The User Perspective on Twenty-First-Century Art Museums

306 Pages·2016·19.85 MB·English

by  Georgia Lindsay

THE USER PERSPECTIVE
ON TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY
ART MUSEUMS
The User Perspective on Twenty-First-Century Art Museums explains contemporary
museums from the whole gamut of user experiences, whether users are preserving
art, creating an exhibit, visiting, or part of institutions that use the architecture
for branding. Fourteen museums from the United States, Europe, China, and
Australia represent new construction, repurposed buildings, and additions, offering
examples for most museum design situations. Each is examined using interviews
with key stakeholders, photographs, and analyses of press coverage to identify
lessons from the main user groups. User groups vary from project to project
depending on conditions and context, so each of the four parts of the book features
a summary of the users and issues in that section for quick reference.
The book concludes with a practical, straightforward summary of lessons
learned and a critical assessment of twenty-first-century museum architecture,
programming, and expectations to help you embark on new building design.
Architects, architecture students, museum professionals, and aficionados of
museum design will all find helpful insights in these lessons and critiques.
Georgia Lindsay is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Environmental Design
Program at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is co-editor of Revisiting
“Social Factors”: Advancing Research into People and Place. She received her PhD
from the University of California, Berkeley.
“For Georgia Lindsay, a ‘user’ is not only a visitor or staff member but also someone
who never actually enters the museum, the city hosting the museum, the ecological
system it affects and even the art it houses. Her detailed narrative addressing
various programming and design issues raised by 14 cases of twenty-first-century
museums inspires one to think and reflect, rather than to follow set guidelines
or checklists. If only more building types were analyzed in such an inclusive,
insightful and engaging manner!”
Karen A. Franck, Professor, New Jersey Institute of Technology and co-author of
Memorials as Spaces of Engagement (Routledge 2016)
THE USER PERSPECTIVE
ON TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY
ART MUSEUMS
Georgia Lindsay
First published 2016
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Georgia Lindsay
The right of Georgia Lindsay to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Lindsay, Georgia, author.
Title: The user perspective on twenty-first century art museums / Georgia
Lindsay.
Description: New York : Routledge, 2016. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015039190| ISBN 9781138807891 (hb : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781138807907 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315750880 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Art museum architecture--History--21st century. | Art museum
visitors.
Classification: LCC NA6695 .L56 2016 | DDC 727/.7--dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015039190
ISBN: 978-1-138-80789-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-80790-7 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-75088-0 (ebk)
Acquisition Editor: Wendy Fuller
Editorial Assistant: Trudy Varcianna
Production Editor: Alanna Donaldson
Typeset in Fairfield
by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
For Penelope, who has been taking me to art museums since before I could walk
CONTENTS
viii Acknowledgments
x Introduction
Part 1
2 REPURPOSING: SURPRISE IN REPURPOSED PLACES
6 1 Monash University Museum of Art
24 2 Long Museum West Bund
Part 2
36 RESPONDING: HIGHLIGHTING DIFFERENCES
40 3 Museum of Contemporary Art Australia’s Mordant Wing
58 4 North Carolina Museum of Art’s West Building
76 5 Milwaukee Art Museum’s Quadracci Pavilion
96 6 Denver Art Museum’s Hamilton Building
Part 3
114 BUILDING NEW, UNDER 50,000 SQUARE FEET: FOCUS AND
FLEXIBILITY
118 7 Luyeyuan Stone Sculpture Museum
132 8 Sifang Art Museum
144 9 Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
164 10 Tree Art Museum
Part 4
178 BUILDING NEW, OVER 50,000 SQUARE FEET: INVITATION AND
ADVENTURE
182 11 FRAC Bretagne
194 12 New Museum of Contemporary Art
212 13 Museum aan de Stroom
232 14 National Museum of XXI Century Arts (MAXXI)
254 Conclusion: Users in Twenty-First-Century Museums
272 A Brief Note on Methods
274 List of Museums
276 List of Architects
278 Image Credits
281 Index
CONTENTS vii
ACkNOWLEDGMENTS
Even though mine is the only name on the cover, this book is the product of many
people’s time and expertise, and I am deeply grateful to all those who helped turn
this idea into a reality.
Many thanks to my editors at Routledge: to Wendy Fuller for suggesting
the format and basic structure and for believing in a first-time author, and to
Grace Harrison and Trudy Varcianna for shepherding me through the process and
answering all sorts of queries. And thank you to JoAnn Silverstein, Director of the
Environmental Design Program at the University of Colorado Boulder, for finding
some institutional financial support for the project. Without the support of the
publisher and the program, this book would have never come to fruition.
Many of my friends and colleagues helped shape the book by reviewing
chapters or even the whole manuscript. Thank you to my friends in my writing
group, Victoria Derr, Shawhin Roudbari, and Angela Loder, for their general
support and encouragement and for critically reading drafts of every chapter. And
thank you to Susan Dieterlan, Nadine Abell, and Susanne Cowan for their smart
and gentle comments on the whole manuscript. Finally, deep gratitude goes to
Penelope Lindsay for reading the whole manuscript twice and for enthusiastically
accompanying me on research expeditions. The book is easier and more interesting
to read because of the time and energy of these reviewers.
My research assistants provided invaluable help. Bridget Sweeney deserves
many thanks for her work setting up interviews, formatting files, combing through
emails, and following up with architects and museum staff. Additionally, she
created a clear and beautiful graphic for the Milwaukee Art Museum chapter and
the overview graphic in the Introduction. Without her, many of the museums you
read about here would not have participated, and the book would not be as beauti-
fully illustrated. Kevin Xiaoke Meng worked equally hard doing the same work for
the Chinese museums; without him, this book would be four museums poorer.
Thank you to all the many people at the museums and architecture offices
who gave their time and knowledge to this book. Museum staff and architects
were generous with their time, sharing their excitement and expertise in interviews
viii ACkNOWLEDGMENTS
on the phone and via Skype, through email, and even in person. Additionally, I
am grateful to the generosity of photographers, architect offices, and museums
for helping me with the many images that add depth and richness to the book.
For the Monash University Museum of Art chapter, I want to thank Alicia Renew,
Geraldine Barlow, Kirrily Hammond, Charlotte Day, Kerstin Thompson, and Max
Delany. Shao Shu was incredibly helpful in the Long Museum West Bund. Thank
you to Liz Ann Macgregor, Sam Marshall, and Adrienne Wells for help with the
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Dan Gottlieb and Adam Ruffin were
instrumental in helping with the North Carolina Museum of Art. At the Milwaukee
Art Museum, Bryan Kwapil, Bridget Globensky, Brady Roberts, Vicki Schargberg,
Fran Serlin, and Barbara Brown Lee all provided invaluable information, and Beret
Balestrieri Kohn, Heather Winter, and Liz Flaig helped with graphics, facts, and
details. Thank you to Patty Williams, Heather Nielsen, and the countless others
at the Denver Art Museum whom I interviewed for my dissertation, as well as to
Liz Wall, Jeff Wells, and Daniel Libeskind. Thank you to Liu Jiakuan and Liu Yin
for help with the Luyeyuan Stone Sculpture Museum. Liu Yi and Liu Lin were
instrumental in helping with the Sifang Art Museum. Megan Lykins Reich, Jill
Snyder, Amy Cronauer, Nicole Ledinek, Dan Michaels, and Farshid Moussavi all
contributed to my understanding of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland.
Thank you to Zhang Hang at the Tree Art Museum. Brigitte Charpentier and
Sophie Leclercq deserve thanks for their help at the FRAC Bretagne. Leah Ray,
Nicole Adsit, Gabriel Einsohn, and Hyatt Mannix were incredibly helpful at the
New Museum. Thank you to Cathy Pelgrims and Karin Vetters for help with the
Museum aan de Stroom. Thank you to Elena Pelosi and Giulia Pedace at MAXXI
and Davide Giordano at Zaha Hadid Architects for help with this museum. I am
deeply grateful for the time these professionals gave to make the chapter on their
museum the best it could be.
Finally, thank you to Micah, whose unfailing support makes everything
possible.
ACkNOWLEDGMENTS ix