Blending old and new, the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts has just launched its undulating new design, courtesy of Jeanne Gang's Chicago-based Studio Gang. The cultural institution, located in Little Rock, USA, has been undergoing a thorough reimagining and is now ready to celebrate its new home and sustainable architecture – its complex now obtaining a Certified LEED Silver accreditation, no less.
Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts by Studio Gang
The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, which opens officially this Saturday, 22 April 2023, announced its new galleries have been endowed and named by Harriet and Warren Stephens. They will host a range of inaugural exhibitions from the museum's permanent collection, as well as temporary shows and site-specific installations.
Gang's team worked to create generous, characterful – yet purpose-appropriate –and light-filled halls for the art, while offering a 133,000 sq ft addition to the institution's restored, 1937 art deco façade and nine existing structures that form its overall complex.
The landmark project is aiming to strengthen its presence as an ever-important cultural destination in Little Rock and beyond, located in the city's oldest urban green space, MacArthur Park. The building, created by Studio Gang and landscape architects Scape, in collaboration with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects, was designed to be open, accessible and welcoming, inviting the local community into its flexible spaces.
The redesign and new additions have rethought the existing structures' arrangement and functions – the original building had been extended and tweaked much over the years – with a goal to improve both its visibility and operation.
'Altogether the design embodies the museum's commitment to its community and its environs, strengthening its cultural and educational offerings and connecting visitors to each other, art, nature, and the city,' the architects at Studio Gang write.
-
Let there be light: a closer look at Prada’s stripped-back S/S 2026 show set‘This is the first time the Fondazione is completely bare, with the light coming in,’ said Raf Simons backstage at Prada’s ‘light, fresh, colourful’ and ‘human’ S/S 2026 men’s show in Milan
-
A Swedish scooter blends Teenage Engineering’s aesthetic with accessible electric mobilityThe EPA1 Scooter is the first product from mobility start-up Vässla, an assured and flexible design shaped in conjunction with TE to assist everyday urban mobility
-
Discover Canadian modernist Daniel Evan White’s pitch-perfect homesCanadian architect Daniel Evan White (1933-2012) had a gift for using the landscape to create extraordinary homes; revisit his story in an article from the Wallpaper* archives (first published in 2011)
-
Tour this fire-resilient minimalist weekend retreat in CaliforniaA minimalist weekend retreat was designed as a counterpoint to a San Francisco pied-à-terre; Edmonds + Lee Architects’ Amnesia House in Napa Valley is a place for making memories
-
A New Zealand house on a rugged beach exemplifies architect Tom Kundig's approach in rich, yet understated luxuryThis coastal home, featured in 'Tom Kundig: Complete Houses', a new book launch in the autumn by Monacelli Press, is a perfect example of its author's approach to understated luxury. We spoke to Tom Kundig, the architect behind it
-
Tour architect Paul Schweikher’s house, a Chicago midcentury masterpieceNow hidden in the Chicago suburbs, architect Paul Schweikher's former home and studio is an understated midcentury masterpiece; we explore it, revisiting a story from the Wallpaper* archives, first published in April 2009
-
The world of Bart Prince, where architecture is born from the inside outFor the Albuquerque architect Bart Prince, function trumps form, and all building starts from the inside out; we revisit a profile from the Wallpaper* archive, first published in April 2009
-
Is embracing nature the key to a more fire-resilient Los Angeles? These landscape architects think soFor some, an executive order issued by California governor Gavin Newsom does little to address the complexities of living within an urban-wildland interface
-
Hop on this Fire Island Pines tour, marking Pride Month and the start of the summerA Fire Island Pines tour through the work of architecture studio BOND is hosted by The American Institute of Architects New York in celebration of Pride Month; join the fun
-
A Laurel Canyon house shows off its midcentury architecture bonesWe step inside a refreshed modernist Laurel Canyon house, the family home of Annie Ritz and Daniel Rabin of And And And Studio
-
A refreshed Rockefeller Wing reopens with a bang at The Met in New YorkThe Met's Michael C Rockefeller Wing gets a refresh by Kulapat Yantrasast's WHY Architecture, bringing light, air and impact to the galleries devoted to arts from Africa, Oceania and the Ancient Americas
