Design of Museum Architecture
Modern Wing at Art Institute of Chicago an Homage to Classicism
Oct 29, 2009
Renzo Piano Building Workshop’s (RPBW) new addition to the Art Institute of Chicago is a peerless example of modern classicism. The Modern Wing, with its delicate steel columns and distinctive canopy roof, is a finely articulated assemblage of intricately related parts.
Mies van der Rohe is credited with the dictum, “God is in the details.” The Modern Wing takes this adage and realizes it in the language of classicism. Beyond RPBW’s exquisite detailing of the museum addition is a harmony created by the application of simple ratios between building elements.
For contemporary viewers more accustomed to architecture that seeks to wow—Frank Gehry’s work is a noteworthy example—the new addition to the Art Institute of Chicago may appear subdued. Gehry’s Pritzker Pavilion with its silvery headdress of brushed stainless ribbons is visible from the atrium of the Modern Wing.
Piano’s goal was to respectfully integrate the new museum into its site next to the original Beaux Arts building of the Institute. The language of modern classicism has served him well in realizing this harmony.
Modern Classicism
The purpose of classical architecture, as it developed first in Ancient Greece and then in Renaissance Europe, was to establish harmony between a structure’s parts. Architects created harmony by repeating simple ratios to tie the building elements together. Those elements included orders of architecture: column and entablature.
In the Modern Wing, the façade along Monroe Street is ordered with steel mullions along the curtain wall, and slender, white steel columns that support the canopy overhead. This orderliness lends a pleasant rhythm to the façade and is continued on the interior walls of the museum’s Griffin Court atrium.
The classical temple’s superstructure, a pediment with sculptural detail, is here replaced by a canopy that floats over the whole building. If there is detail, it is in the beautifully-executed parts of the canopy: aluminum blades on top of steel trusses and the connections between structural elements.
Architectural Detail that is Beautiful but Not Redundant
Classicism for classicism’s sake runs the risk of being superfluous in a modern building. There is nothing frivolous about the detailing of the Modern Wing. RPBW has stripped the building down to its bare essentials (volumes, structural elements), each with a purpose. For instance:
- The aluminum blades on the canopy eliminate southern light which might damage fragile art works. The blades are also part of a daylight harvesting system that uses natural light to illuminate the galleries, rather than relying exclusively on artificial light.
- The detailing of the building’s double curtain wall is aesthetically pleasing. That detail is also part of the building’s sustainable design strategy. Solar heat that collects in the curtain wall cavity is captured and recycled for other purposes. The Modern Wing has been designed to LEED®-NC Silver standards.
The Modern Wing has been described as resembling a luminous box. Renaissance architects could never have achieved this transparency with load bearing walls. This difference in materials aside, the Modern Wing benefits from being inspired by the classical language of architecture. Mies van der Rohe would be proud.
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