Viñoly Goes to Duke

edited by Sheila Kim-Jamet -- Interior Design, 9/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

Rafael Viñoly may already have won a slew of important cultural commissions, ranging from the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia to the Brooklyn Children's Museum in New York. Only now, however, is he adding a U.S. art museum to the list: the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University in North Carolina.

This 65,000-square-foot facility, which triples the university's exhibition space, is anchored by a 13,000-square-foot great hall sheltered by a steel-framed glass canopy. Surrounding the space, concrete pavilions contain three galleries, an auditorium, classrooms, a café, and a shop.

An inaugural exhibition, "The Evolution of the Nasher Collection," features Pablo Picasso, Jean Dubuffet, Jasper Johns, and Jean-Michel Basquiat as well as ancient and tribal art, textiles, and architecture displays. Opening October 2; 919-684-5135; nasher.duke.edu.