multi-use gallery/reception space which opens to the new courtyard, café, public meeting rooms, auditorium, loading dock and service support spaces. Also accessible from the ground floor is a new connection/circulation space to the Herold Wing, which interconnects service and public access between the new addition and the existing buildings. The connection, which occurs on all three floors, re-facades the Herold Wing from the new courtyard, forming a consistent architectural image for the space.

The second floor is occupied by the administrative staff offices, art storage spaces with potential public viewing and access, service spaces and the second floor connection to the Herold Wing. This connection also facilitates service to the Crocker Art Gallery Ballroom for events and catered functions.

The third floor is occupied by the new suite of temporary and changing exhibition galleries that afford maximum flexibility and installation variation. The new galleries are directly connected to the existing Art Gallery building, allowing for a continuous circulation sequence from the new to the existing, both vertically and horizontally, thus totally integrating the entire complex.

Associate Architect: HMR Architects, Inc.

Download project pdf for more information

One enters a gallery, which opens to the living/dining space and views beyond. Off the gallery is in the guest room, library, maid’s room, kitchen and bar/hi-fi room, all of which are distributed linearly front-to-back. Off the living/dining space, articulated by the curved extension of the gallery wall is the master bedroom suite, which includes a dressing room, extensive bathroom and terrace. This space separated by a mirrored sliding door is meant to be a literal as well as an illusory extension of the main space.

The edited palette- the black slate floor, white walls and ceilings and back and white lacquer cabinetwork—intensifies the abstract reading of the space.

On the main level of the twenty-five foot high, steel trussed volume, is the multi-use living/dining/ entertainment/gallery articulated by custom designed, space defining furniture. At the east end of the space is the master bedroom suite, and study/library balcony accessed by an exposed stair, which rotates at the landing, and runs parallel, behind the existing longitudinal steel truss, to attic guest bedrooms, over the kitchen, master baths and dressing rooms.

The study/library balcony is suspended under the east end of the barrel vault and revealed from the master bedroom below, by a continuous radial skylight in the floor, articulating its separation while maintaining the volumetric extension.

The floor of the balcony defines the bedroom ceiling, floating asymmetrically within the existing orthogonal building frame, articulating its objectiveness and sectional variation.

Three large skylights were inserted into the south side of the barrel vaulted roof, providing natural light into the longitudinal internal façade of the space and revealing the classic building pediment above.

Download project pdf for more information

The new ICP was designed to accommodate varying scales of exhibitions as well as establishing an optimum state-of-the-art museum environment. The space has been transformed into an inspirational and memorable architectural sequence. It is simultaneously dense and open, simple and complex, with a clear objective to make the architecture as pertinent as the exhibitions it contains.

Download project pdf for more information

The 270,000 square-foot library building reestablishes the public and institutional image of the Main Library and reinforces downtown Akron as an urban, cultural and architectural center. The design of the facility reflects the Library as a patron-friendly place, accommodating its users in a variety of environments.

The new addition negotiates the twenty-five foot difference in elevation between High and Main Streets. A three-story atrium along High Street brings natural light down to the lowest Main Street level and provides orientation for all patrons. The assemblage of building “objects” along Main Street includes the new library loft addition and the new theater flanking the existing library, maintaining a pedestrian scale along the mall in contrast to the automobile-scaled facade along High street, which is accessible by car.

The building encompasses the most advanced applications of technology and communication systems for administrative management, the processing of library records, and bibliographic and information networks. Special design consideration was given to provide the most flexible, state-of-the-art infrastructure and distribution systems for digital information.

Numerous community spaces are provided, including a 425-seat auditorium, a cafe, a bookstore, public meeting rooms and art exhibition spaces. An interior link to a new parking garage along High Street resolves into a new pedestrian ramp, activating the three-story addition. An outdoor amphitheater and landscaped park complete the complex.

Associate Architect: Richard Fleischman Architects, Inc.

Download project pdf for more information

Center II is a seven-story building around an open courtyard. A trussed bridge provided the opportunity to create two major spaces: a skylighted interior atrium and an open entry court with an elevator core and lobby. A new catwalk beam for exterior lighting and display unifies the entry facade. A decorative stair was added at the north end of the atrium.

Four new steel bridges span the atrium at the fourth-floor level, vertically articulating the space and forming an implied second ceiling. A translucent skylight transforms the courtyard into a public room.

Center I, completed after Center II, is a horizontal five-story building organized along the same principles. The courtyard was enclosed to create a central atrium surrounded by showrooms. A cascading double stair was added to one side of the space, connecting all balcony levels with a central exposed elevator bank. The building is entered from a recessed arcade or from a ramped connecting bridge. Spanning the street with its red metal and oculus fenestration, the eighty-foot bridge is the project’s graphic symbol.

Associate Architect: Stephen Lepp Associates

The selected design gives the library, which has one of the largest genealogy collections in the nation, an image that reflects its prominent role in the community and enhances the urban context. It will make a significant portion of the collection “browse-able” by expanding open stacks.

There are two public entrances to the expanded facility. The existing re-imaged Webster Street entrance maintains the current easy pedestrian access from downtown and incorporates a Café and Library Shop to permit a synergy of uses. The new Ewing Street wrap-around entrance integrates the connection to the new below-grade parking and includes a major glass component that affords attractive views to neighborhood churches and the historic district.

The east and west entrances are interconnected by the great hall, which provides clear visual orientation and access to all library departmental facilities and seamlessly integrates the existing renovated spaces and the new construction. The curved roof of the great hall contains a large north-facing skylight and a shaded south-facing clerestory window, bringing daylight into the center of the building.

The great hall can be separated from the library spaces, so that community functions can extend past library hours if needed, without compromising library security. The central great hall also houses the Circulation Desk, Central Reference Desk, self-check stations, electronic catalog stations, and informational components, as well as stairs and elevators to the Library’s second level, the new Auditorium on a lower level, and the Garage below grade.

Community use facilities are organized along the southern side of the first floor, between the great hall and Washington Blvd. These spaces include flexible Meeting Rooms, Access Fort Wayne Television, Community Computing and Public Computer Training, an Exhibition Gallery, the Café, and the Library Friend’s Store.

Associate Architect: MSKTD & Associates, Inc.

Download project pdf for more information