Designer: Louis I Kahn Finished:1977 Address:3333 Camp Bowie Boulevard Fort Worth, TX 76107-2792 Museum tour:https://www.kimbellart.org/MuseumInfo/Architecture/Tour-Building.aspx The Museum was the last work completed under Kahn's personal supervision before he died on March 17, 1974, in New York, on his way home from Dhaka and Ahmedabad. It is now generally regarded as Kahn’s crown jewel.This museum opened in 1977, after Pellecchia and Meyers, Architects, completed it. Both of them had been project architects for Kahn. The museum consists of sixteen narrow rectangular vaulted elements laid out in three sections, with six vaults side to side on both ends and four in the middle. Six foot wide flat-roofed channels separate each vault, and at the two places where the three sections meet are mirrored glass slits which Kahn used to express the non-structural joint. "Ornament is the adoration of the joint."1 There are three levels: the upper level which houses gallery space, and auditorium, library, book store, refreshment area and three courts; the lower level contains offices, laboratories, shops, shipping and receiving. A full basement houses the mechanical and electrical distribution systems. The sloping site allows public access on the west at the upper level, primarily a pedestrian entrance, and also access on the east side at the lower level from the parking lots. On the west side the middle elements are pushed back to allow and entry court. The first vaults on the north and south wings are actually open porticos. On the east side the bottom middle vault is opn to create an entry. Each vault is roofed by 23 x 100 foot clear span cycloid shells of post-tensioned, poured in place, reinforced concrete with an as-cast surface. The vaults are each supported on four 2 x 2 foot corner columns. Calcium lead sheets sheath the shells. Vaults covering interior spaces have a longitudinal 2-1/2 foot slit at the apex braced by concrete struts every ten feet. Lower edges of the shell support seven foot reinforced concrete channels with soffits which house the air and electrical distribution systems. Two way post-tensioning is used in the upper level floor slabs. The lower level is simply poured in place concrete slabs with joist support construction. On the exterior Kahn used diamond-sawn, travertine infill walls with a reinforced concrete core between the columns. He also used travertine veneer for court paving, steps, and wall copings. Double insulating glass is used on the gallery level; Plexiglass covers the large slits. Doors and frames, windows and bollards are of mill-finish stainless steel. On the interior travertine is again used for infill walls, stairs, balustrades and portions of the floor. The remaining gallery flooring, the cabinet work and interior doors and frames are of quarter sawn white oak. Mill finished stainless steel is also used for the elevators, kitchen and handrails. The emphasis of this building is the manipulation of natural light for the purpose of creating a dynamic environment. "We knew that the museum would always be full of surprises. The blues would be one thing one day; the blues would be another thing another day, depending on the character of the light. Nothing static, nothing static as an electric bulb, which can only give you one iota of the character of light. so the museum has as many moods as there are moments in time, and never as long as the museum remains as a building will there be a single day like the other." (2) Kahn cut the three courts on the top floor at right angles to the vaults to open up to the sky and celebrate the different qualities of light. the separate courts, the Green Court, Yellow Court and Blue Court were named such in anticipation of the kind of light that their proportions, foliation and reflective surfaces would enhance. Of course the vaults each have slits at the apex that work as a natural light fixture, letting in light to be reflected onto the sides of the vaults and down the walls, giving the room a glow of silver, and the end walls fall just short of the vault revealing narrow slices of the sun. "In a 1987 analysis focusing on the building's structure and expression, Peter McCleary described the vaults as a structural hybrid, "neither pure vault nor pure shell", basing his evaluation on the use of both stiff edge-beams and cables within the concrete. The skylight at the apex removes material at the point of maximum compressive stress. "The structural behavior of the roof [is] beyond the intellectual and visual comprehension of most architects and engineers," said Mc Cleary, rejecting published explanations. But he also reported Kahn's own priorities, conveyed to him in conversation between the two during construction. Kahn told him that "the quality of light and place in the then partially completed museum was sufficiently beautiful that, for the moment, he was willing to sacrifice the truth of the structural principle." Most visitors are convinced by the beauty of these architectural spaces in light and accept their structural means unquestioningly as logical."(3) The Kimbell Art Museum was commissioned by the board of directors of the Kimbell Art Foundation in the fall of 1966. The concept for "an art institute" for the people of Texas came from Kay Kimbell and his wife, Velma Fuller Kimbell. The will of Kimbell, a successful miller, industrialist, and art collector who died in April 1964, mandated the creation of the museum, and his widow decided that the entire Kimbell estate should be used to implement this institution. Within a week of his death, she contributed her share to the Foundation.
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Image 12 of 17 from gallery of Felix Nussbaum Museum / Studio Libeskind. Photograph by Bitter Bredt Fotografie
Image 5 of 25 from gallery of Taipei Fine Arts Museum Store / JC Architecture. Photograph by Kuo-Min Lee
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Image 10 of 21 from gallery of Ditchling Museum / Adam Richards Architects. Photograph by adam richards architects
Image 1 of 17 from gallery of Crystal Bridges Museum Store / Marlon Blackwell Architect. Photograph by Timothy Hursley
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Neues Museum, Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, „Der Barbarenschatz von Neupotz“, Berlin | Museumstechnik mbH, Design und Museumsausstattung aus Berlin ✅ Top Erfahrung ✆ +49 30 787 929 70 | Jetzt anfragen
Organized and accessible museum storage is essential to long-term success. See how maximizing museum storage makes collections more accessible.
Image 10 of 27 from gallery of Cultural Innovation Store in the Jiangning Imperial Silk Manufacturing Museum / FANAF. Photograph by Jin Xiaowen
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