The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art International Design Competition – Creating a Museum for All
As a nexus of culture and community, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is treasured for its innovative programs and internationally recognized collection. The crisp forms of the existing buildings offer an elegant counterpoint to the landscape, yet their opacity conceals the vibrancy of the museum and precludes an invitation to the broader community.
Our design’s organic geometries shape the new west addition, and, with the expanded south terrace, recenters the cultural campus around the treasured sculpture park. The newly accessible north entry frames a natural ecological landscape, and the rooftop addition amplifies a central entry.
Strategic renovations and luminous additions reinvigorate the elegant but fortified museum to signal a new transparency, both literal and philosophical. New and existing galleries, expanded spaces for education, performance, events, and dining all overlook the reimagined Sculpture Park. Here, new reciprocities—between architecture and landscape, art and ecology—invite the community to engage and create a new tapestry for the arts.
