by John Sullivan III

It was hoped that the collection of Asian art would be housed in its own 8,000 square-foot wing; the task was to create an element that could work functionally and visually with the existing building. The proposed solution incorporated underground and above-grade space. Located on the north side of the building and accessed from the lower gallery level, the wing was composed of an independent two-story square block with a sloping skylight roof centered on a Japanese garden surrounded by galleries. The exhibition space then narrowed as it continued under University Avenue, emerging from the rock wall of Fall Creek Gorge as an intimate aerie, much as one sees in Chinese landscape paintings. A “knock-out panel” was formed in the concrete foundation wall near the study galleries on the lower gallery level to accommodate the future connection.

continues with Architectural Concrete

Originally published in A Handbook of the Collection (Ithaca: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, 1998), 29–40.

Watch a Cornell Cast video from our May 16, 2008, groundbreaking ceremony for the wing.

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