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Gwathmey Siegel and Toshiko Mori Buildings to Open in Buffalo

A LEED-certified museum and a glass-and-steel pavilion are set to open in November and December, respectively, in upstate New York.

Sheila Kim-Jamet -- Interior Design, 11/15/2008 12:00:00 AM

The city of Buffalo, New York, is adding two major sites to its architectural landscape—the Burchfield Penny Art Center by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects and Toshiko Mori's Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion. They will be joining the already rich architectural heritage of the city, where landmarks include works by Louis Sullivan, Eero and Eliel Saarinen, and Stanford White, among others.

Burchfield Penny Art Center, designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects. Photos, from left: Biff Henrich; K.C. Kratt
The Burchfield Penny Art Center will open first on November 22 at Buffalo State College. The 84,000-square-foot facility triples the museum's old exhibition space to include 11 galleries over two floors, a 156-seat auditorium, an art conservation lab, administrative spaces, and a library. Clad in Zinc, manganese-glazed brick, and cast stone, the structure will be the first LEED-certified museum in all of New York state. (At press time, it is slated for Silver certification.) Its composition of geometric forms includes mostly rectangular volumes, with a single curving side and a cylindrical tower holding part of the reception and a unique, 25-foot-diameter gallery for Charles Burchfield's own masterworks. Collections include 7,500 pieces by celebrated artists, photographers, architects, and designers, ranging from Cindy Sherman and Robert Longo to Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Burchfield Penny Art Center, designed by Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects. Photos: K.C. Kratt
Wright will also be highlighted in Buffalo with the addition of the Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion, a Toshiko Mori–designed visitor center providing an entry point for the architect's historic Darwin D. Martin House complex. Home to the second largest collection of Wright-designed houses, the city mounted a $50 million program to restore the complex's five structures, as well as to add the pavilion. Mori's design pays homage to Wright's Prairie style aesthetic, reinterpreting it for the 21st century via triple-glazed walls, a hipped and cantilevered roof, and steel support columns. The 7,775-square-foot structure will also house exhibit space; it is scheduled to open in December.

Clockwise from top left: Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin House. Construction shot of Toshiko Mori's Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion, set to open in December. A model depicting the completed Mori-designed pavilion.Photos: Courtesy Buffalo Niagara CVB/Ed Healy