Akron Art Museum Readies For ‘07 Opening

Holiday travels took us through Akron Ohio and hot on our to-do list was a progress check of the Akron Art Museum expansion by Coop Himmelblau.

Most of the exterior cladding is on. The huge steel mesh canopies are all in place. Glass is even starting to show up on the entrance atrium. The building makes a dramatic impression mostly for the section of canopy that hovers over the original museum building. Driving through downtown, you see a huge section of it overhanging the road and it’s definitely got the look of a landing spaceship. The  architects refer to the canopy as a ‘Roof Cloud’ and it’s meant to blur the shape of the structure. The whole thing will be illuminated at night.

The interior is still pretty rough at this stage, but from what I could tell, the glass  atrium and central elevator column will be focal points. The elevator column actually looks slightly bent and twisted, it’s just concrete now and it’ll be interesting to see how it’s finished.

The commission for Coop Himmelblau is the result of winning a competition. The 20 million dollar project was started back in June of 2004 and is scheduled to open this summer. Stay tuned.

Progress photos here.  [ 1 ]     [ 2 ]     [ 3 ]     [ 4 ]     [5 ]