COURTESY THE BOCA RATON MUSEUM OF ART
Another museum is spiffing up its design. Earlier this year, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis opened up a massive renovation to its campus and sculpture garden, with a new entrance pavilion added to campus that includes an iconic Herzog and de Meuron building completed in 2005. Now it’s the Boca Raton Museum’s turn. The museum announced plans today for a $1.5 million renovation that will alter the facade of the building’s classic postmodern architecture, as well as its natural surrounds. The project, helmed by Glavovic Studio and Studio Roberto Rovira, is set to begin this November and reach completion by January 2018.
Located in South Florida’s Mizner Park, the Donald Singer-designed museum was built back in 2001. Shortly thereafter, a large amphitheater was constructed, leaving the museum partially obstructed. To rectify this, the museum has commissioned its new design, which will introduce a walkway that connects the building’s existing sculpture garden to surrounding public space and a new 12-foot gate made of luminescent panels. The gate, named the Mending Wall in honor of a Robert Frost poem, will sit in front of the building’s loading dock and bring greater visibility to its most prominent facade. In addition, a 250-foot canopy of braided stainless steel cables adorned with foliage will be built adjacent to the museum, providing additional shade and help to beautify the length of the building that faces a federal highway.
In a statement, the museum’s executive director, Irvin Lippman, described the renovations as an attempt to “create the kind of dynamic outdoor environment that we strive for in our museum’s galleries.”