First Look: Chrysler Museum of Art Renovation and Expansion - posted by FFAB

Photo © Ed Pollard

The Chrysler Museum of Art in Norfolk, Virginia, reopened last week after a $24 million renovation and addition.

 

First Look: Chrysler Museum of Art Renovation and Expansion

By Josephine Minutillo

 

Situated prominently at the eastern end of The Hague—not the city in the Netherlands, but a crescent-shaped inlet that feeds into the Elizabeth River as it passes through Norfolk, Virginia—the Chrysler Museum of Art’s newly renovated and expanded Italianate pile opened to the public again last week after 17 months of construction. Local firm H&A Architects designed identical, two-story porticoed gallery wings that flank the main entrance and added 10,000 square feet of exhibition space for American and European painting and sculpture and the museum’s renowned glass collection. The addition—which brings the total programmable space to 220,000 square feet—mimics the classical style of the original 1933 structure and a 1989 building project that unified the exteriors by removing asymmetrical and Brutalist additions completed in 1965 and 1974. “We wanted to maintain the balanced, palazzo house quality of the exterior,” explains museum director Bill Hennessey.

 

Please read the whole article with a brief history of the collection here