Buffalo AKG Art Museum opens, inviting us into its OMA-designed home

Buffalo AKG Art Museum opens this month (June 2023), inviting the public into its brand-new, OMA-designed home in New York state. When we first visited the project, a little over six months ago, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (formerly the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) was still deep in construction. Now, it is reborn with a striking OMA-crafted extension (led by partner in charge Shohei Shigematsu, and working with executive architects Cooper Robertson), site-specific installations, and a new focus on the local community. 

Buffalo AKG Art Museum opens to the public

'We often say that there are only two types of museums: a museum in the park, embedded in the tranquility of nature, and a museum in the city, implanted within the energy of urbanism. The Buffalo AKG Art Museum is both. It sits at the northern edge of the historic Delaware Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The city is known for its history of industrial revolution and the current revitalisation of remnants from that past. It has a rich architectural history – from silos and manufacturing facilities to buildings by Eero Saarinen, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright,' the OMA team write in a statement. 

This cultural institution is celebrating an inspiring legacy – it is the sixth-oldest museum in the United States. Having undergone various iterations and additions in its long life (its first version was established in 1862), and under the guidance of current director Janne Sirén, it launched a new scheme for a refresh and extension by OMA. Now, it spans decades and styles, from the original 1905 building to a new three-storey, geometric structure. There's a sculpture terrace and a connecting bridge as well as a 1962 building whose courtyard becomes a key public heart for the complex – and where Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann of Studio Other Spaces have designed a site-specific artwork to cover it. 

Shigematsu said during our site visit last tyear: ‘Our focus was to present those efforts as a sign of openness, by having a space where people can improvise, and activities visible from outside – not about a closed authoritarian façade.' To that end, its ethereal volumes and glass transparency were very important: 'If you occupied the ground level with the galleries, then it would become another fortress,’ he added.  

Buffalo AKG Art Museum opens to the public this weekend (15-18 June 2023).

oma.com 

buffaloakg.org 

cooperrobertson.com