IM Pei's Everson Museum of Art gets a modern makeover
The East Wing of the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY has been given a contemporary refresh by emerging Los Angeles studio MILLIØNS

The Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY was inaugurated in 1968 to a design by legendary 20th-century master IM Pei (whose retrospective exhibition recently opened at M+ in Hong Kong) - the first-ever museum to be designed by the Chinese-American architect. This week, the institution - which holds one of the most significant collections of American ceramics in the country - is celebrating the contemporary refresh of its East Wing with a new, modern design by the Los Angeles-based architecture practice of Zeina Koreitem and John May, MILLIØNS.
Step inside Everson Museum of Art's East Wing redesign by MILLIØNS
The winner of a two-stage competition, MILLIØNS was invited to work on the project in 2019. The architects were called upon to rethink the museum’s café - but with an exciting, if a little challenging, twist. Dallas-based ceramics collector Louise Rosenfield had offered to fund the project, alongside donating her impressive collection of over 4,000 ceramics pieces, with a distinct, unusual condition - that said pieces would be available to use daily by the new café's visitors, instead of simply being displayed as precious objects behind glass.
Ensuring the Rosenfield's collection becomes a functional part of the demanding daily life of a museum cafe in full operation was unheard of - but MILLIØNS, the museum director and CEO Elizabeth Dunbar, and Ceramics curator Garth Johnson, who is in charge of the Rosenfield collection, rose to the challenge. This elevated the original, fairly modest project scope to new heights, centring it on 'the theme of expanding public access to the art,' the architects write. The rethought brief soon encompassed the entire East Wing.
Koreitem and May worked with the monumental, brutalist architecture bones of Pei's original design for their concept. Inspired by the existing building's relationship to light and working with lighting designer Derek Porter, they reworked the space to increase visibility and accessibility everywhere.
A glass tower with open shelving on one end of the cafe showcases the Rosenfield collection, while allowing visitors to reach and take items of their liking for their use. At the same time, the architects create a 'third space, a hybrid between Front and Back that allows typically separate activities of display, storage, archiving, and maintenance to coexist and be experienced by the public.'
Meanwhile, a series of new display elements for the Rosenfield collection was commissioned, alongside a furniture collaboration between MILLIØNS and Jonathan Olivares. The colourful result, in a range of pastel hues, is dotted across both public and workspace areas.
Historical research by MILLIØNS helped the team understand the original Pei building's colour tones and they revealed the concrete's pink tint, which they subtly echoed in fabric partitions and furniture. A newly opened outdoor patio for the cafe, featuring bespoke planters, completes this contemporary piece of clever adaptive reuse.
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Beloved sushi restaurant Sōgo Roll Bar comes to Highland Park
The sushi hangout begins a new chapter in its second location, becoming the perfect spot for a quick grab-and-go or a relaxed tasting experience in east LA
-
Japanese designer Shinichiro Ogata's latest venture is a modern riff on the traditions of his home country
As he launches Saboe, a series of new tearooms and shops across Japan, we delve into Shinichiro Ogata's creative vision, mirrored throughout the spaces and objects, rituals and moments of his projects
-
These are Dover Street Market’s jewellery designers to watch, exhibiting at the London store all summer
In a special exhibition, Dover Street Market London is highlighting 36 emerging jewellery designers to know – shop our pick of their pieces
-
A 432 Park Avenue apartment is an art-filled family home among the clouds
At 432 Park Avenue, inside and outside compete for starring roles; welcome to a skyscraping, art-filled apartment in Midtown Manhattan
-
Discover this sleek-but-warm sanctuary in the heart of the Wyoming wilds
This glorious wood-and-stone residence never misses a chance to show off the stirring landscape it calls home
-
Inside a Montana house, putting the American West's landscape at its heart
A holiday house in the Montana mountains, designed by Walker Warner Architects and Gachot Studios, scales new heights to create a fresh perspective on communing with the natural landscape
-
Peel back this Michigan lakeside house’s cool slate exterior to reveal a warm wooden home
In Detroit, Michigan, this lakeside house, a Y-shaped home by Disbrow Iannuzzi Architects, creates a soft balance between darkness and light through its minimalist materiality
-
Inside the new theatre at Jacob’s Pillow and its ‘magic box’, part of a pioneering complex designed for dance
Jacob’s Pillow welcomes the reborn Doris Duke Theatre by Mecanoo, a new space that has just opened in the beloved Berkshires cultural hub for the summer season
-
A Rancho Mirage home is in tune with its location and its architect-owners’ passions
Architect Steven Harris and his collaborator and husband, designer Lucien Rees Roberts, have built a home in Rancho Mirage, surrounded by some of America’s most iconic midcentury modern works; they invited us on a tour
-
Inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s Laurent House – a project built with accessibility at its heart
The dwelling, which you can visit in Illinois, is a classic example of Wright’s Usonian architecture, and was also built for a client with a disability long before accessibility was widely considered
-
Tour this fire-resilient minimalist weekend retreat in California
A 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